Microsoft is a software company that has been known for years to release software that then must be fixed with numerous patches. What we are about to describe will go beyond your imagination, though – the US company has finally fixed a critical software bug that has existed for 19 years.
The bug in question has existed in all versions of Windows since Windows 95 and is also present in your Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 installation no matter how hard it is to believe this information. Discovered earlier this year by IBM researchers who later hinted Microsoft, the bug allows attackers to remotely execute code on an affected system, just by convincing users to visit a URL address in Internet Explorer. IBM says the exploit can be activated on all versions of IE starting with Internet Explorer 3.0 onwards.
“This vulnerability has been sitting in plain sight for a long time despite many other bugs being discovered and patched in the same Windows library,” IBM researcher Robert Freeman said on the bug.
There’s a catch though – Microsoft has fixed the bug in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. Versions of Windows older than these, including the still popular Windows XP will not get a fix so here’s one more reason to upgrade. There are no reports on hackers using the bug but then again, who knows? The bug fix is available through Windows Update.
Source: The Verge.com