Microsoft patches 2 decade old bug which is present on all Windows machines since Win95
A researcher IBM’s corny-named “X-Force” has revealed that he recently managed to unearth a bug that has existed inside all Windows releases right since Windows 95. The bug, if exploited earlier, would have allowed anyone to run code remotely on a machine when its user visited a website. More over, it could even be utilized to completely take over the machine once it is connected to an infected website.
Patch Released
Luckily, the day the researcher revealed that this was a zero day bug i.e. no one has known about this bug before today has been patched by Microsoft. Which also means that no one has managed to utilize this bug and infect machines. The researcher credited with this discovery is IBM’s Robert Freeman. Freeman described the bug as “rare” and “unicorn-like” – both because it sidesteps all of Internet Explorer’s and Windows’ built-in protections, and because it went so long undetected.
Hindsight is 20/20, and in hindsight Microsoft probably should have noticed this serious security issue back when it was introduced almost 20 years ago.
