Ancient DOS bug gets squashed

What can we say about you, DOS? You've rocked the personal computer world and changed the way we all feel about white on black console screens. Your retirement is a well deserved one and... wait, you're getting a patch? Amazingly, Microsoft is fixing a bug that has existed in the Windows Virtual DOS Machine (VDM) subsystem since it was added to Windows NT way back in the simple days of 1993, when flannels were everywhere and 32 bits were more than we knew what to do with. Google engineer Tavis Ormandy found the exploit a few weeks ago, which grants an attacker the ability to run code in kernel mode, and a critical update has been issued to fix this most aged of vulnerabilities. Perhaps now, DOS, your work is finally done.

[EljhHck Posted Feb 5th 2010 7:49AM]

Well that's good to know, but now I'm going to have nightmares because of that image.

[MGarvey Posted Feb 5th 2010 9:45AM]

@EljhHck

OMG...I can't un-see that!

[friendly0ne Posted Feb 5th 2010 10:47AM]

@MGarvey I love his chin... it's so... long...

[tycoon11 Posted Feb 5th 2010 11:16AM]

@EljhHck

Yea, thanks Engadget!

[maisp Posted Feb 6th 2010 3:34PM]

@friendly0ne

Long chin, parasite, must be Jay Leno...

[ColinScatt Posted Feb 5th 2010 7:51AM]

what IS that image??

[ChazClout Posted Feb 5th 2010 7:57AM]

@ColinScatt
I want to know too!

[Freakin Ijit Posted Feb 5th 2010 7:58AM]

Looks upside down.

[shadowj0 Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:18AM]

@ColinScatt

Right-click --> View Image --> "Prehistoric Bug".

I guess it's some sort of prehistoric bug.

[Helvetica Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:56AM]

@ColinScatt It is a species of Spiny Assassin Bug.

http://www.uglybug.org/07dex.shtml

[Oli Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:57AM]

@ColinScatt http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/07/they-bite-ugly-bug-faces.html

found using http://www.tineye.com

[Mr Blurrycam Posted Feb 5th 2010 9:09AM]

@Oli +1 for TinEye. Awesome link, thank you.

[One Love Posted Feb 5th 2010 11:36AM]

@ColinScatt : Its a caveman penis.

[slamEVIL Posted Feb 5th 2010 1:26PM]

@Oli
damn! beat me too it. i love tineye, this is the first time i got so many results!

[ScottishDan Posted Feb 5th 2010 7:24PM]

@Mr Blurrycam
For those who've just discovered TinEye - there's also a Firefox extension that adds a 'Search Image on Tineye' entry into the right click context menu
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8922

[technognu Posted Feb 7th 2010 5:45AM]

@ScottishDan
cheers dude! :)

[blacfalcon Posted Feb 5th 2010 7:51AM]

What is that monstrous beast?

And DOS, how I miss you on my old butter-fly keyboard IBM.

Where art thou, buried within mine Windows 7 Kernel. I know you still shine.

[blacfalcon Posted Feb 5th 2010 9:42AM]

@blacfalcon

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YacG59Ec_l4/SivMlG-7iiI/AAAAAAAAAR4/Lhj3AMBWTyo/s400/micro_10.jpg


Here is it's cousin.

[werty1432k Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:15AM]

@blacfalcon Ha, that 'monstrous beast' could probably fit him and 1000 of his friends on 1 of your eyelashes :p

[Mike Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:25AM]

@blacfalcon

I'm completely consumed with jealousy at the fact that you had a butterfly-keyboard ThinkPad 701... if only I had been wiser (and wealthier) at the age of, er, 5 (in 1995), I would have bought one.

[Pookiewood Posted Feb 5th 2010 7:52AM]

Okay I'm scared! What is that?

[werty1432k Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:13AM]

@Pookiewood Thats what I thought, friggan gross.

[reductant Posted Feb 5th 2010 7:59AM]

I bet it's an SEM of a bed bug or something.

[mrguna Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:04AM]

@reductant

I also think it's a SEM image, but I can't figure it out!

[thoughtmonster Posted Feb 5th 2010 9:42AM]

That's nothing. A dude named Otto Moerbeek fixed a 33 years old bug in BSD/yacc back in 2008: http://tinyurl.com/6fdcxk

Apple doesn't need to patch OS'es from '93 because MacOS X has little to no relation (in terms of code) to MacOS Classic. This bug might be part of an ancient code-base, but nevertheless exists in modern Microsoft Windows releases.

[saifrc Posted Feb 5th 2010 12:34PM]

@thoughtmonster Wouldn't that BSD bug have been in OS X? It's my understanding that OS X is based on BSD and that Cocoa is based on NextSTEP, which both have pretty old roots.

[FrankieV Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:05AM]

Looks more like a cross between my mother in law and those gigantic killer sandworms in Beetlejuice.

[Arran Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:12AM]

I'm not surprised it took them this long to find the bug, have you seen how small it is?! It looks like Microsoft fixed the bug by poking it's eyes out, too.

[Cence Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:12AM]

That spiky blind long-tongue goblinsnake looks sick with its swollen lymph nodes like that.

[skip Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:13AM]

it's a "Spiny Assassin Bug". what a name.
http://www.uglybug.org/

[Pookiewood Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:17AM]

@skip Uhhhh thanks....I think. Now my nightmares will have a name! O_o LOL!

Thats a neat website though.

[sockatume Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:17AM]

Suddenly, I can't stop screaming.

[Verythrax Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:20AM]

Looks like a muppet. Made by Satan.

[swizeus Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:26AM]

What is that picture....

[bob e Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:27AM]

I still use the command prompt most days running one script or another. It hardly seems like DOS has gone anywhere.

[Nitesh Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:39AM]

Looks like my ex.





ZIIINNG!

[chosenone1 Posted Feb 5th 2010 11:20AM]

@Nitesh If that looks like your ex then you have a poor taste in looks

[Xn1nja Posted Feb 5th 2010 2:10PM]

@Nitesh
Shots fired!! shots fired!!
Hurry rush Nitesh to the hospital!!!! Seems like your ex found ya @_@

[autobot Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:46AM]

@bob e

Well actually a command prompt and dos aren't the same thing.

[Steveorevo Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:51AM]

DOS refined? Compared to *nix? In other news, Windows gets a shorter 'users' folder, admin account, but still lacks many security features.

[Steveorevo Posted Feb 5th 2010 8:55AM]

DOS refined? Compared to *nix? In other news, Windows gets a shorter 'users' folder, admin account, and a security fix.

[Bioran23 Posted Feb 5th 2010 9:15AM]

And I was just about to go to sleep...

[Bioran23 Posted Feb 5th 2010 9:16AM]

@Bioran23
For the record, Hong Kong resident here.

[Richard Lai Posted Feb 5th 2010 9:21AM]

@Bioran23 Me too -- just landed in Hong Kong. Thanks for this, Tim! I'll probably get panda eyes tomorrow.

[robamb2002 Posted Feb 5th 2010 9:24AM]

The hideousness of that bug will haunt my dreams forever!

[kelojif Posted Feb 5th 2010 9:52AM]

As any true DOS aficionado knows:

DOS ain't done until Lotus won't run.

[J Acheson Posted Feb 5th 2010 10:07AM]

Great, now they can move on to the just slightly younger bugs in Microsoft Word.

[buoy Posted Feb 5th 2010 10:44AM]

What about the "other" dos exploit:

Echo y|del *.*>nul

... my favourite :)

[Tubamajuba Posted Feb 5th 2010 11:02AM]

Well I for one think the prehistoric bug is strangely cute.

[gazzat88 Posted Feb 5th 2010 11:05AM]

I'm wondering if this is the AT.exe priviledge escalation exploit...
I mean it isn't exactly old, but I'm not sure it's been around since 3.1!
(for those who don't know, you can use the at command from a command window in a guest account to open a command window with system level priviledges).
I fixed this where i worked by using a GPO to prevent access to the at command for anyone but admins. Seems it's pretty trivial to bypass security in windows!