Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4 Source Code Leaked

[nissmo300]

Article 1

[Removed by me] has learned of shocking and potentially devastating news. It would appear that two packages are circulating on the internet, one being the source code to Windows 2000, and the other being the source code to Windows NT. At this time, it is hard to establish whether or not full code has leaked, and this will undoubtedly remain the situation until an attempt is made to compile them. Microsoft are currently unavailable for comment surrounding this leak so we have no official response from them at the time of writing.

This leak is a shock not only to [Removed by me], but to the wider IT industry. The ramifications of this leak are far reaching and devastating. This reporter does not wish to be sensationalist, but the number of industries and critical systems that are based around these technologies that could be damaged by new exploits found in this source code is something that doesn't bare thinking about.

We ask that for the wider benefit of the IT community that members and readers support Microsoft by forwarding anything they know about the leak to the Microsoft's Anti-Piracy department.

Article 2

Microsoft is investigating the possibility that a file posted to several underground sites and chat rooms contains some protected source code to Windows 2000.

The 203MB file contains the code that appears to be from Microsoft's enterprise operating system, but the code is not complete, said Dragos Ruiu, a security consultant and the organizer of the CanSecWest security conference, who has examined the file listing.

"It was on the peer-to-peer networks and IRC (Internet relay chat) today," Ruiu said. "Everybody has got it; it's widespread now."

The 203MB file expands to just under 660MB, he said, noting that the final code size almost perfectly matches the capacity of a typical CD-ROM. The entire source code, he said, is believed to be about 40GB, meaning that the file circulating Thursday would be only a fraction of the full code base--if it is authentic. Ruiu, who has seen the file, believes it to be authentic. "It looks real," he said. "You can't build Windows, however. It's just a bunch of chunks of the operating system."

"The rumor regarding the availability of Windows source code is based on the speculation of an individual who saw a small section of unidentified code and thought it looked like Windows code," Microsoft said in a statement provided to CNET News.com. "Microsoft is looking into this as a matter of due diligence."

I have talked to a few people and it is CONFIRMED that the code is actually part of windows 2000.

Here's a list of the files within the Win2k archive.

http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~mortehu/files.txt

[g_shocker182]

That's wrong and immoral. Shame on all of those people involved.

[pacmania_2001]

Yay! Lets all download partial source codes so we can show it to our other 12 year old script kiddy friends to prove how elite we are.

Seriously, its not the full code and its 99% useless to most people. Be interesting to see how the investigation goes though.

[MrMungus]

I wonder if this will make it easier to create viruses and hacks. UGH.

[indolikaa]

It's an inside joke. MS released the original NT Print Architecture code for some good laughs.