Microsoft Windows XP Source Code Reportedly Leaked Online

Yes, you heard that right.

The source code for Microsoft’s 19-year-old operating system was
published as a torrent file on notorious bulletin board website
4chan, and it’s for the very first time when source code for
Microsoft’s operating system has been leaked to the public.

Several reports suggest that the collection of torrent files,
which weigh 43GB in size, also said to include the source code for
Windows Server 2003 and several Microsoft’s older operating
systems, including:

• Windows 2000
• Windows CE 3 
• Windows CE 4 
• Windows CE 5 
• Windows Embedded 7
• Windows Embedded CE
• Windows NT 3.5
• Windows NT 4
• MS-DOS 3.30 
• MS-DOS 6.0

The torrent download also includes the alleged source code for
various Windows 10 components that appeared
in 2017^[1] and source code for
the first operating system of the original Xbox that appeared
online in May.

While Microsoft has not officially confirmed or denied the leak
yet, several independent security researchers have since begun
analyzing the source code and spoken of its legitimacy (1, 2).

Using the name billgates3, the leaker claims to have
compiled the collection of leaked Microsoft source code over the
course of the last few months.

The leaker also said that many Microsoft operating system source
code files had been passed around privately between hackers for
years.

So, the leaker decided to share the source code to the public,
saying that “information should be free and available to
everyone.”

“I created this torrent for the community, as I believe
information should be free and available to everyone, and hoarding
information for oneself and keeping it secret is an evil act in my
opinion,” the leaker said, adding that the company “claims to love
open source so then I guess they’ll love how open this source code
is now that it’s passed around on BitTorrent.”

Besides containing source code, the torrent also includes a
media folder (files and videos) related to conspiracy theories
about Bill Gates.

The leaked source code should not come as a surprise as
Microsoft does have a history of providing its OS source code to
governments worldwide via a special Government Security Program^[2] (GSP) the company
runs that allows governments and organizations controlled access to
the source code.

Needless to say, Microsoft ended its support for Windows XP back
in 2014, so its source code leak doesn’t make the systems running
the outdated OS version more of a target, because there’s probably
a ton of other unpatched vulnerabilities already exist.

But since operating systems may share code, exploitable flaws
found in the Windows XP source code still present in Windows 10 can
allow hackers to target newer versions of Windows operating system
altogether, which would be a real threat to billions of users.