[HN Gopher] I connected Windows XP to the Internet; it was fine
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       I connected Windows XP to the Internet; it was fine
        
       A couple months ago I installed XP onto a ThinkPad X120e; being the
       first dual-core AMD ThinkPad the hardware is relatively emaciated,
       and I wanted something lightweight and productive for it.  I used
       legacyupdate.net to apply all available important and recommended
       updates, as well as some nice-to-haves such as updates to the .NET
       infrastructure. I have been using the Supermium browser, which is
       an up to date fork of Chromium for older versions of Windows,
       including XP. All of this has gone off without a hitch, and the
       laptop has been great to me with its current configuration.
       Recently in the tech news sphere I have seen articles exclaiming
       what a bad idea this is, demonstrating how connecting XP to the
       internet for just a few minutes leaves it riddled with viruses.
       Decided to run an MBAM scan with updated databases to see for
       myself, and it's totally clean.  In other news, this thing is a
       great little Diablo II machine. I'm maining necro right now.
        
       Author : mouse_
       Score  : 83 points
       Date   : 2024-05-30 20:17 UTC (2 days ago)
        
       | chrisjj wrote:
       | Well done. YMMV with IP address.
        
       | tredre3 wrote:
       | That whole thing is manufactured drama by some youtubers.
       | 
       | I can't say if the infections themselves are real or staged, but
       | they clearly and explicitly set the OS up for failure: they give
       | it a public internet IP, enable file sharing, RDP, remote
       | assistance, then disable the firewall for good measures. No
       | modern OS would fare better in those circumstances.
        
         | ranger_danger wrote:
         | I disagree, I think most modern OSes would be fine, assuming
         | they are up to date and nobody is using secret 0days on you.
        
         | badsectoracula wrote:
         | AFAICT there was a single YouTube video that started this[0]
         | and they mentioned explicitly several times that this mainly
         | works because they put it in "the open internet" as a server.
         | Disabling the firewall was the icing on the cake and yet that
         | is all sites that reported this[1], no mention about how the
         | computer was not behind, well, anything that a desktop in the
         | last couple of decades would be (and most likely beyond that, i
         | remember around 2002 when i had a modem, i had to visit a web
         | page at my ISP to allow me open various ports as many things
         | were disabled by default).
         | 
         | [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uSVVCmOH5w
         | 
         | [1] https://www.xda-developers.com/connected-windows-xp-
         | internet...
        
           | jmgao wrote:
           | The firewall was disabled by default in XP until SP2...
        
             | badsectoracula wrote:
             | Yes, but in the video it isn't and he explicitly disables
             | it. Windows XP even warns about it after he does it.
        
         | josephg wrote:
         | > No modern OS would fare better in those circumstances.
         | 
         | Of course they would. Modern Linux, FreeBSD and macOS are
         | totally fine connected to the internet directly with ssh
         | enabled and no firewall. Sure; if you expose samba with write
         | access and no password, you're in for a world of hurt. But so
         | long as your machine is kept up to date with security patches
         | and has some form of authentication on all remote services, it
         | should (generally) survive just fine on the open internet.
         | 
         | Of course defence in depth is still a good idea. But script
         | kiddies aren't using 0day attacks to portscan the open
         | internet. But security vulnerabilities in network services get
         | fixed.
        
           | j16sdiz wrote:
           | In my experience, an weekly-patched, default installation
           | debian Linux cira 2015 get a malware in a week or two on the
           | open internet.
        
           | jeroenhd wrote:
           | Modern Windows is fine, too. You may even be able to use
           | Windows 7 that way these days. A lot has changed since XP
           | SP2.
        
       | jimbobthrowawy wrote:
       | When you say connected to the internet, do you mean giving it a
       | public IPv4 address or are you behind NAT?
        
       | ToucanLoucan wrote:
       | I think the biggest risk you'd have with XP online is using
       | Internet Explorer, as not only is it going to have tons of
       | vulnerabilities that are unpatched, but it'll also be incapable
       | of negotiating SSL with modern websites. And the latter would
       | also be true of any browsers you brought back from that time
       | period to run on it, too, so using Supermium is probably why
       | you're doing well.
       | 
       | It's not like tons of embedded systems aren't _still using XP_ to
       | this day either.
        
       | lastdong wrote:
       | Windows used to have critical vulnerabilities, especially in IE8,
       | making you highly susceptible to hacking. These vulnerabilities
       | have been patched, and the risk is likely lower now.
        
         | out-of-ideas wrote:
         | not just IE - insert Java applets, Adobe Flash; and all the
         | other browser "addons" and plugins - it was a mess. but it also
         | depended on the websites you'd visit. a great deal of malware
         | were spread by ads and even facebook was not spared - its deff
         | not the same as it used to be; adblockers were used back then
         | too - the biggest difference is now we're plagued with
         | javascript and it literally being allowed to do what all
         | malware ever wanted: to spy on users any way the site-op sees
         | fit.
         | 
         | remember malware used to simply crash hard drives, erase
         | everything, sloww your system down, cause bsods... it was mid
         | 2000s when a wise man once said something along the lines of
         | "its amazing that malware can install, auto update, and run
         | flawlessly without the user even knowing - something the OS
         | fails to do"
         | 
         | the browser is not simply safe because the os is safe -
         | certainly the OS helps, but the browser is safe due the latest
         | code techniques and sec folks investing so much time into it.
         | if they solely relied on the os being safe, then we'd all be
         | fools to use a browser - i mean, more than we are in allowing
         | javascript so much power
        
           | cqqxo4zV46cp wrote:
           | > now we're plagued with javascript and it literally being
           | allowed to do what all malware ever wanted: to spy on users
           | any way the site-op sees fit.
           | 
           | This is flat-out untrue. Beyond hyperbole. If JavaScript had
           | the system access that literally any piece of malware sought,
           | the world would be an utter shit show in a way it simply
           | isn't.
        
             | meowster wrote:
             | They didn't say JavaScript has system access, just that it
             | can be used to spy on users (in the browser, and everything
             | seems to be moving to the browser).
        
       | AmVess wrote:
       | Not useful at all.
       | 
       | Go back in time and connect it to a network full of infected
       | hosts, and you'll have a very different experience.
       | 
       | Why is it such a surprise that a machine won't get infected when
       | the common vectors of attack for those OS's no longer exist.
        
       | jmgao wrote:
       | Back in the days of blaster, if you were connected to a network
       | with infected machines or had a public IP address because you
       | were connected straight into your cable modem, you would get
       | infected in the windows installer before it finished installing.
       | Nowadays, everything is behind NAT and there aren't any infected
       | Windows XP machines left on your local network, so that's not a
       | problem anymore.
        
         | tetris11 wrote:
         | Herd immunity, huh?
        
           | zamadatix wrote:
           | More that NAT forces your network gear to filter inbound
           | connections from the outside internet by default. This works
           | with one device behind one router as a billion devices behind
           | a billion routers.
        
         | lupusreal wrote:
         | For some reason whenever somebody suggests that NAT might have
         | security benefits, there is usually some hysterical screeching
         | about how that isn't true. Often seen in IPv6 discussions.
        
           | rcxdude wrote:
           | because it's unnecessary to get the same benefit. Being
           | behind a firewall would have the same effect (and any ipv6
           | deployment will have this), it's just that NAT _requires_
           | this. It 's like saying eating a spoonfull of cinnamon has
           | health benefits because it hydrates you when you have to
           | drink a glass of water afterwards: you could just drink the
           | water.
        
             | throwaway1105q wrote:
             | I don't quite understand what you mean by "any ipv6
             | deployment will have this". When my ISP switched to IPv6,
             | my internal devices were exposed to the internet and the
             | only thing that stopped the incredible amount of bot
             | traffic was my own on-device firewall that I explicitly
             | turned on and configured. Luckily I don't have any
             | smarthome stuff, not sure how I'd configure a firewall on a
             | lightbulb. These devices didn't have a public IPv4 before
             | that. And a bonus - the ISP didn't say anything about this
             | possible consequence, just "we're making some changes".
             | 
             | NAT has more benefits - I don't want anyone to know how
             | many devices I have at home, I don't want anyone to know
             | which one I'm using to access their website, I don't want
             | anyone to try guess the OS and version of my devices, etc.
             | And now I'm scared to have a simple DLNA media server
             | because I can't just install WireGuard on the TV. I'm
             | probably going to buy a router and make my own NAT soon
             | (don't have access into the ISP modem).
             | 
             | I felt better when the whole municipality had a single IP
             | address. A lot of bullshit ads - means the targeting wasn't
             | working. Now they're way too good.
        
               | rcxdude wrote:
               | Well, that sounds like a colossal misconfiguration on the
               | ISP's part. A firewall blocking incoming requests has
               | been standard part of ISP routers for a long time.
        
               | throwaway1105q wrote:
               | On the other hand... What exactly is the benefit of IPv6
               | then? I thought the point was to make all my devices
               | addressable on the public internet. How is it useful if
               | the ISP firewall blocks my servers?
               | 
               | And yes, incompetent ISPs are the norm.
        
               | Spooky23 wrote:
               | The biggest benefit is exponentially higher complexity,
               | assuring continued job growth for network engineers.
        
               | bzzzt wrote:
               | The point is not needing a NAT translation table and
               | running out of ports on your router. My provider also
               | delivers an IPv6 configuration with all ports closed. I
               | can enable incoming traffic for the devices that need it.
        
               | throwaway1105q wrote:
               | Running out of ports how? Someone is hosting 65536 public
               | services in their home network? Why not just pay for an
               | additional public ipv4 then?
               | 
               | I can't configure anything technical about my internet.
               | Any change is paid, and often simply not possible.
        
               | PaulHoule wrote:
               | My ADSL connection rides on some non-IP network before it
               | hooks up to a concentrator about an hour away. Most
               | location based services, other than Apple, seem to assume
               | I am in Norwich, NY. So I get these ads that say "They
               | don't like it when seniors use this one weird trick to
               | save money on car insurance in Norwich but they can't
               | stop it" and "Horny grandmas want to jump your bone right
               | now in Norwich" and such.
               | 
               | Contrast that to using public WiFi in NYC where everybody
               | knows exactly where you are.
        
               | throwaway1105q wrote:
               | I'm on DOCSIS to the Home / Fiber to the Building, but
               | there seems to be some kind of overlay network and as a
               | result, my PC that's hooked into the modem is on the
               | public internet.
               | 
               | Before IPv6 it was a classic internal LAN with IPs like
               | 192.168.0.1.
        
               | RulerOf wrote:
               | > I don't want anyone to know how many devices I have at
               | home
               | 
               | Even if your ipv6 host or border firewall allows pings
               | through, it's not practical to scan an entire /64.
               | There's just too many addresses in it, and your devices
               | will frequently change them.
               | 
               | > I don't want anyone to know which one I'm using to
               | access their website, I don't want anyone to try guess
               | the OS and version of my devices, etc.
               | 
               | They already do this through fingerprinting that operates
               | with higher-layer protocols.
               | 
               | > And now I'm scared to have a simple DLNA media server
               | because I can't just install WireGuard on the TV.
               | 
               | This is very simple to implement. Ensure it's listening
               | on the link-local address. That's the IP that starts with
               | fe80. These are unrouteable by spec.
        
               | throwaway1105q wrote:
               | > They already do this through fingerprinting that
               | operates with higher-layer protocols.
               | 
               | It's very hard to distinguish my iPhone and Mac from the
               | other dozens/hundreds people have in my building just
               | through fingerprinting. Very easy if they have separate
               | IP addresses.
               | 
               | Ad link local - cool, I'll look into that, thanks.
        
               | crazygringo wrote:
               | It's actually very easy just through fingerprinting. You
               | might be surprised.
               | 
               | It doesn't matter if everyone in your building has an
               | iPhone and a Mac as well -- there are things about
               | virtually every single one of them that make them unique.
        
               | throw0101c wrote:
               | > _When my ISP switched to IPv6, my internal devices were
               | exposed to the internet and the only thing that stopped
               | the incredible amount of bot traffic was my own on-device
               | firewall that I explicitly turned on and configured._
               | 
               | When my (previous) ISP switched on IPv6 none of my
               | internal devices could be connected to because my Asus
               | did stateful packet inspection and only allowed in
               | replies to connections that were previously initiated.
               | 
               | > _NAT has more benefits - I don 't want anyone to know
               | how many devices I have at home, I don't want anyone to
               | know which one I'm using to access their website_
               | 
               | Given that temporary IPv6 addresses tend to rotate every
               | 24 hours it will kind of hard to track individual devices
               | by IP in a 2^64 address space.
               | 
               | You could rotate addresses 10 million times per second,
               | using each only once, and it would take over 5000 years
               | to exhaust a single /64.
               | 
               | > _I felt better when the whole municipality had a single
               | IP address. A lot of bullshit ads - means the targeting
               | wasn 't working. Now they're way too good._
               | 
               | I now have to use a ISP-supplied router (for GPON), but
               | when I still had my Asus on the DSL/IPv6 ISP I could tell
               | it to reboot every night and I would get a new IPv4
               | address and a new IPv6 prefix every day.
        
             | tflol wrote:
             | This looks like the usual ipv6 kool aid batshit. I don't
             | want a bunch of kids and enemy states poking at and port
             | scanning my laptop directly, regardless of whether or not I
             | have a firewall enabled.
             | 
             | And, no, I don't think it's practical for everyone and
             | their grandma to "just set up a bastion"
        
               | rcxdude wrote:
               | I mean, they'd need to figure out your IP address
               | beforehand, something that's a lot harder with ipv6.
               | You've also got a much better chance of punching a packet
               | through a NAT than an ipv6 firewall (and it's now
               | expected behaviour for a lot of applications, as NAT
               | makes it too difficult to just make connections
               | directly).
        
               | LegionMammal978 wrote:
               | Wouldn't IPv6 firewalls configured for typical users
               | (i.e., denying unrecognized incoming connections) pose a
               | similar barrier to making direct connections reliably on
               | the application level? Not every user will be willing or
               | able to open a hole in their firewall for every shiny new
               | application that wants one.
        
               | rainonmoon wrote:
               | They wouldn't need to figure out anything. The "kids and
               | enemy states" are just hosing address ranges. I don't
               | agree with the above commenter that NAT offers any
               | meaningful security in this regard (now they're just
               | hosing your consumer router instead which is probably
               | less secure than the average updates-installed Defender-
               | enabled Windows box). But you're both making points about
               | security through obscurity in different ways.
        
               | tflol wrote:
               | > now they're just hosing your consumer router
               | 
               | There is a dramatic difference in effort between ( owning
               | a device ) and ( owning a router, configuring network
               | access to the device, then owning the device ).
               | 
               | Also psychologically: If I was a rock hard piece of shit
               | and I knew I was at the doorstep of a personal device, I
               | would treat it much more aggressively than a router. I
               | suppose maybe that's just me and not the kids and enemy
               | states.
        
               | rainonmoon wrote:
               | I mean, I don't know why you would when the router
               | potentially gives you a foothold across many devices
               | instead of one and the router is likely running multiple
               | services. Yes, that is just you; the threat model I'm
               | describing is widespread automated attacks, not
               | individual or particularly motivated.
        
               | tflol wrote:
               | You're saying there's less incentive for widespread
               | automated attacks on personal devices?
               | 
               | edit: Changing the subject to insulting me is a bad way
               | to conclude. You're creating an illusion the debate is
               | concluded in your favor instead of responding to points.
               | I don't think any of my points had a sound argument
               | against them.
        
               | rainonmoon wrote:
               | No brother, I'm not, but I'm starting to feel that what I
               | am saying might be beyond the likelihood of
               | comprehension. Look, I'm a big fan of NAT. Huge. It's not
               | a security control. Neither is v6. It sure is cool
               | though.
        
               | throw0101c wrote:
               | > _The "kids and enemy states" are just hosing address
               | ranges._
               | 
               | If you could scan one million addresses every second it
               | would take about 500,000 years to scan just one /64. Not
               | sure how practical that would be.
               | 
               | When I was still with an ISP that did IPv6 my Asus would
               | block any incoming connection attempt unless it was a
               | reply (SPI firewall), though it may have (IIRC) allowed
               | pings in by default.
        
               | utensil4778 wrote:
               | Yeah, I think it is very explicitly a _bad thing_ for all
               | devices to be directly exposed to the entire internet-
               | firewall or no. NAT is a pain, sure, but it does have the
               | benefit of _forcing_ you to have a network isolated from
               | the internet, and only allow external access when
               | explicitly configured to do so.
               | 
               | I have exactly one machine which needs to be accessible
               | from outside the local network. The rest of them should
               | _never_ be. Do I want to spend extra time ensuring that
               | each and every single device on my network is secure, or
               | do I want to do the inverse and assume all devices are
               | secure and only spend effort to make the one machine
               | exposed?
               | 
               | I can't imagine anyone who would actually want or need
               | their WiFi toaster to be publicly routable, WiFi cameras,
               | every computer. There's absolutely no reason for it.
               | Instead of relying on network isolation, we expect users
               | to just implicitly rely on who knows how many different
               | firewall implementations. Hopefully your router
               | configures it by default.
        
           | 63stack wrote:
           | Isn't NAT slipstreaming a "real" vector?
           | 
           | https://samy.pl/slipstream/
        
             | jeroenhd wrote:
             | NAT slipstreaming only works if your router allows
             | protocols like SIP, FTP, WebRTC, and other such protocols
             | that NAT breaks, luckily.
             | 
             | Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that's all routers I've ever
             | seen. You can protect yourself if you're willing to break
             | web applications and applications built on web technology.
             | Just disable all of the SIP ALGs in your router and you'll
             | have the security of IPv6 on IPv4!
        
           | LegionMammal978 wrote:
           | I think the usual security objection is that if the NAT
           | router receives a packet from the outside, with its
           | destination set to a local address, the router will just let
           | it through, in the absence of a firewall.
           | 
           | But as far as I can tell, that's only relevant for an
           | attacker who can MITM the connection between the local router
           | and the next ISP router, since clearly the ISP wouldn't know
           | who to forward the local address to. I'd think it isn't
           | within the threat model of the "typical internet user" who'd
           | be running such a poorly-configured network.
        
           | throw0101c wrote:
           | > _For some reason whenever somebody suggests that NAT might
           | have security benefits, there is usually some hysterical
           | screeching about how that isn 't true._
           | 
           | It is not the _address translation_ mechanism that does the
           | protecting but rather the _state tracking_.
           | 
           | Until very recently I was with an ISP with IPv6, and things
           | like my home printer had IPv6 addresses--but just because
           | they were _globally addressable_ did _not_ mean that they
           | were _globally reachable_.
        
         | nubinetwork wrote:
         | I would guesstimate about 20-30 seconds was all you needed to
         | be connected for to pick up blaster...
        
           | cqqxo4zV46cp wrote:
           | Yep. Before I knew what it was, I genuinely thought that an
           | issue occurred when my connection established. That's how
           | fast it was, and it was consistently that fast.
        
             | ddalex wrote:
             | How did blaster do it so fast?
        
               | bzzzt wrote:
               | Because there were so many infected machines probing
               | through the entire IPv4 space then.
        
         | snakeyjake wrote:
         | >Nowadays, everything is behind NAT and there aren't any
         | infected Windows XP machines
         | 
         | All end-user PCs have been behind NAT since the late 90s unless
         | the system was a dialup straggler. Enterprise users raw-dogging
         | the internet only have themselves to blame.
        
           | jmgao wrote:
           | This is absolutely false. This only became common when
           | wireless networking became ubiquitous, which wasn't until
           | probably a decade later.
        
             | InfamousRece wrote:
             | When I got my first broadband Internet connection my
             | contract explicitly prohibited me from using NAT.
             | Apparently my Internet provider was concerned I would use
             | NAT to connect multiple computers thus "stealing"
             | bandwidth. This concern was not completely unfounded since
             | people sometimes would set up one connection and share it
             | with neighboring apartments. Also having one computer per
             | household was normal back then.
        
           | zinekeller wrote:
           | Even discounting dial-up, this really depends on where you
           | are in the world at the time. PPPoE and direct hookup (via
           | the cable/ADSL modem) are still relatively common where I was
           | at the time that Blaster was roaming around, while some
           | countries have forced CGNAT even before CGNAT became a common
           | word, usually for "protecting the children" like Cleanfeed
           | (and even discounting that, event at the time you could still
           | get IPv4 effortlessly there had been, and certainty there are
           | still, crappy ISPs which don't really care about direct
           | connections).
        
           | alex_duf wrote:
           | I'm afraid this is factually wrong, my computer had a public
           | IP until the early 2010s as around these days modems were
           | just models and not routers too.
           | 
           | And with IPv6 all my devices could be publicly addressed but
           | I've enabled a firewall to block incoming traffic at the
           | router level.
        
         | PaulHoule wrote:
         | Circa 2001 a friend of mine installed Red Hat Linux on a
         | computer and I waited a few hours to log in to harden it which
         | was a mistake because it got hacked in that time.
         | 
         | Don't blame the OS, blame the brain-damaged language that puts
         | the C in Cthulhu.
        
       | lproven wrote:
       | Yep. I installed XP64 on a high-end 2008 Thinkpad last year, and
       | it was great fun. I wrote it up here:
       | 
       | https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/24/dangerous_pleasures_w...
       | 
       | A key watchword is to not let any MS code access the Internet.
       | Don't use MS email, chat, media players, etc. Use more modern 3rd
       | party ones and you're much much safer.
       | 
       | It's more or less necessary to use IE to get it set up, but you
       | can install IE 8.0.6001 offline before you start updating it,
       | which also saves about half an hour.
        
       | Dalewyn wrote:
       | There's a lot of fearmongering around keeping updated, and
       | "connecting Windows XP to the internet is a bad idea" is one of
       | them.
       | 
       | What makes this truly devious is that there's a kernel of truth
       | to it: Connecting Windows XP _to the internet_ will indeed give
       | you a bad day.
       | 
       | That's not what happens most of the time now, though: Most
       | computers, Windows XP or otherwise, are going to be _connected to
       | a LAN_ behind a gateway /router and a firewall sitting between
       | the LAN and the internet. Windows XP is therefore isolated from
       | most of the threats that are indeed very real.
       | 
       | Windows XP itself also has a firewall built-in, though the OOTB
       | settings won't provide adequate protection.
       | 
       | The moral of this is, the best lies are those with hints of truth
       | sprinkled in.
        
         | lmz wrote:
         | Well now that there's no other XP LAN hosts it's mostly OK.
         | Getting it on an unclean LAN with infected hosts will get you
         | infected, and that was a common occurence back in the day.
        
       | wruza wrote:
       | Behind a NAT you're safe even with Win9x. Idk about XP-latest,
       | but you don't want to connect a fresh pre-SP installation right
       | to the uplink cable. I wouldn't do that with any version of
       | windows, even from the "windows server" line.
        
         | 2snakes wrote:
         | For science!
        
         | tetha wrote:
         | Curiously enough, the youtuber who tried this with windows XP
         | did the same thing with Windows 98 [1]. And it gets hit by
         | strange packets and scans, but that system was fine even when
         | running for a day or two.
         | 
         | 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssTIx0qm2to
        
           | RetroTechie wrote:
           | For a really ancient OS like Windows 98, I'd think >99.99% of
           | exploits out there target newer OSes & simply don't work on
           | Win98. Safety by obscurity.
           | 
           | That said: for every idiot who hooks up a Windows 98 machine
           | to the internet, there might be some other idiot checking
           | whether exploits targeting it, still work. Or exploit kits
           | that sniff an OS, and select exploits to apply accordingly.
           | 
           | Vulnerabilities tend to have a long tail...
        
       | varelaz wrote:
       | I had only one problem, all certificates were outdated, so all
       | https resources didn't work (like 99% of web). I had to download
       | certificate updates to flash drive on another PC to install them,
       | then all worked fine, I used outdated Firefox but it still good.
        
       | fifteen1506 wrote:
       | Off-topic: I miss dial-up modus operandi. The assumption was
       | internet access was sporadic and at most attempts to access
       | internet would trigger the dial-up catalog.
       | 
       | Have to try to emulate that by removing the default gateway and
       | adding a proxy to the network.
        
       | throw_m239339 wrote:
       | Diablo II should be running on Linux via Bottles. Do your laptop
       | a favor, remove Windows XP.
        
       | oaiey wrote:
       | A firewall is a firewall. If TCP/IP routing is properly setup
       | (and afair Windows XP default settings for non-home networks
       | where alright) and you browse the internet responsible, you can
       | survive for quite a while I guess.
        
       | ozim wrote:
       | Do you have an external IP? I expect you are behind NAT and no
       | one is directly scanning your laptop.
       | 
       | Make it available on public IP wait until IP is listed on shodan
       | telling it is XP and then let us know how long it was running
       | without being infected.
        
       | bambax wrote:
       | Of course!
       | 
       | The whole security circus is a legend and a paranoia that mostly
       | serves OS manufacturers. And now that Recall exists, it will be
       | difficult to maintain that Win11 or M$ care about security at
       | all.
        
       | sgjohnson wrote:
       | So it was behind a firewall. Now do it without a firewall.
        
       | Turboblack wrote:
       | I've been using XP for many years and have no complaints about
       | viruses. Moreover, viruses are not created now, but only trojans.
       | and trojans do not get along on old systems; 32 bits is not
       | enough for them to get around))). seriously, modern malware is
       | always for modern hardware, modern tricks on how to deceive the
       | user, and how to get something out of him. what can you take from
       | the user's xp? Nothing! )) i use EEEPC 701 with XP sp3 and i have
       | no problems with it
        
       | h0ek wrote:
       | It is still possible to use an Amiga and connect it to the
       | Internet. It is still possible to use VHS tapes and watch films
       | on them. I am not sure why you would want to do this. Maybe your
       | computer is fine now, but if you are targeted by an attacker, you
       | make it easier, or if someone steals your laptop, I guess there
       | is no encryption by default. Better to use Linux on old machines.
       | And in 2024 we have great emulators or virtual machines for more
       | than 10 years to make old games work fine. Cool that you made it
       | work, but I have no idea why. Maybe for fun, or testing, but for
       | everyday use, nah, thx.
        
       | Unbefleckt wrote:
       | I've disabled windows defender and gutted the OS of all it's
       | features that I don't need for the past 26 years and never had
       | any problems. I always resist the next update as long as I can
       | get away with it (usually some software I need to use will only
       | work on the next update) It's probably really stupid but I've yet
       | to suffer for it. I mainly use my PC for creative purposes,
       | Steam, and Web browsing. If my identity is in danger someone must
       | be putting it to good use.
        
       | rkagerer wrote:
       | You missed one other mitigation tool: 0patch
       | 
       | It's usefulness is limited on XP but you might have applications
       | that are captured. They also haven't closed the door (at least as
       | of last year) to patching any future major-drama events that come
       | up: https://0patch.zendesk.com/hc/en-
       | us/articles/360018274139-Do...
        
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