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Microsoft Confirms Online Leak of Windows 10 Source Code

Microsoft confirmed that portions of Windows 10 source code were leaked online. The leak contained various pre-release Windows 10 builds and components from Microsoft's shared source initiative. While one report indicated over 32TB of data was leaked, Microsoft did not confirm the scale. Beta Archive, where some of the leaked files were initially found, claimed the actual amount was much smaller and removed the files. Microsoft acknowledged the leak involved shared source code used by partners but did not provide details on the scope.

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546 views4 pages

Microsoft Confirms Online Leak of Windows 10 Source Code

Microsoft confirmed that portions of Windows 10 source code were leaked online. The leak contained various pre-release Windows 10 builds and components from Microsoft's shared source initiative. While one report indicated over 32TB of data was leaked, Microsoft did not confirm the scale. Beta Archive, where some of the leaked files were initially found, claimed the actual amount was much smaller and removed the files. Microsoft acknowledged the leak involved shared source code used by partners but did not provide details on the scope.

Uploaded by

Pascal Ulrich
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

8/18/2020 Microsoft Confirms Online Leak Of Windows 10 Source Code

Microsoft Confirms Online Leak Of


Windows 10 Source Code
By Adarsh Verma - June 26, 2017

Short Bytes: In a surprising development, Microsoft’s internal Windows 10 builds


and Windows 10 source code components have been reportedly leaked and
uploaded to Beta Archive. Following this, Beta Archive has removed the alleged
contents from its forums and FTP servers. In an email sent to Fossbytes, a Microsoft
spokesperson confirmed the leak. However, Microsoft didn’t share anything on the
scale of the leak and the amount of code leaked.

ccording to a report from The Register, a huge chunk of Microsoft’s code was
A leaked and uploaded on BetaArchive. This trunk of code
contained Microsoft’s internal operating system builds and source code for
Windows 10. The leak is being described as bigger than Windows 2000 code leak in
2004.

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8/18/2020 Microsoft Confirms Online Leak Of Windows 10 Source Code

The leaked data had around 32TB of official and non-public Windows installation
images and software, which were compressed down to 8TB. The Register, whose
journalist spotted the builds, believes that the data was leaked from Microsoft’s
internal systems around March.

The leak appears to consist of a lot of Windows 10 Redstone 2 builds. Specifically, the
leaked code contains Redmond’s Share Source Kit, which includes the base Windows
10 drivers source, PnP code, ARM-specific OneCore kernel code, USB and WiFi stacks,
storage drivers, etc.

Apart from this, the leaked and top secret builds of Windows 10 were created by
engineers for testing and bug-hunting purposes, which included private debugging
symbols.

Using the above-mentioned leaked data, one can look for vulnerabilities as the code
runs at the most trusted levels of Windows OS.

What does Beta Archive have to say?

As expected, Beta Archive has taken steps to remove the leaked files from their
forums and FTP servers. In a statement, they also claimed that the builds came from
different sources, not a single leak. “The folder itself was 1.2GB in size, contained 12
releases each being 100MB. This is far from the claimed “32TB” as stated in The
Register’s article, and cannot possibly cover “core source code” as it would be simply
too small, not to mention it is against our rules to store such data,” they further
added.

You can read Beta Archive’s complete statement here. We’ve contacted Microsoft for
a statement on the same, and we’ll be updating this article when we’ll hear
something back.

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8/18/2020 Microsoft Confirms Online Leak Of Windows 10 Source Code

What does Microsoft have to say?

Update: June 26, 2017

In an email sent to Fossbytes, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the leak.


However, Microsoft didn’t share anything on the scale of the leak and the amount of
code leaked.

“Our review confirms that these files are actually a portion of the source code from
the Shared Source Initiative and are used by OEMs and partners,” a Microsoft
spokesperson told Fossbytes.

Also Read: Top Microsoft Open Source Projects You Must Know

Popular in the Community

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8/18/2020 Microsoft Confirms Online Leak Of Windows 10 Source Code

Adarsh Verma
Fossbytes co-founder and an aspiring entrepreneur who keeps a close eye on open source, tech giants, and security.
Get in touch with him by sending an email — [Link]@[Link]
    

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