From: "Geo." 

http://news.com.com/2100-1035_3-1026518.html?tag=fd_top

Microsoft warns of flaw in Windows

AP[ THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2003 07:43:49 AM ]

WASHINGTON: Microsoft Corp. has acknowledged a critical vulnerability in
nearly all versions of its flagship Windows operating system software, the
first such design flaw to affect its latest Windows Server 2003 software.

Microsoft on Wednesday said that the vulnerability could allow hackers to
seize control of a victim's Windows computer over the Internet, stealing
data, deleting files or eavesdropping on e-mails. The company urged
customers to immediately apply a free software repairing patch available
from Microsoft's Web site.

The disclosure was unusually embarrassing for Microsoft because it
demonstrated the first such serious flaw in the company's powerful new
computer server software, billed as its safest ever.

The software is aimed at large corporate customers and was the first
product sold under a high-profile "Trustworthy Computing"
initiative organized last year by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

At the product's launch in late April, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve
Ballmer declared the new version of Windows to be a "breakthrough in
terms of what it means, in terms of its built-in security and
reliability."

The flaw, discovered by researchers in western Poland, also affected
Windows versions popular among home users.

"This is one of the worst Windows vulnerabilities ever," said
Marc Maiffret, an executive at eEye Digital Security Inc. of Aliso Viejo,
California, whose researchers discovered similarly dangerous flaws in at
least three earlier versions of Windows.

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