The zlib library has been used as a fundamental components in Linux and it obviously can be found in any *NIX environment. From a report on Thursday, researchers reported that Microsoft had at least nice applications, such as IE and FrontPage, are likely incorporate borrowed code from the compression library and might cause the same security risk.
A group of researchers reported on this early Thurdays that they had found at least nine M$ applications, such as IE and FrontPage, could possibly be attacked because of the security flaw in the open source compression library that have been annouced earlier. Later on, M$ representatives said that the software giant's security response team has started the investigation of this issue to ensure whether or not those M$ applications would be vulnerable.
"It's not a foregone conclusion that the applications are affected," a company representative said.
The zlib has been using by *NIX environment for long, and could be found in any of these machines. Because the some of the codes have been adopted, M$ apparently made himself again into the security flaw issue.
By the list that has been annouced by the Members of the open-source compression project, it shows that there are about 600 applications that are affected by this security flaw, and nine M$ applications are on the list, too. There are Microsoft DirectX 8, FrontPage, the next-generation Graphics Device Interface, InstallShield, Internet Explorer, Office, NetShow, Visual Studio and Messenger. This is another nightmare for M$ because the next-generation Graphic Device Interface is a part of Windows XP, which means the operating system itself could be affected.
By the way, this is not the first time we have heard that M$'s issue of borrowing source code. Hence let's wait until next notice from M$ about this issue and see what they will say to clarify this security flaw.
