[olug] Attack WinXP with a JPEG!

[William E. Kempf]

On Tue, September 14, 2004 3:44 pm, Mike Hostetler said:
> Apparently there is no example exploit yet, but a carefully crafted
> JPEG could compromise an XP machine!
>
> http://www.techweb.com/wire/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=47205207
>
> See, that's why you don't tie your applications so tightly to your OS . .
> .

Other's have pointed out how this has nothing to do with tying your
applications so tightly to your OS.  I'll just point out that the exact
same issue exists in a well respected OpenSource application.

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/15/1758239

If we truly want computing to become safer, we have to halt all of the
disengenuous arguments and focus on our vulnerabilities.  In some ways MS
is a lot further from being secure than Linux (but not in all ways... in
fact, NT was given a higher security rating by the government than any
Unix system at one point in history), but that doesn't mean you don't have
a lot of cleaning up to do in your own house.  Spending time attacking MS
(whether you believe they deserve it or not) is counter-productive, not
helpful.

-- 
William E. Kempf
wekempf at cox.net