Windows 2K and NT go open source, oops !
 

"Leaked to the net tonight, we first got word of it at around 5pm, from a Neowin moderator...

The source code, which was leaked initially to a P2P network, spread quickly to IRC, and is now heading for all the large warez channels out there. This really is a shame, because the high-security nature of Windows 2000 is likely to be compromised by an open codebase.

At the current time, anybody who has malicious intentions regarding your Windows 2000 computer can merely browse through the source code, find an unpatched hole, and then root you. If you're currently running Windows 2000, switch your machine off. If you can't, put a firewall up.

This is merely precautionary, as we still do not know the authenticity of the code. At the moment, OSFocus is trying to ascertain it through our MS sources, and we will post any updates as and when we get them.

This source code leak is one of the worst things I have ever come across in my experience as a tech/beta journalist and developer. Whoever leaked it should be dealt with harshly.

We will not assist you in finding this code, and we will not give it to you. We do not have it, and we do not want you to send it to us. The end."

http://osfocus.net/post.asp?PostID=18
http://slashdot.org/articles/04/02/1...id=109&tid=187
Hurray, security through obscurity no more if this happens to be the full source tree. /. also has an article but is just a copy from OSfocus. Unfortunatly, Neowin is /.'ed to hell right now with people trying to read the information posted there.

wow....if this is true, this is bad news....

It is true.

*cough*...i've got proof...*cough*


:hmm:








:D

well that's a big fat: whoops!


And this is soooo true:

HOLY CRAP! This is huge! WOW!

I think it would be cool if some legit hackers out there find some security flaws and notify Microsoft about it. Then perhaps they would see a value in having their code open souced, and would release it in the future....

/wishful thinking

That is one possibility.... another is MS sues the hackers for having copyrighted information.

Wow...
GGNORE Microsoft

This is bad.... *goes off to try and fint it xD*

I found a listing for the <b>source code here</b>. Though smaller, it's about what I expected. :D

Yeah, i know it's been around for awhile, but it seemed like the right time.

Wow is that actually the source code? I was expecting millions of line of code. My miniscule programming knowledge.

/sarcasm

hehehe, after all the programming classes I have taken all I needed to know was to set the mouse to jumpy!

Zdnet believes that the full source code is about 40GB and this is only a partial leak. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5158496.html

I agree that the file seems to be too small if it fits onto a cd, besides that, don't comments in the source code take up a lot of space (i.e. "I fubared this feature, but maybe someone will get around to fixing it").
note: when I took programming courses, i would but in comments like that for my own personal reference

My reading of the slashdot forum causes me to believe source code gets a really good compression ratio, something like 10:1. That being said if all of the international stuff in DAO is edited out, I think that it might be a close to complete source leak.

Holy Christ... BAD fucking news.

As much as I dont like MS, this is BAD news. Every Windows version since NT 4.0 uses a derivation of the same Kernel.

OSS programmers, or those that think you may be one at some point, dont even *glance* at the code.

Hell hath no fury like MS will over this.