News Windows XP Source Code Reportedly Posted to 4chan

[Admin]

The Windows XP source code has been shared to 4chan, and has now made its way to Mega and torrents.

Windows XP Source Code Reportedly Posted to 4chan : Read more

 

[Shadowclash10]

Welp. Not sure if this is true or not. Wonder how MS feels LOL.

 

[nofanneeded]

no one is making drivers for win XP any more .. I dont see this leak is going anywhere ...

 

[nings]

no one is making drivers for win XP any more .. I dont see this leak is going anywhere ...

You may be forget than Microsoft since W3.11 copy/paste this code OS after OS. It's why you receive same error message than 20 years ago or the window not change same error message. This code is too big and not enough devs and can't code all from scratch.
So probably a lot of security issues these next months.

 

[nings]

I hope Microsoft learn and push all these Windows sources code for increase security and remove backdoor.
No future without opening source code of all softwares. Too many issues with closed sources.

 

[Darkbreeze]

no one is making drivers for win XP any more .. I dont see this leak is going anywhere ...

With the source code available, coders and developers can, theoretically at least, MAKE drivers that would allow practically ANY piece of hardware compatible with XP, which is exactly what Microsoft DOESN'T want to happen, because that means the OS continues to thrive and present a thread to the overall health of systems everywhere since the OS is far less secure than current OS platforms.

But having the source code could mean seeing a resurgence of this OS, with no NEED for any kind of official support, activation or involvement from Microsoft at all, not to mention an inside track to nefarious persons looking to find vulnerabilities in code that may still be in use through version after version of Windows OS.

 

[Endymio]

This article fails to mention that Windows XP and all later versions share the same kernel, including Windows 10. I would imagine that more than 50% of that kernel code hasn't changed since the days of XP.

 

[InvalidError]

With the source code available, coders and developers can, theoretically at least, MAKE drivers that would allow practically ANY piece of hardware compatible with XP

You don't need the Windows XP source code to make drivers for XP, only the appropriate driver development kit for a version of Visual Studio that supports XP driver development. If you want to make drivers for XP, you still can get the DDK, VS and even the entire MSDN library that was available in downloadable format back then.

The main reason hardware manufacturers quit supporting XP is because Vista introduced the new Windows Driver Model to replace the 2k/XP NT Driver Model so once most people upgraded to Vista and beyond which use WDM drivers, hardware manufacturers were more than happy to ditch support for antiquated NT drivers.

 

[nofanneeded]

With the source code available, coders and developers can, theoretically at least, MAKE drivers that would allow practically ANY piece of hardware compatible with XP, which is exactly what Microsoft DOESN'T want to happen, because that means the OS continues to thrive and present a thread to the overall health of systems everywhere since the OS is far less secure than current OS platforms.

But having the source code could mean seeing a resurgence of this OS, with no NEED for any kind of official support, activation or involvement from Microsoft at all, not to mention an inside track to nefarious persons looking to find vulnerabilities in code that may still be in use through version after version of Windows OS.

No one would waste his time making Nvidia RTX drivers , forget it ... Hackintosh people did not even bother with very large community that wants Nvidia to work on Hackintosh , they simply switched into AMD for native drivers support.

Linux as well , no one is bothering making his own drivers , it is just too hard to make.

Chipsets drivers are easier to make , but still with the lack of UEFI bios support on win XP , it will need emulation , and no one would waste his time for a dead system.

 

[gdmaclew]

I see Chinese fingers all over this and if not the actual leak then a subsequent OS that "surprise, surprise" looks and acts like Windows.

 

[randomizer]

You'd be better off with ReactOS. At least it's being maintained.

 

[2plash6]

REally????

 

[hotaru.hino]

This article fails to mention that Windows XP and all later versions share the same kernel, including Windows 10. I would imagine that more than 50% of that kernel code hasn't changed since the days of XP.

The kernel's older than that.

I see Chinese fingers all over this and if not the actual leak then a subsequent OS that "surprise, surprise" looks and acts like Windows.

Or any other country who happens to still want to use Windows but get away from something made by an American company.

Which to me wouldn't make sense to spend time on. Just use Linux and Wine

 

[uwhusky1991]

The Windows XP source code has been shared to 4chan, and has now made its way to Mega and torrents.

Windows XP Source Code Reportedly Posted to 4chan : Read more

The article brings up great reasons to be concerned, but Linux has always been open-source. Why don't we have the same concerns about a modern, up-to-date OS being open-source? I'm sort of being facetious, because we're obviously not concerned as Linux is installed on 10s of millions of servers world-wide, but I don't really understand why that's not a concern when the XP source-code leak is potentially a security concern.

 

[digitalgriffin]

You may be forget than Microsoft since W3.11 copy/paste this code OS after OS. It's why you receive same error message than 20 years ago or the window not change same error message. This code is too big and not enough devs and can't code all from scratch.
So probably a lot of security issues these next months.

While legacy code can be copy pasted, the kernel code is always done from scratch to support new hardware, security, and efficiency techniques. (Like optimal core management and power management, as well as security enhancements) Driver models have been redone too from the ground up since XP.

 

[digitalgriffin]

I see Chinese fingers all over this and if not the actual leak then a subsequent OS that "surprise, surprise" looks and acts like Windows.

China is one of the largest sources of XP installs still running because it was easy to pirate.

That said, it wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft came to an agreement with certain agencies to hand them source code to review leaks and potential attack vectors. Remember how the "keys to the kingdom" were stolen when some NSA contractor used a pirate copy of office on his system and the code was stolen and published. Maybe something similar happened. I'm shocked they would even allow code off site.

That should be a criminal offense in my book. Someone should have served jail time for that stupidity.

 

[hotaru.hino]

The article brings up great reasons to be concerned, but Linux has always been open-source. Why don't we have the same concerns about a modern, up-to-date OS being open-source? I'm sort of being facetious, because we're obviously not concerned as Linux is installed on 10s of millions of servers world-wide, but I don't really understand why that's not a concern when the XP source-code leak is potentially a security concern.

A lot of the world as moved on from Windows XP. Anything that anyone can find in there as a security hole likely won't work on the newer versions. In fact, one of the earliest exploits I recall that to me cemented that UAC was more or less a good thing was one that worked on Windows 2000 and XP, but didn't on Vista because it triggered UAC to block it from running automatically.

While I'm sure there is plenty of code that hasn't been touched since then, the chances of finding a security exploit through the XP source code that works all the way up to 10 is slim.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Remember, a lot of store's POS machines run XP, not to mention medical and dental offices, as well as ATM machines and other such devices that use Windows XP Embedded. Add to that the fact that XP is Russia's "official" OS, and this breach, if it's legit, is potentially a massive concern.

 

[Flayed]

I wonder how many lines of code it is

 

[techgeek]

Not sure, but there were still quite a few ATMs running Windows XP not too long ago.

 

[g-unit1111]

The question is, will they use it for good or evil? Knowing what 4chan's seedy underbelly is capable of, I'm guessing most likely evil.

 

[d0x360]

I hope Microsoft learn and push all these Windows sources code for increase security and remove backdoor.
No future without opening source code of all softwares. Too many issues with closed sources.

No no no... Exploits sell for huge money on the dark web so we would see zero days that could be absolutely brutal. Open sourcing an OS that has been closed forever is a terrible idea. Thankfully most things from xp are gone in 10 and if they still exist there has been security put in place to mitigate any potential issues but nobody could catch them all..not even Linux is free of attack vectors.

Wouldn't be shocked if this was leaked by China. They were one of the few that got access to the source code to windows up through 7 because they used it for government systems. Not many have access to this code and I have no doubt that Microsoft and the FBI are currently hunting them down.

 

[Chung Leong]

I hope Microsoft learn and push all these Windows sources code for increase security and remove backdoor.
No future without opening source code of all softwares. Too many issues with closed sources.

After Heartbleed, I'm starting to think open source offers little more than an illusion of security. People assume security checks are done just because the code is available. The notion that sophisticated work would get done without people getting paid is sort of crazy, really.

 

[waltc3]

This "genie" is quite dead, imo... As is any support for the dead genie. I don't think it much matters whether this dead genie is out of the bottle...!

 

[Darkbreeze]

You don't need the Windows XP source code to make drivers for XP, only the appropriate driver development kit for a version of Visual Studio that supports XP driver development. If you want to make drivers for XP, you still can get the DDK, VS and even the entire MSDN library that was available in downloadable format back then.

The main reason hardware manufacturers quit supporting XP is because Vista introduced the new Windows Driver Model to replace the 2k/XP NT Driver Model so once most people upgraded to Vista and beyond which use WDM drivers, hardware manufacturers were more than happy to ditch support for antiquated NT drivers.

I understand that, but the ability to create drivers and the ability to create driver support within the OS, are not necessarily the same thing, and even if they are, I was mostly repeating what Paul Alcorn said in the article, so perhaps somebody ought to explain it to him instead.

Coders could also use the source code to add support for newer hardware and possibly spin off custom distributions. Naturally, researchers would also have plenty of interest.