Security issues continue to surface related to Microsoft’s venerable Windows XP, the desktop operating system used by millions who haven’t upgraded to Windows 7 or other newer alternatives. Just how serious the latest vulnerability is remains to be seen, but as eSecurityPlanet reports, Microsoft is looking into the issue which potentially affects both Windows 2000 and XP applications. Microsoft offers security updates as part of its monthly “Patch Tuesday” release, but has also offered some fixes ahead of the usual monthly update for critical security issues.
Microsoft’s security team warned customers and developers about a vulnerability that’s been found in one of the company’s key Windows development components.
The flaw — located in the Microsoft Foundation Classes, also referred to as MFC — affects Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and could potentially imperil applications that are built using the component. MFC is a set of Windows libraries that wrap Windows application programming interfaces (API) in C++ classes, giving C++ developers access to Windows APIs.