Microsoft Patches 19-Year-Old Windows Bug

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Somehow the old saying "better late than never" doesn't really seem fitting in this situation.

Revelation of a 19-year-old bug that needed to be squashed shows that major flaws in software can stay hidden for years. This reveals basic vulnerabilities in PC technology. For one, it's up to users to apply patches to keep their machines secure. Yet security-conscious users can still be at risk for malware infections if a particular bug goes unnoticed and unpatched by the powers-that-be.
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so with all the kernel and security changes in the Windows OS over the years that particular bug still remained?
 
Tottaly unrelated but for some reason when I first saw the headline I thought of Kanye West's gold digger when he says"18 years?18 years?..." Now I got that song stuck in my head, Thanks Steve.
 
it's internet explorer, it's assumed to be broken
 
Yes but is it safe to patch, or does it have the potential to bork your box like the last two month's updates???
 
UrielDagda said:
Yes but is it safe to patch, or does it have the potential to bork your box like the last two month's updates???
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We think it borked one of our web portals in dev that we tested this morning. We're restoring to try it a second time.
 
malingjc said:
We think it borked one of our web portals in dev that we tested this morning. We're restoring to try it a second time.
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Borked or Citrix web interface server for me. Thankfully we have a few lol
 
k1pp3r said:
Borked or Citrix web interface server for me. Thankfully we have a few lol
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Woah, not the sort of thing i want to see reported. I have citrix storefront on windows 2012 r2 servers. Need to find the kb for this and see whats up in my environment
 
One thing slightly misleading is that the bug wasn't known about for 19 years. This bug was just found in May, they just finally worked out everything needed to patch it.

However this bug effects everything from windows 95 up to windows 8.1 so that is how it is a 19 year old bug. This is no different then the shell shock bug or heart bleed where it has been around for years but just recently found.
 
tesfaye said:
Woah, not the sort of thing i want to see reported. I have citrix storefront on windows 2012 r2 servers. Need to find the kb for this and see whats up in my environment
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I have not tried the patch on my storefront servers yet. Holding off after that first web interface lol
 
kattana said:
if your viewing malicious webpages.. your already screwed
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The problem is that even experienced users sometimes make a wrong click or worse, the ad server that is serving up the advertisements to a page you visit all the time gets hit and starts serving up drive-by style infections. I've even seen state websites at work that have been compromised and become "malicious". They really do not like it when you call their help desk and let them know that their site is borked :(
 
One of the flaws with closed-source software development is that it can take a long time to debug and fix problems with the software. When you have the same sets of eyes staring at the same code day in and day out they are more likely to overlook or miss something. Still though, who would have thought that it would take this dang long to fix a problem.
 
So will all Win XP machines forever be vulnerable to this exploit? Would seem so as MS stated they will not patch it unless a company has paid for an extended service contract.
 
MrCaffeineX said:
The problem is that even experienced users sometimes make a wrong click or worse, the ad server that is serving up the advertisements to a page you visit all the time gets hit and starts serving up drive-by style infections. I've even seen state websites at work that have been compromised and become "malicious". They really do not like it when you call their help desk and let them know that their site is borked :(
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true, but the fact that you are on a malicious webpage to begin with the browser of choice is only a partial help. Being on a malicious site in firefox or any other browser is still going to put you at great risk of something happening.

DustMite said:
One of the flaws with closed-source software development is that it can take a long time to debug and fix problems with the software. When you have the same sets of eyes staring at the same code day in and day out they are more likely to overlook or miss something. Still though, who would have thought that it would take this dang long to fix a problem.
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Explain shell shock and heart bleed then. Why weren't those found day 1?

It didn't take them very long to fix this problem, like shell shock it has been hiding there for years, somebody just realized that it was there. and they fixed it within a few months.
 
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