Microsoft said Wednesday that the SSL flaw recently uncovered by an independent researcher is in multiple versions of the Windows operating system and not its Internet Explorer Web browser. Researchers said browser was insecure, but now software giant says it"s the OS that must be patched.
Company officials add that the flaw also is not in Microsoft"s CryptoAPI, which would leave a number of applications and Windows services vulnerable, not just IE. Microsoft says it is working on patches for Windows 98, ME, NT4, 2000, and XP. It would not say when the patches would be available.
"This SSL flaw has been described as an [Internet Explorer] problem but it is a Windows issue. It"s in the crypto of the operating system so we have to patch the OS," says Scott Culp, manager of the Microsoft Security Response Center. "IE is a consumer of those crypto services."
He says it is an "implementation problem in the way SSL certificates are processed where information is not available in the certificate or it is available in two places and there is a conflict."