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The latest Service Pack for Windows XP?Service Pack 2 (SP2)?is all about security, and it?s one of the most important service packs ever released. It provides better protection against viruses, hackers, and worms, and includes Windows Firewall, Pop-up Blocker for Internet Explorer, and the new Windows Security Center.

WindowsXP SP2 Download

Order Windows XP Service Pack 2 on CD

Thank you for your interest in the Windows XP Service Pack 2 CD. Microsoft will ship the CD to you free of charge. This CD includes the same Service Pack 2 software that is available for download from Microsoft Update.

Order Windows XP Service Pack 2 on CD

Windows XP Service Pack 2 promises to raise the security bar for the sometimes beleaguered operating system. Unfortunately, one of the new features could be spoofed so that it reports misleading information about system security, or worse, lets a malicious program watch for an opportunity to do damage without being detected. The feature is the Windows Security Center (WSC), which displays the status ( (Figure 1) )of the key elements of your defenses: Firewall, Updates, and Antivirus. If your firewall has been disabled, or your antivirus is out of date, that news will display here. The information is stored in an internal database managed by the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) subsystem built into Windows.

Based on an anonymous tip, we looked into the WMI and the Windows Security Center's use of it, and found that it may not only be a security hole, but a crater in the wrong hands. Due to the nature of WMI, the WSC could potentially allow attackers to spoof the state of security on a user's system while accessing data, infecting the system, or turning the PC into a zombie for spam or other purposes.

According to Microsoft, WMI is the Microsoft implementation of Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM), an industry standard for accessing management information on a system. For Windows XP Service Pack 2, Microsoft added new fields or records to keep track of the Firewall and Antivirus information in the WMI database. Unfortunately, the WMI database is designed to be accessible via the WBEM API (application program interface) and is available to any program that wants to access the WMI. These programs can be desktop applications written in desktop- or web-based scripting or ActiveX modules.

source: www.microsoft.com