17-year-old Windows Flaw Affects All Since NT

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Jerky_san

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I thought vista and win 7 were totally re-wrote? Suppose they couldn't rewrite everything.. Luckily it seems to only effect 32bit =)
 

bitterman0

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It is, naturally, not a bug but a feature preserved for backward compatibility reasons, like bugs in INT 21 functions since early DOS versions.
 

JD13

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Can Bill Gates still write code? This may need his personal touch.....
It has nothing to do with 32 vs 64 bit , but more so with MS-DOS compatibility. Disable DOS & you're fine.
 

david714

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Jan 16, 2008
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Big deal... "Possibly install malware", just how real is this bug? MSFT will have it fixed in a week and it will all be forgotten.
 

techguy378

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32-bit Windows 7 doesn't seem to support DOS software anyways. If I try to run the old DOS-based Scorched Earth game Windows 7 gives me an error stating it couldn't load the application. If I use the DOS Box emulator under Windows 7 then Scorched Earth runs fine.
 
G

Guest

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7" - windows envy?
32-bit windows users = only about 99% of all windows users
 

Tomtompiper

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Security issue? Malware? what are these? How do I protect my PCLinuxOS system from them? Hold on I'll check.

The tech guy said do nothing, maybe open another beer if you feel like it: P
If Carlsberg made operating systems......
 

HolyCrusader

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This is interesting to know. Presumably, this would not affect XP64, Vista64, nor Win7x64, since none of those operating systems have any support for 16-bit applications (to the best of my knowledge).

My critical systems have been running 64-bit Operating systems for quite some time now, but my older, lower-end systems still use 32-bit XP.
 

guythepro

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[citation][nom]Jerky_san[/nom]I thought vista and win 7 were totally re-wrote? Suppose they couldn't rewrite everything.. Luckily it seems to only effect 32bit =)[/citation]

Most real software is never totally re-written (sans Mozilla). When you develop a new codebase you have to deal with many more times the bugs than if you had simply modified an existing one. Code that is constantly maintained typically gets better over time.
 

Vestin

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[citation][nom]noodlegts[/nom]Windows 7 was the last thing he said in the quote, so it was Windows 7 (end quote).Get it?[/citation]
"Windows 7 Inches" sounds fine too...
 

steiner666

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i think this should have been in a PM/email from this guy to microsoft, not really something you want to have posted all over the internet for everyone to know about...
 

saravis4

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I would like to know the specifics of this security flaw. VDM was created for the specific reason of eliminating the lack of security that a 16bit OS had. Is VDM not going to cut it or is this flaw BS? If it is an issue, I don't see how it can be fixed, right now, as VDM is essential for backwards compatibility, among other things.
 

hixbot

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not a bug or flaw, it's intentional for legacy compatibility. everyone has been well aware of the it for a long time, and how to plug the hole.
this isn't news.
 

zerghumper

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You know though to be honest, given unlimited access over such a long period, I'm surprised more bugs haven't been found. In some respects we should be angry that our security is compromised, but in other ways we need to realize that this software was written by humans, who in essence aren't perfect, we also must realize that software like an OS requires hundreds of thousands of lines of code written by dozens of coders. These coders could not foresee every way in which their program could be hijacked, and I think in that way Windows really has shown us that it can stand the test of time, since so many have tried to find a way to destroy it.
 
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