Microsoft Patches 17-year Old Bug – Microsoft announced another series of bug patches for Windows, including one critical patch for a 17-year old bug.
Microsoft will patch the 17-year-old bug in the kernel of all 32-bit versions of Windows, which involves a utility that allows newer versions of Windows to run very old programs.
The vulnerability in the Windows Virtual DOS Machine (VDM) subsystem, a component that runs DOS and 16-bit Windows software, was publicly disclosed Jan. 19 by Google engineer Tavis Ormandy on the Full Disclosure security mailing list.
Mr Ormandy found a way to exploit this 17-year old Virtual DOS Machine bug in Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, along with Windows Server 2003 and 2008.
The patch for this VDM vulnerability will appear in the February security update delivered by the automated Windows Update service.
Microsoft will distribute a total of 13 updates next week, five of them pegged “critical”, the highest threat ranking in its four-step scoring system.
The 13 updates patching 26 security flaws ties the record from October 2009, when Microsoft issued the same number of bulletins, but fixed a total of 34 vulnerabilities.
Five of the vulnerabilities being patched at the same time allow attackers to effectively hijack a Windows PC and run their own programs on it.
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