Source code for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 has leaked publicly for the first time.
The files have reportedly been making the rounds in some circles for years, and certain governments and organizations have controlled access to OS source code via Microsoft’s Government Security Program (GSP). But this is the first time the data has been made public, according to The Verge, which says it verified that torrents for the operating systems published on file-sharing sites this week are legit.
As The Hacker News reports, the 43GB file dumped on 4chan includes source code for other older Microsoft OSes, too, including:
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Windows 2000
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Windows CE 3
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Windows CE 4
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Windows CE 5
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Windows Embedded 7
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Windows Embedded CE
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Windows NT 3.5
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Windows NT 4
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MS-DOS 3.30
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MS-DOS 6.0
“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, according to Hacker News.
Formal Windows XP support ended in 2014, though Microsoft was forced to release a patch in 2017 in the the wake of the WannaCry cyber attack. At this point, less than 1 percent of worldwide desktop PCs are running XP, according to Net Applications.
