The source code for Windows XP SP1 and other versions of the Microsoft operating system is said to have leaked online today.
A person who claims to have spent the last two months compiling a collection of Windows source code today released a 43 GB torrent of his entire collection.
Included in this torrent is the alleged source code for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, as well as a variety of older versions of the operating system.
The contents of the torrent include:
MS DOS 3.30
MS DOS 6.0
Windows 2000
Windows CE 3
Windows CE 4
Windows CE 5
Windows Embedded 7
Windows Embedded CE
Windows NT 3.5
Windows NT 4
The torrent also includes a media folder containing a strange collection of conspiracy theory videos about Bill Gates.
In addition to the torrent, a smaller 7 GB 2,9zip file containing only the Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 source code is also available.
The leak states that Windows XP source was circulated privately between hackers for years, but was released publicly for the first time today.
While Windows XP was released almost 20 years ago, if any code is still used in modern versions of Windows, this leak could be a potential security risk.
The source code is human-readable instructions that tell the computer how to run a program. This source code is then compiled into binary executable format that can be run by the computer.
It has always been possible to find errors in Windows, but having the source makes it much easier to see the internal functions of the operating system.
If exploitable bugs are found in the Windows XP source code and the code is still used in Windows 10, the security holes could become exploits in modern version of the operating system.
However, we do not know if this is really the source code. A torrent can not guarantee it.
Linux that had open source from the beginning is no more vulnerable than windows XP !! A software whose code is made public only when its manufacturer has deliberately left "holes" that it did not want us to know becomes more vulnerable! I think so?
PLEASE IF IT IS AVAILABLE I NEED THE SOURCE CODE SO THAT I CAN STUDY IT ADD TO MY KNOWLEDGE OBOUT HOW TO WRITE COMPUTER PROGRAMS THANKS