XP Security Advisory Re: BadTunnel

Last month a vulnerability was disclosed that affects all versions of Windows. If exploited, the attacker would gain what is being called "Big Brother power" over a victim’s computer.

Microsoft, not wanting to share the Big Brother power that they already enjoy over their victim's computers, quickly and jealously issued a patch for the flaw. Presumably the update will also fix XP-based computers, provided they've had the POS hack applied. Non-POSers should make use of one of the work-arounds mentioned in the link below. But don't just take my word for it. You can take it from security expert Wilford Brimley:


http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2016/06/14/microsoft-badtunnel-big-brother-windows-vulnerability/#70962deb5c64

When the contest began, in order to do it full justice I set my Windows theme to XP default: the once-ubiquitous Luna Blue aka the Fisher-Price theme. Bad enough that Blue clashes with nearly any decent wallpaper, but over time the unnatural brightness of the color begins to strain my eyes, resulting in blurred vision and headaches. As the condition worsens it feels as though Luna Blue is actually clawing its way directly into my brain, snapping every synapse in its path and leaving my very thoughts flayed on twitching shards of neural wreckage.

Fortunately one of the three out-of-the-box XP colors is usable, and so it is with great relief that I've changed back to olive green.


Apart from that, I'm running the same installation with no POS hack and no ill effects. But I still might do a malware scan some one of these days. Just to be on the safe side.

-Tarbolde