Word 2007 Flaws Are Features, Not Bugs 411
PetManimal writes "Mati Aharoni's discovery of three flaws in Word using a fuzzer (screenshots) has been discounted by Microsoft, which claims that the crashes and malformed Word documents are a feature of Word, not a bug. Microsoft's Security Response Center is also refusing to classify the flaws as security problems. According to Microsoft developer David LeBlanc, crashes aren't necessarily DoS situations: 'You may rightfully say that crashing is always bad, and having a server-class app background, I agree. Crashing means you made a mistake, bad programmer, no biscuit. However, crashing may be the lesser of the evils in many places. In the event that our apps crash, we have recovery mechanisms, ways to report the crash so we know what function had the problem, and so on. I really take issue with those who would characterize a client-side crash as a denial of service.' Computerworld's Frank Hayes responds to LeBlanc and questions Microsoft's logic.'"
English-to-Microsoft dictionary (Score:5, Funny)
What's the matter? Did the Slashdot editors lose their English-to-Microsoft dictionary again?
I Wish (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Let's just get this out of the way then... (Score:5, Funny)
Um, read that again, and see if you can find the problem.
Re:Let's just get this out of the way then... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Let's just get this out of the way then... (Score:4, Funny)
Yes I could google it, but so will 100,000 other slashdotters, so let's just post the answer here and be done with it.
But, But... (Score:5, Funny)
OK, gotcha, but how do you differentiate this from normal Windows behavior?
Upon additional consultation... (Score:4, Funny)
Chris mattern
Re:But, But... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:fuzzer (Score:3, Funny)
How does saying "light" when you meant "like" make you feel?
Me, I feel like having another beer.
Re:Let's just get this out of the way then... (Score:4, Funny)
2) It's um... Can you repeat this one, I didn't read it.
Re:Insightful?! (Score:2, Funny)
You REALLY must be new here if you expect anyone on /. to come up with new and original arguments for why Microsoft sucks.
It was only a matter of time... (Score:3, Funny)
http://www.ubersoft.net/d/20030224.html [ubersoft.net]
but more specifically
http://www.ubersoft.net/d/20030228.html [ubersoft.net]
Re:fuzzer (Score:2, Funny)
You could drink it in the dark.
Re:Insightful?! (Score:1, Funny)
because their OS won't let me play all the cool games I can play under Linux
Oh, I know
because I can't just walk into a store and pick up a piece of software to do what I want, take it home and run it like i can with linux..... oh.... scratch that
Yeah, I got it, its because
Re:Taking a page from Apple... literally (Score:5, Funny)
My sad realization about that definition is that I just looked it up to see if you were serious. You were. Perhaps an even sadder realization is that I was able to reach up to the shelf above my desk and instantly grab a copy of the Apple ][ Reference Manual---right between The TeXbook and an Imagewriter II owner's manual that I used to use as an ASCII table reference before the rise of Google or asciitable.com.
Sigh. I am, indeed, a geek. I suppose there's no escaping it.
Re:It's officially 1984 (Score:1, Funny)
Mucking Forons, fostered by Gucking Fates.
My favourite Windows error message (Score:2, Funny)
I kid you not! This was common in Win98 and observed also in Win2k - if an app crashed, causing DrWatson to pop up and offer to save some kind of crash log, just click the save as button, and then cancel the save. Voila.
Re:English-to-Microsoft dictionary (Score:3, Funny)
What's the matter? Did the Slashdot editors lose their English-to-Microsoft dictionary again?
Re:My favourite Windows error message (Score:1, Funny)
http://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=realplay
Re:Taking a page from Apple... literally (Score:3, Funny)
Re:English-to-Microsoft dictionary (Score:3, Funny)
The fact that you changed, for example, 'rtfa!' to 'RTFA!' is _not_ included in Track Changes. Oops.
Reported that a version or two ago, and the report came back (promptly, I might add, as I paraphrase) "That behavior goes all the way back to Word97. We're going to label that 'Behavior by Design'".
If Word were a housecat, it would be conceptually similar to the Robin Williams routine, where Robin pretends to be a cat that sees something exiting through the closed sliding glass door, and careens into it going full-tilt-boogy. Cat's too proud to cry in front of you, so he limps over behind the couch, muttering "fsckin' meow, fsckin' meow"* to recuperate.
*The cat is was a sysadmin on a proper operating system before too many high-speed crashes gave him a Windows fetish...