Windows XP source code leak

As usual, this happened a few days ago, but I found out just now. Some of it was already available, but there's also new stuff, most notably the titular Windows XP source code which has been confirmed to be legitimate.

Code:

Microsoft leaked source code archive_2020-09-24 misc ms_patents.7z - 27.52 GB md5.db - 18.94 KB ms_dos_3_30_oem_adaptation_kit_source_code.7z - 591.99 KB ms_dos_6_0_source_code.7z - 10.7 MB nt5src.7z - 2.37 GB torrent description.txt - 6.63 KB windows_10_shared_source_kit.7z - 74.76 MB windows_2000_source_code.7z - 122.35 MB windows_ce_3_platform_builder_source_code.7z - 638.69 KB windows_ce_4_2_081231.7z - 3.44 MB windows_ce_5_121231.7z - 4.92 MB windows_embedded_7_2014M12.7z - 12.9 MB windows_embedded_ce_6_r3_170331.7z - 8.11 MB windows_embedded_compact_2013_2015M09.7z - 93.17 MB windows_nt_3_5_source_code.7z - 101.76 MB windows_nt_4_source_code.7z - 106.22 MB windows_source_bg.png - 134.83 KB windows_source_bg.svg - 55.03 KB media 1599645952169.jpg - 409.72 KB 1600904957933.png - 1019.38 KB dear bill.flac - 16.27 MB wise words from steve.mkv - 35.08 MB Bill Gates and the Population Control Grid/Bill Gates and the Population Control Grid (720p_30fps_H264-128kbit_AAC).mp4 - 147.97 MB Bill Gates and the Population Control Grid/Bill Gates and the Population Control Grid (BQ).jpg - 175.05 KB Bill Gates and the Population Control Grid/Bill Gates and the Population Control Grid (Description).txt - 651 bytes Bill Gates and the Population Control Grid/Bill Gates and the Population Control Grid (English).srt - 50.21 KB Bill Gates' Plan to Vaccinate the World/Bill Gates' Plan to Vaccinate the World (1080p_30fps_AV1-128kbit_AAC).mp4 - 291.24 MB Bill Gates' Plan to Vaccinate the World/Bill Gates' Plan to Vaccinate the World (BQ).jpg - 135.5 KB Bill Gates' Plan to Vaccinate the World/Bill Gates' Plan to Vaccinate the World (Description).txt - 569 bytes Bill Gates' Plan to Vaccinate the World/Bill Gates' Plan to Vaccinate the World (English).srt - 36.51 KB Cracking RAR Password (The smart way) w_Hashcat & John The Ripper/Cracking RAR Password (The smart way) w_Hashcat & John The Ripper (1080p_30fps_H264-128kbit_AAC).mp4 - 40.89 MB Cracking RAR Password (The smart way) w_Hashcat & John The Ripper/Cracking RAR Password (The smart way) w_Hashcat & John The Ripper (BQ).jpg - 119.65 KB Cracking RAR Password (The smart way) w_Hashcat & John The Ripper/Cracking RAR Password (The smart way) w_Hashcat & John The Ripper (Description).txt - 564 bytes How Bill Gates Monopolized Global Health/How Bill Gates Monopolized Global Health (720p_30fps_H264-128kbit_AAC).mp4 - 94.3 MB How Bill Gates Monopolized Global Health/How Bill Gates Monopolized Global Health (Description).txt - 662 bytes How Bill Gates Monopolized Global Health/How Bill Gates Monopolized Global Health (English).srt - 31.16 KB How Bill Gates Monopolized Global Health/How Bill Gates Monopolized Global Health (HQ).jpg - 29.85 KB Meet Bill Gates/Meet Bill Gates (720p_30fps_H264-128kbit_AAC).mp4 - 157.52 MB Meet Bill Gates/Meet Bill Gates (Description).txt - 677 bytes Meet Bill Gates/Meet Bill Gates (HQ).jpg - 28.03 KB Revolution.OS.2001.DVDRip.HEVC.AC3-LiNUX/how this rip was made.txt - 1.01 KB Revolution.OS.2001.DVDRip.HEVC.AC3-LiNUX/md5.db - 750 bytes Revolution.OS.2001.DVDRip.HEVC.AC3-LiNUX/Revolution.OS.2001.DVDRip.HEVC.AC3-LiNUX.mkv - 693.61 MB Revolution.OS.2001.DVDRip.HEVC.AC3-LiNUX/Subs.zip - 902.41 KB Revolution.OS.2001.DVDRip.HEVC.AC3-LiNUX/torrent description.txt - 2.35 KB Revolution.OS.2001.DVDRip.HEVC.AC3-LiNUX/Info/ffmpeg_Documentation.pdf - 3.29 MB Revolution.OS.2001.DVDRip.HEVC.AC3-LiNUX/Info/ffmpeg_options.txt - 769.48 KB Revolution.OS.2001.DVDRip.HEVC.AC3-LiNUX/Info/ffmpeg_version.txt - 1.19 KB Revolution.OS.2001.DVDRip.HEVC.AC3-LiNUX/Info/REVOLUTION_OS1-1.mkv_info.txt - 897 bytes Revolution.OS.2001.DVDRip.HEVC.AC3-LiNUX/Info/Revolution.OS.2001.DVDRip.HEVC.AC3-LiNUX.mkv_info.txt - 9.12 KB

The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/25/2...urce-code-leak
Gizmodo: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/09/l...aked-on-4chan/
ZDNet: https://www.zdnet.com/article/window...of-all-places/
The Register: https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/...rce_code_leak/
Engadget: https://www.engadget.com/windows-xp-...170715593.html
4chan: https://boards.4channel.org/g/thread...ce-code-leaked
> 3D8B16242B56A3AAFB8DA7B5FC83EF993EBCF35B

The torrent has a fairly big 43 GB of data, including some Bill Gates-related documentaries and other media. I haven't downloaded it yet.

so what can we do if we this source code (Noob question) i only use OS for downloading and uploading xD

In theory, crackers could scan this looking for vulnerabilities and then write exploits. I don't expect them to attack the systems that were actually leaked (Windows 2000, XP SP1 and Server 2003) since they're very small targets nowadays, but backwards compatibility has always been Microsoft's boon and doom; who knows which forgotten 20-year-old feature is still there and vulnerable.

The Wine and ReactOS projects could improve their emulation of Windows by seeing exactly how it does things, but given the possibility of legal action, they won't want to read a single byte of this leak, and will reject contributions from anyone who may have done so. As I recall, they already required you to sign a contract stating that you'd never worked for MS or seen their source code in any case.

Unofficial patches to fix security holes and add features become possible. The question is who will be up for the task. I checked MSFN and only found a single discussion about this, closed after a few replies. Someone got it to compile (see https://twitter.com/NTDEV_/status/1310658569738559488), which means having an open-source version of XP is theoretically possible. But even ignoring the threat of Microsoft's lawyers, such a thing would require a large amount of manpower while being little more than a novelty, which is why the OpenNT project was abandoned.

Also, don't forget the most obvious usage: reading code written by very experienced people to understand how an operating system works and improve your programming knowledge. Bill Gates reportedly used to surf through computer lab dumpsters looking for printed source code... now this cycle can repeat itself in a cleaner way.

In all likelihood, we're all going to be "oh wow, this is huge!" for some days, then forget about it, and maybe see an exploit derive from this in the short term (as it allegedly happened on 2004) :gninja: