IP: Microsoft Acknowledges Its Engineers Placed Security Flaw in Some Software

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff () iconia com>
> To: "Dave E-mail Pamphleteer Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu>
>
>
> Microsoft Acknowledges Its Engineers
> Placed Security Flaw in Some Software
>
> By TED BRIDIS
> Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
>
> Microsoft Corp. acknowledged Thursday that its engineers included in some of
> its Internet software a secret password -- a phrase deriding their rivals at
> Netscape as "weenies" -- that could be used to gain illicit access to hundreds
> of thousands of Internet sites world-wide.
>
> The manager of Microsoft's security-response center, Steve Lipner, 
> acknowledged
> the online-security risk in an interview Thursday and described such 
> a backdoor
> password as "absolutely against our policy" and a firing offense for 
> the as yet
> unidentified employees.
>
> The company planned to warn customers as soon as possible with an e-mail
> bulletin and an advisory published on its corporate Web site. Microsoft urged
> customers to delete the computer file-called "dvwssr.dll"-containing the
> offending code. The file is installed on the company's 
> Internet-server software
> with Frontpage 98 extensions.
>
> <snip>
>
> http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB955657934787818042.htm
>
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