The CVE-2020-0601 vulnerability marks the first time when Microsoft credited the NSA for reporting a bug

[Karl Franz]

So this drops as soon as Win 7 is out of support - are the majority of machines out there just fucked?

Win7 appears to be not affected

 

[teriyakiburns]

The past few years haven’t been kind to Microsoft. So many egregious vulnerabilities coming out of the woodwork, a perpetual game of whack-a-mole because they can never seem to patch one before two more (“critical”) vulnerabilities arise.

That's the legacy code at action. Huge chunks of windows are ancient code bundled inside wrappers to keep it working, rather than refactoring the code itself. Regressions are stupidly common, partly as a result of that choice, partly because MS has haemorrhaged talent (and thus domain knowledge) since the early 2000s, from a combination of retirements and ever-growing bureaucracy and interdepartmental politics stifling creativity and innovation within the company.

They can't fix it now because the sort of people that MS used to have banging down their door all went to work for Google, then fucked off from there to start-ups, or moved onto other things while they wrote software as a hobby. They can't get the talent, and if they did manage to snag it, that talent would either end up beaten down or end up leaving again.

 

[Coolio55]

This is so strange. It's almost as if microsoft deliberately leaves stupid shit in to force people into auto updates.
Who really needs their documents folder anyway? Or the million other files a forced windows update corrupted?

Fuck Windows 10. I'll see about upgrading to 7 or just installing linux (That's gonna fucking suck)

Also LOL that Microsoft's "Hot" "New" browser is defeated by this when not even the buggy outdated seamonkey falls for this crap. Awesome product, great job!

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

This is so strange. It's almost as if microsoft deliberately leaves stupid shit in to force people into auto updates.
Who really needs their documents folder anyway? Or the million other files a forced windows update corrupted?

Fuck Windows 10. I'll see about upgrading to 7 or just installing linux (That's gonna fucking suck)

Also LOL that Microsoft's "Hot" "New" browser is defeated by this when not even the buggy outdated seamonkey falls for this crap. Awesome product, great job!

Brave on Android is throwing up a Hello World. I'm a little confused why my non Windows tablet is vulnerable, anyone who can explain better?

 

[He Who Points And Laughs]

So this drops as soon as Win 7 is out of support - are the majority of machines out there just fucked?

It dropped exactly in time for the last Windows 7 patch,

 

[Looney Troons]

Brave on Android is throwing up a Hello World. I'm a little confused why my non Windows tablet is vulnerable, anyone who can explain better?

Seems like a false-positive to me without digging too deeply into it

 

[Reverend]

This comes on the heels of Iran attempting to hack into our universities, energy companies, and various gov't agencies. By disclosing this vulnerability the NSA shuts down one hole that Iran COULD use as an attack vector.

NSA surely has other ways to get into your shit, this will cause a state of panic and every CTO/CIO will be raging at the IT staff to upgrade the needful ASAP.

Win7 appears to be not affected

Neither does windows2012 which many companies are clinging onto for their very existence.

 

[He Who Points And Laughs]

The past few years haven’t been kind to Microsoft.

Few years being since Windows 95. SMB has a woeful history of shoddy security (MS08-067 & EternalBlue being glaring examples), Internet Explorer had numerous issues, and now we even have their CryptoAPI being troublesome.

or just installing linux (That's gonna fucking suck)

Linux is elegant.

 

[Vince McMahon]

Few years being since Windows 95. SMB has a woeful history of shoddy security (MS08-067 & EternalBlue being glaring examples), Internet Explorer had numerous issues, and now we even have their CryptoAPI being troublesome.



Linux is elegant.

Yet when you're in a company who don't or won't learn Wine/free alternatives to programs we rely on, especially Photoshop and you're the only one running Linux, you are told to switch.

Sucks. I've used it for a year and enjoyed it.

 

[Honored guest]

I've seen mentions that win7 is fine can anyone confirm that, I'm getting "hello world" with win7 so I'm little concerned.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

or just installing linux (That's gonna fucking suck)

Aside from the learning curve of using the terminal more often (and even then, there are package managers that make it easier to install programs), installing and using linux is piss easy. Whatever programs you absolutely need that are "windows only" you can either run PlayOnLinux or CrossOver (the latter you'll have to fork over some money for) which are wine front-ends if you don't wanna use wine by itself. And then any errors you get you can easily search for it online cause its guarenteed that more than one person has had whatever issue you have.

I honestly don't get why a lot of people are either scared, pessimistic, or both when it comes to Linux. All you have to do is put a little more work than usual with some things, but the payoff is more rewarding. Sure it's not PERFECT, but considering how Microsoft and Apple are raw-dogging their users/customers from both ends, it's the better alternative.

It kinda reminds me of Battered Wife Syndrome... "Oh jeeze, well, I know Microsoft have told me to give up my privacy and have not only messed up some of my files but exposed me to more terrible things than before, but maybe THIS time they have learned from their mistakes so I'll continue to keep using their products" Either that or they just outright don't care and stick with it because "its the thing everyone uses" because its normal or whatever... like their all a bunch of mindless zombies that just do what their told.

 

[Vince McMahon]

Aside from the learning curve of using the terminal more often (and even then, there are package managers that make it easier to install programs), installing and using linux is piss easy. Whatever programs you absolutely need that are "windows only" you can either run PlayOnLinux or CrossOver (the latter you'll have to fork over some money for) which are wine front-ends if you don't wanna use wine by itself. And then any errors you get you can easily search for it online cause its guarenteed that more than one person has had whatever issue you have.

Spoiler: Off-Topic Rant

I honestly don't get why a lot of people are either scared, pessimistic, or both when it comes to Linux. All you have to do is put a little more work than usual with some things, but the payoff is more rewarding. Sure it's not PERFECT, but considering how Microsoft and Apple are raw-dogging their users/customers from both ends, it's the better alternative.

It kinda reminds me of Battered Wife Syndrome... "Oh jeeze, well, I know Microsoft have told me to give up my privacy and have not only messed up some of my files but exposed me to more terrible things than before, but maybe THIS time they have learned from their mistakes so I'll continue to keep using their products" Either that or they just outright don't care and stick with it because "its the thing everyone uses" because its normal or whatever... like their all a bunch of mindless zombies that just do what their told.

Dude, boomers, for example, flat our refuse to switch over to Linux, because they can't be fucked with deploying wine. It seems like it became easier over the years but when you're sharply tuned to specialist programs and don't want to spend hours of time reading specialist forums/doing a little coding to fix shit, you'd rather stay with Windows. I can understand these people, to be honest.

 

[Coolio55]

Aside from the learning curve of using the terminal more often (and even then, there are package managers that make it easier to install programs), installing and using linux is piss easy. Whatever programs you absolutely need that are "windows only" you can either run PlayOnLinux or CrossOver (the latter you'll have to fork over some money for) which are wine front-ends if you don't wanna use wine by itself. And then any errors you get you can easily search for it online cause its guarenteed that more than one person has had whatever issue you have.

Spoiler: Off-Topic Rant

I honestly don't get why a lot of people are either scared, pessimistic, or both when it comes to Linux. All you have to do is put a little more work than usual with some things, but the payoff is more rewarding. Sure it's not PERFECT, but considering how Microsoft and Apple are raw-dogging their users/customers from both ends, it's the better alternative.

It kinda reminds me of Battered Wife Syndrome... "Oh jeeze, well, I know Microsoft have told me to give up my privacy and have not only messed up some of my files but exposed me to more terrible things than before, but maybe THIS time they have learned from their mistakes so I'll continue to keep using their products" Either that or they just outright don't care and stick with it because "its the thing everyone uses" because its normal or whatever... like their all a bunch of mindless zombies that just do what their told.

The only reason I'm worried about Linux is that last time I tried it (Circa 2014 with Ubuntu) I had graphics driver issues up the bum, is it any better now?
I remember wine being a bit hit and miss but this was in 2013 on a mac so I assume it's come a long way. How wierd and old does it support these days?

Also packages are a pain in the ass and the entire application system being a Node.js like dependancy hell triggers my internet apocolypse autism. (At least the rest of the application stack is OK though. Compiling on windows is a fucking mess and Visual Studio is one of many "Bandage Products" developed by microsoft to try and patch over the underlying issue)

 

[Vecr]

The only reason I'm worried about Linux is that last time I tried it (Circa 2014 with Ubuntu) I had graphics driver issues up the bum, is it any better now?
I remember wine being a bit hit and miss but this was in 2013 on a mac so I assume it's come a long way. How wierd and old does it support these days?

Also packages are a pain in the ass and the entire application system being a Node.js like dependancy hell triggers my internet apocolypse autism. (At least the rest of the application stack is OK though. Compiling on windows is a fucking mess and Visual Studio is one of many "Bandage Products" developed by microsoft to try and patch over the underlying issue)

I'm not sure what you mean by "weird and old" in relation to Wine, but it supports some old programs better than Windows 10 does itself, as some backwards compatibility was removed in that version.

I don't think 16 bit programs run at all on Windows 10.

 

[Ira the Weatherman]

So this drops as soon as Win 7 is out of support - are the majority of machines out there just fucked?

Only the ones that were duped into downgrading to Botnet 10.

 

[Looney Troons]

Aside from the learning curve of using the terminal more often (and even then, there are package managers that make it easier to install programs), installing and using linux is piss easy. Whatever programs you absolutely need that are "windows only" you can either run PlayOnLinux or CrossOver (the latter you'll have to fork over some money for) which are wine front-ends if you don't wanna use wine by itself. And then any errors you get you can easily search for it online cause its guarenteed that more than one person has had whatever issue you have.

Spoiler: Off-Topic Rant

I honestly don't get why a lot of people are either scared, pessimistic, or both when it comes to Linux. All you have to do is put a little more work than usual with some things, but the payoff is more rewarding. Sure it's not PERFECT, but considering how Microsoft and Apple are raw-dogging their users/customers from both ends, it's the better alternative.

It kinda reminds me of Battered Wife Syndrome... "Oh jeeze, well, I know Microsoft have told me to give up my privacy and have not only messed up some of my files but exposed me to more terrible things than before, but maybe THIS time they have learned from their mistakes so I'll continue to keep using their products" Either that or they just outright don't care and stick with it because "its the thing everyone uses" because its normal or whatever... like their all a bunch of mindless zombies that just do what their told.

Moreso a response to your spoiler. I’ve worked for companies that made the switch to *nix platforms for associates/users, and it just didn’t work. From a cost perspective, huge boon. What is lacking, however, and what you and others have touched on is intimidation, lack of familiarity, and the biggest one, lack of /real/ support. Community-driven software relies on community-driven support, in most circumstances. Library issues (outside of an enterprise distribution like RHEL)? You’re perusing forums. Most helpdesk teams are simply incapable of troubleshooting non-Windows devices. Hell, I have numerous company-assigned Apple devices, and if something as simple as printer driver incompatibility comes up, the helpdesk team is usually flustered.

Crappy time to be a Microsoft developer, I’d say if you’re anywhere in the cybersecurity field, you’re likely thanking Microsoft for making you more valuable every month.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Dude, boomers, for example, flat our refuse to switch over to Linux, because they can't be fucked with deploying wine. It seems like it became easier over the years but when you're sharply tuned to specialist programs and don't want to spend hours of time reading specialist forums/doing a little coding to fix shit, you'd rather stay with Windows. I can understand these people, to be honest.

The irony is that right now the easiest person to put on Linux is the one that doesn't know shit about computers but uses their smartphone a lot. Like grandma.

 

[Vince McMahon]

The irony is that right now the easiest person to put on Linux is the one that doesn't know shit about computers but uses their smartphone a lot. Like grandma.

Yeah, but grandma isn't in the workforce anymore. Her son is, however.

 

[AsbestosFlaygon]

I don't think 16 bit programs run at all on Windows 10.

It actually has nothing to do with the OS version, 64 bit versions of Windows don't have the components necessary to run 16 bit apps, but 32 bit versions do. So 32 bit Windows 10 actually can run 16 bit apps, on the other hand 64 bit XP has many of the same troubles Vista+ tends to have.

 

[tehpope]

just installing linux (That's gonna fucking suck)

There's a lot of Distros that have easy installs. Just don't try and compile Gentoo or installing arch with the command line.