virus

Microsoft gets round to patching a 19-year-old Windows bug

By Ben Geier
An image of Microsoft Chairman William H
An image of Microsoft Chairman William H. Gates is televised on a big screen as he introduces Windows 95 during the inaugural presentation of Microsoft's new operating system at the firm's Redmond, Washington campus 24 August. The presentation, which included demonstrations of the software and a carnival, was attended by 500 journalists, 2000 guests, and 9000 Microsoft employees. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read THERESE FRARE/AFP/Getty Images)
Photograph by Therese Frare — AFP/Getty Images

It’s official — 90s nostalgia has come to the world of computer viruses.

Microsoft (MSFT) announced today that it was releasing a patch for a bug that has been present for every version of Windows since Windows 95, which came out in August of that year. That’s right, a virus that has been around since the days of AOL discs in the mail is just getting patched now.

IBM (IBM) discovered the bug earlier this year, according to the BBC, and worked with Microsoft to fix the problem before announcing it to the public.

Researcher Robert Freeman wrote in a blog post that “the bug can be used by an attacker for drive-by attacks, to reliably run code remotely, and take over the user’s machine.”

The BBC noted that there has never been an example of the bug being used maliciously, but with news of the bug’s existence now out, it’s possible we’ll see attacks on out-of-date computers.