Microsoft decides not to fix 20-year old Windows SMB vulnerability

DEF CON hacker conference is one of the most famous conferences worldwide for hacker taking place in Las Vegas each year; the first ever was in 1993.

Suring the DEF CON hacker conference this year, researchers have revealed that they have identified a 20 years old vulnerability of Windows operating system.

Microsoft announced that the vulnerability will not be fixed because it is easier for them to have users block connections coming from the internet.

What was the vulnerability?

Researchers at RickSense identified the Windows SMB vulnerability and they named it SMBloris. According to the researchers, the SMBloris vulnerability is similar with the 2009 attack Slowloris. This kind of vulnerability is capable of affecting SMB protocol and all versions of Windows starting with 2000 one onwards.

RickSense researchers make a statement:

One of the researchers working to discover this vulnerability was Sean Dillon, senior security researcher. They found this vulnerability while working on EternalBlue (the exploit connected to the WananCry ransomware). According to him, even though the issue was reported to Microsoft, the company classified it as a moderate issue and decided not to take further actions.

Microsoft responds

The famous American technology company from Redmond declared for Threatpost that the vulnerability does not pose a serious security danger and therefore it will not receive an update. Their recommendation to those concerned is to block the access from the internet to SMBv1.

A brief report on Windows

The latest version, Windows 10 has been unveiled back in 2014 and so far its market share are half less than those of Windows 7, released back in 2009. Also its market share is of 27, 63%, while Windows 7 has a market share of 48.91%. Windows 8.1 has a total market share of 6,48% and Windows XP has a market share of 6.10 %.