Microsoft denies it built 'backdoor' in Windows 7

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Computerworld - Microsoft today denied that it has built a backdoor into Windows 7, a concern that surfaced yesterday after a senior National Security Agency (NSA) official testified before Congress that the agency had worked on the operating system.

“Microsoft has not and will not put ‘backdoors’ into Windows,” a company spokeswoman said, reacting to a Computerworld story Wednesday.

On Monday, Richard Schaeffer, the NSA’s information assurance director, told the Senate’s Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security that the agency had partnered with the developer during the creation of Windows 7 “to enhance Microsoft’s operating system security guide.”

Article continues at the website: Computerworld Article

If it is indeed true that Windows 7 contains NSA backdoors, the poop is going to hit the fan. Not a single government is going to touch it with a million mile stick and it’ll kill Microsoft credibility completely.

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Lets hope what you said is true, Heidi :wink:

ofc MS will deny it to the death, they’re not stupid to admit such things (if they really are true)

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Governments all over the world already use microsoft software with backdoors. With RPC they can go into anyones Microsoft system and do as they please. Look at corporate espionage cases of the 1990’s where M$ convinced the courts that they were fixing flaws not intentionally spying on activities of the plaintiffs.

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Yes Techwiz but back then they didn’t have a choice - now they do.

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hmmm kinda makes me think… why go to such a big trouble to put a backdoor in Windows when its frontdoor is already wide open? lol!

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Explain to me how the backdoor will work when most computers are behind firewalls? maybe there are some black helicopters flying over your apartment?

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You think a backdoor can’t be made to punch a hole in the FW and then close it again?

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I don’t know; you tell me; My router does not allow any outside port calls into my computers; And it is all DHCP so IP addresses change frequently.

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Not all hooked on the net use routers at home. Lots of them are directly connected to a simple modem and use a simple FW. Dynamic IPs won’t stop anything at all. If the backdoor is clever, and has additional code which checks for specific vulnerabilities in the router’s firmware and then exploits them, it gets nasty

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Also I read parts of the linked article and I do not read into the government comments the same conclusions you do; And you have no corroborating evidence to support your conclusions that there are back doors into Win. 7; For all you know the internal discussions were over algorithm sharing so the US government could understand what to do IF they strongly suspected something was up and needed information as to how to go about capturing incriminating data.

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You may want to re-read all posts in this thread. No one has claimed that there’s a backdoor

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By the way I am not ignorant about these areas nor am I naive but it makes sense that if you have an OS which is on perhaps a billion desktop computers, then to have some ability to catch criminals who are using computer technology for illegal means via some code sharing with Interpol or CIA is only logical and to spread unfounded claims that unconstitutional spying is being done on private citizens and/or private corporations is similar to what Ballmer was doing when he was spreading lies about the GPL and his “concerns” about security. And frankly I think over-exposure to UV rays is a more urgent concern than NSA backdoors but I guess it gives computer buffs something to talk about.

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You are right; no one directly claimed it but linking a computerworld story in simlar fashion to the way the Sludge Report links stories is a bit annoying.

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I have just corrected your above post, no need to thank me :good:

And in response to that, the link contains interesting information for a lot of people.

However I do not like annoying people so for future reference,

do you have any recommendations on how to post a link that doesnt annoy you?

Should it be in a bigger size font or perhaps in bright green?

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Most firewall manufacturers are American too.

Good, then you should know what reverse tunneling is.

You don’t necessarily need to build a specific backdoor that is a backdoor in the classic sense that requires you to have direct access to the box from the outside but instead a ‘code flaw by design’ where you can use social engineering to plant software for various purposes - the business that originated the software knows they can trigger a flaw with specific code.

Judging by your attitude towards my post it seems to be more of a case of you taking the political attitude - I’m pointing fingers at your country and you don’t like it. Well guess what, suck it up.

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If you have malicious code in the OS itself, nothing (including your firewall) can help you. It is easy to add code that use standard ports like http/https/ftp etc. to connect and send information outside. No firewall will suspect such activity.
Essentially, a backdoor need not be “a listening socket”, it can be a “reverse protocol injector” that co-ordinates with a server socket sitting outside somewhere.

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I find it interesting that the one user here who is so vehement that there are no backdoors is from the same area as the US Army Command (CECOM) and the Program Executive Office which would involved with such backdoors . . .

Seriously, I’m sure that this is coincidence, but it reminds us that there are people who spend their whole work week getting into the computers of other people who think that they are secure.

I remember when MS claimed that Digital Research “only exists to copy Microsoft operating systems.” Anyone who knows the history of DR and MS knows that MS got itself on the map by stealing CP/M-86 – from Digital Research! – and selling it as MS-DOS.

A company which would do such a thing, then make such an outrageous claim, is certainly capable of being less than honest about backdoors.

OTOH, considering the “quality” of MS software, I would be surprised if they could figure out how to put in a backdoor that wouldn’t accidentally launch the Media Player with a MIDI of the “Love Boat” theme . . .

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Windows Vista and Windows7 already “phone home” whenever they please in order to check your system for “illegal” software and modifications anyway (considered illegal at the whim and fancy of Microsoft themselves, not an independent body).

If you read the EULA it tells you that, and if you are using any of those OSs you have already agreed in full to that practice.

So no firewall can affect that, and you are not allowed to disable that feature (again, read the EULA) as that is considered “modifying the software”. If you do, and the software check initiates and finds that it cannot “phone home”, your OS will be either slightly, or fully disabled until you either connect to the net and allow it to do it’s job, or you call Microsoft and beg them to allow you to use their software again.

THAT IS ALREADY A BUILT IN BACKDOOR! It doesn’t matter what fancy name they give it, it is a BACKDOOR!

As I have continually said (and been labelled a loonie no doubt!), I do not trust Microsoft, even if they tried to convince me that black is black, I wouldn’t believe a word they said.

I use Microsoft Windows Vista for playing games, and that’s all. They are welcome to scan my Windows partition for whatever they like, they will find nothing but legally purchased games. No documents, no pictures, no Internet cache, nothing.

That of course doesn’t stop them from using a backdoor to “plant” stuff on my computer, hmm, never thought of that before, ok, now I’m scared :O.

What was the command for formatting a windows partition again? ;).

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"In a world without walls or fences who needs windows or gates ? "

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NSA, spy you for crimes. NASA, spy you for technologies. Disney, spy you for art. Google spy you for just about everything.
If one wants, one could always find “food” for conspiracy theory :slight_smile:
But putting that aside, companies really do some sort of a spy on people, or “inject” code in their machines. For example I got laptop, which was with OEM vista preinstalled. Amazingly once you configure your network, and you set it to not start automatically, magically on some next reboot, without ever going and say connect, vista will inform you that there’s updates for you, and do “am I legal” check :o (if you are lucky you want be in place with some insecure wireless connection, couse it going to use it). Btw, I’ve seen on friend machine, windows 7 do the same.