As expected, Microsoft has already started to act on the leak of the XP code

Several days ago we shared here on the blog the news of the filtration of the source code of various Windows operating systems, being the most interesting the one of XP in g and other channels in 4chan (if you want to know more about the note you can check the following link.)

Apparently, hackers had transmitted the file privately for years. Its authenticity was confirmed by a user in early October after getting the operating systems up and running after compilation.

With this came the enthusiasm of many, because for Linux and Mac lovers, this could mean great improvements in terms of application development that allows you to run Windows applications on your favorite system.

But not everything is as simple as it seems, because in a matter of days that the code of Microsoft that had already begun to enforce its proprietary rights intellectual with Google by causing the removal of related video content from its video sharing platform - YouTube.

The Remond firm continues with the cleaning work and this time with its own hosting service.

"The code in question comes from a leak of the Windows XP operating system," said Microsoft, adding a team to confirm the authenticity of these sources that has already resulted in functional operating systems. That's why Microsoft's security incident response team issued a copyright notice in which you have, among other things:

And is that Microsoft staff identified the location of the problem job and in making a statement that Microsoft does not authorize the use of such work by third parties provided a statement, under penalty of false civil oath, that the information in the notice is accurate and belongs to the copyright owner Microsoft.

The repository from which the problems were generated, it was previously accessible through the address https://github.com/shaswata56/WindowsXP, which is no longer accessible since the repository has been suspended and we can check this when trying to access the link.

In question, this repository contained the online file where the source codes could be obtained For earlier versions of Microsoft operating systems: Windows 2000, Windows Embedded (CE 3, CE 4, CE 5, CE 7), Windows NT (3.5 and 4), Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, MS DOS (3.30 and 6 ).

Also included are the alleged source codes for some Windows 10 components.

Many of the files that were leaked through this archive had been leaked years before.

For example, the source code for some Windows 10 components was leaked online in 2017.

Those related to Xbox and Windows NT earlier this year. Still older leaks date back to discussions on mailing lists and forums dating back to the early 2010s. The current leak is therefore a compilation.

However, Microsoft provides access to the source code of its operating systems to governments for security audits and to academic research teams for scientific research.

It is from these environments that these leaks could come from. For various reasons, most software is like black boxes: you know what it does and roughly how it does it, but the specifics are usually hidden. Open source software is the exception to this rule, but Microsoft is in the business of proprietary or closed source software.

There are many reasons why the source code of these operating systems would be interesting.

First of all, having them will allow everyone to create their own variants of these operating systems.

In addition, allows people to understand how these systems work. And it could be used for good reasons like: to create Windows emulation software on Mac, for example.

However, this knowledge could also be used for malicious purposes. In fact, if these old versions of operating systems are not used much anymore, the fact is that they can share large chunks of code with Windows 10.


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  1.   Ivan21 said

    It makes sense to get the code right now in 2020, unless it serves to implement in the first PS, haha