Microsoft won't fix Windows 7 crash bug next week

By Gregg Keizer
Computerworld
January 7, 2010

Microsoft today said it will deliver a single security update on Tuesday to patch just one vulnerability in Windows.

However, the company acknowledged that it does not yet have a fix for a crippling bug in Windows 7 that went public nearly two months ago.

The expected update will patch a vulnerability rated "critical" -- Microsoft's most serious rating in its four-step scoring system -- in Windows 2000. The bug also affects Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, as well as Windows Server 2003, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2, but is tagged as "low" for those editions.

"The first thing that came to mind was a denial-of-service vulnerability for the newer [operating systems], and a remote code execution on Windows 2000," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security.

Microsoft downplayed the threat even to Windows 2000 users. "The Exploitability Index rating for this issue will not be high, which lowers the overall risk," said Jerry Bryant, a Microsoft security spokesman, in a post to the company's security response center blog today.