Windows XP source code has leaked • Hacker News Board

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#41

Post by etaioinshrdlu » Fri, Sep 25, 2020, 7:04 AM UTC

dgellow wrote: post #29

cjones26 wrote: post #11

I wonder how this will affect other projects, such as ReactOS and Wine. Exciting.

That would be really bad for these authors to download or look at leaked code. That's exactly how you get yourself in legal troubles. That's why they have policies to not look at any leak, and even with this ReactOS and Wine already had their share of controversies in the past.

But realistically, how will they know if some random Wine contributor is "inspired" by leaked code?

It seems like it would just go undetected.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#42

Post by kbenson » Fri, Sep 25, 2020, 7:06 AM UTC

toantruong wrote: post #5

coopsmgoops wrote: post #3

Gizmodo's baking metaphor is really really awful.

How is it awful? Can you give me a better analogy?

Blueprints. Source code for a program is analogous to blueprints for a building.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#43

Post by fimdomeio » Fri, Sep 25, 2020, 7:07 AM UTC

Forgeting about legality for a moment, this is great. Windows XP is probably the greatest operating system if you factor usability and how many people it has reached. It was also from a time where people still did not expect proprietary operating systems to be actively working against you. So it's great that this source will not be forever lost.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#44

Post by choeger » Fri, Sep 25, 2020, 7:07 AM UTC

mindfulhack wrote: post #31

My immediate thought is whether researchers or investigative journalists will find cold hard US government backdoors. This is potentially big.

They won't. Such backdoors would have to be hidden from Joe Average Coder at Microsoft first and foremost. Coding for MS is not a livelong thing, you know? So any backdoor would a) be obfuscated and b) have some form of plausible deniability. If I would have to make them, they would look like strings of two or three bugs.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#45

Post by muterad_murilax » Fri, Sep 25, 2020, 7:08 AM UTC

postpawl wrote: post #9

Does this mean we’re about to see a wave of new exploits? Or has this code been out there for a while?

> Or has this code been out there for a while?

According to the torrent creator's reddit post "[a]pparently the file had been passed around privately for years among hackers".

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#46

Post by hoseja » Fri, Sep 25, 2020, 7:10 AM UTC

tamrix wrote: post #8

enjoyyourlife wrote: post #2

https://twitter.com/RoninDey/status/1309275918943301636 https://anonfiles.com/Ffn8u2Yaoa/Microsoft_leaked_source_cod...

This is still illegal to obtain, right? I'm not sure if it's wise to post the link as it may encourage others to download it and might be against the ToS on hackernews.

Is it, if you don't share it further?

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#47

Post by zuppy » Fri, Sep 25, 2020, 7:13 AM UTC

cellularmitosis wrote: post #32

I'm actually not familiar with the legality of downloading this torrent. Is this considered legal, or is it like stolen goods, where the mere possession is a crime, even lacking evidence of the actual theft? Also, what would be the legality a group of people "maintaining" this code? (developing security patches, etc)

i would add that the biggest problem is not the downloading part, but the upload which you are also doing when using torrents.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#48

Post by tgv » Fri, Sep 25, 2020, 7:14 AM UTC

mindfulhack wrote: post #31

My immediate thought is whether researchers or investigative journalists will find cold hard US government backdoors. This is potentially big.

There have always been rumors about such back doors, but even the public ones, encryption schemes, have never been proven by pure analysis. As far as back doors in code goes, have a look at this: http://underhanded-c.org/. It's a pity it seems to have been short lived.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#49

Post by codegladiator » Fri, Sep 25, 2020, 7:16 AM UTC

fimdomeio wrote: post #43

Forgeting about legality for a moment, this is great. Windows XP is probably the greatest operating system if you factor usability and how many people it has reached. It was also from a time where people still did not expect proprietary operating systems to be actively working against you. So it's great that this source will not be forever lost.

> proprietary operating systems to be actively working against you

Where is this happening ? Are we expecting this now ? What did I miss

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#50

Post by stinos » Fri, Sep 25, 2020, 7:17 AM UTC

noisy_boy wrote: post #40

I still keep my 12 year old legal copy of Windows XP available to be run as a VM via VirtualBox for occasions when I need to try out some Windows/DOS stuff - works pretty well :)

Not sure why you got downvoted (too off-topic? no idea), because this is imo actually a rather interesting point. And 'pretty well' feels like an understatement when it comes to performance (or at least snappiness): I have XP on a VM for a while just for software which didn't support 7. Despite being in a VM (VirtualBox), the thing feels snappier and faster than current day desktop OS (XFCE on Ubuntu, Windows 10, OSX) on beefy workstations. It does lack quite some usability though in comparison with modern counterparts.