Windows XP source code leaked on the Internet

The source code of “Windows XP” along with that of “Windows Server 2003” leaked on the internet inside torrent files.

This is the first time that the source code of a —even an old— version of the Microsoft operating system is leaking online, as “Verge” notes, while the electronic media notes that it has examined the files in issue and confirmed that it is an authentic “Windows XP” code.

At this point it should be stressed that there are not a few companies worldwide that still use “Windows XP”, although these are no longer officially supported by Microsoft.

It is reasonable that the leak of the operating system source code has brought quite a bit of concern to those who follow the above-mentioned practice, since the online release of these files could be exploited by many people and developers with malicious purposes.

Official support for “Windows XP” may have stopped since 2014, but Microsoft was quick to respond to the “WannaCry” malware attack that was targeting “Windows XP” in 2017. The result was that Microsoft released a suitable patch for “Windows XP” long after the end of operating system support.

It is not clear whether this leak requires specific measures, such as those described above, but the issue is that there are not a few negative scenarios that emerge around the consequences that the massive release of the source code of a widely used operating system could have, particularly with regard to the development of malware that would be embedded in that code.

In any case, the best form of protection against such phenomena would be -without a doubt- the use of the latest version of “Windows” by a business or an organization.

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