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| | The Evil Empire - July 2003 Archive
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Wednesday, July 30, 2003
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As of August 1st, 2003, the address of this blog will change to
http://www.aardvark.at/evil-empire/
A permanent re-direct from this site will remain in place.
The RSS 2.0 feed for this site will remain active and updated, so there is no need to resubscribe. Alternative feeds can be found at
Thank you.
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Tuesday, July 29, 2003
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In light of all of the hype about how much cash Microsoft is sitting on, it's good to be reminded that they do fail. A lot. This piece in Seattle Weekly points out some of the many failures -- from ActiMates Barney to Microsoft at Work to pending disasters in smartphones and interactive TV (despite recent PR-worthy announcements). But like most litter, the failures are swept under the rug in the hopes people don't remember that many 'new' Microsoft ideas are recycled from its own history. [Slashdot]
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Will Microsoft ever not settle a lawsuit? Now the company will pay $26 million to settle a patent infringement suit and acquire rights to use Immersion's "haptic" technology in devices such as joysticks. [CNET News.com]
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Sunday, July 27, 2003
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A hacker group released code designed to exploit a widespread Windows flaw, paving the way for a major worm attack as soon as this weekend, security researchers warned.
The warning came Friday, after hackers from the Chinese X Focus security group forwarded source code to several public security lists. The code is for a program designed to allow an intruder to enter Windows computers.
The X Focus program takes advantage of a hole in the Microsoft operating system that lets attackers break in remotely. The flaw has been characterized by some security experts as the most widespread ever found in Windows. [CNET News.com]
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Thursday, July 24, 2003
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Microsoft issued another passel of warnings about security holes Wednesday, including a "critical" flaw that affects most Windows PCs.
The most serious of the flaws involves DirectX, a library of graphics and multimedia programming instructions used by most PC games, and could allow malicious users to run code of their choice on a vulnerable PC.
The flaw is unusually widespread, affecting all versions of DirectX from version 5.2 to the current 9.0a running on all versions of Windows from Windows 98 through the new Windows Server 2003, according to the Microsoft bulletin.
The flaw, which received Microsoft's highest severity rating, involves the way DirectX handles MIDI music files. A malformed MIDI file could overrun the buffer in DirectX, at which point extra software embedded in the file would be executed. [NEWS.COM via Privacy Digest]
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Microsoft yesterday warned of security flaws with DirectX's DirectShow component that might be used by an attacker to run hostile code on vulnerable Windows machines.
Redmond has issued a patch - designated as critical - which users are urged to review. [The Register]
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Wednesday, July 23, 2003
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The fact that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded Microsoft Corp. a US$90 million enterprise software deal two days after Bill Gates met with DHS Secretary Tom Ridge in Washington is more than sheer coincidence. It's now a major security headache for a mammoth new agency that security experts say lacks the wherewithal to have considered alternative sources for its software. [MacCentral]
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If your passwords consist of letters and numbers, beware. Swiss researchers released a paper on Tuesday outlining a way to speed the cracking of alphanumeric Windows passwords, reducing the time to break such codes to an average of 13.6 seconds, from 1 minute 41 seconds. [via Privacy Digest]
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Wednesday, July 9, 2003
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The software maker fixes three new security holes in its operating system, warning that one flaw could let a hacker run code on victims' PCs. [CNET News.com]
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Tuesday, July 8, 2003
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The US state of Massachusetts is investigating whether the software giant Microsoft has violated its anti-trust settlement with 18 other states. Massachusetts said it would look at allegations that the company retaliated against a computer maker for promoting the rival operating system, Linux. [BBC News | Technology]
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Thursday, July 3, 2003
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The software giant fixes a flaw in its Passport online identity system that could have allowed an attacker to take over old Hotmail accounts. [CNET News.com]
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Wednesday, July 2, 2003
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According to ZDNet, the announcement on May 7th that Microsoft will not be supporting a stand-alone version of their Internet Explorer (IE) after the current version (IE 6.0 with service pack 1), has started a panic reaction at the UK internet bank First Direct.
The bank informed all 600 000 customers that they should download the latest version of IE before June 30th. [Keys Corner]
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