Pierluigi Paganini
September 30, 2020
Last week, the source code for Microsoft’s Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems was published as a torrent file on the bulletin board website 4chan. This is the first time that the source code of Microsoft’s 19-year-old operating system was leaked online.
The leaker goes online with the moniker billgates3 and claims to have collected the source code over the course of the last few months.
The leaker also added that the source code for multiple Microsoft operating systems is circulating in the hacking community for years.
The collection of torrent files leaked online is 43GB in size and include the source code for Windows Server 2003 and other older operating systems developed by Microsoft, including:
Now a Windows developer that goes online with the moniker ‘NTDEV‘ announced to have successfully compiled both Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 using the leaked source code.
‘NTDEV‘ also published a video to show how to compile both Windows operating systems. The expert has no problem while compiling the source code for Windows server 2003.
The developer explained that the source code for Windows XP doesn’t contain critical files, including the Winlogon.exe.
“So, upon further inspection, the XP source code might not be as complete as we previously thought, as it doesn’t compile a critical file, winlogon.exe However, there is also an Server 2003 sc in that leak, so let’s see how far that goes… Stay tuned!” added the developer.
The expert provided multiple updates on its attempts and successes through its Twitter account.
The availability of the source code of the Windows XP could allow threat actors to search for zero-day issues that could be exploited in attacks against the tens of millions of PCs are still based on the popular Microsoft OS.
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(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Cisco IOS XR)
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