Microsoft fixes “ping of death” bug

Back in the day, and by that I mean 20 years ago, Microsoft was plagued by a bug known as the “ping of death” that when exploited by a third party, would cause the all too familiar “blue screen of death” (BSOD). Given that Microsoft patched the original exploit back then, we’re guessing that the latest patch from Microsoft has patched up a newer variant of the bug.

For those unfamiliar, the original bug basically allowed someone to remotely send you a ping that was too big for your computer to handle, thus causing it to crash and display the BSOD. For those who messed around with hacking tools and IRC back in the day, it’s almost equivalent to a “nuke” or a “flood” which basically flooded the user’s connection, causing their internet to drop.

The good news is that it’s now been fixed and that users on Windows XP or Server 2003 were not affected. Those running on newer versions of Windows such as Vista, 7, Server 2008, and Server 2008 R2 should probably download the patch and get it fixed asap!

Tyler Lee
Categories: Computers
Tags: bugs, Microsoft, Windows