Okay, so the stolen Windows source code has been floating around the 'net for about five or six days, now, and so far the leak's biggest consequence appears to be the verification that Microsoft programmers are a bunch of raging potty-mouths with surprisingly good senses of humor. (Older and less-sensitive viewers can scope out some of the R-rated gutter talk at Kuro5hin; many thanks to faithful viewer Lisa Boucher for the tip.) So what about those dire prophesies that access to the Windows source code would enable virus-writers and other 'net bad guys to find and exploit as-yet-unfound security holes and usher in a terrifying era of general security ickiness?

Well, basically, give it time-- it may indeed be coming. As faithful viewer mrmgraphics informed us, while the code's only been out for less than a week, people have already used the code to identify one hole in Internet Explorer 5 and have even cranked out a sample hack that exploits it. According to PC World, simply by visiting a web page that includes a "specially crafted bitmap file," an IE5 user (under Windows only, natch) can wind up at the mercy of an attacker who can then "run arbitrary code on [the] victim's machine." Neat! And okay, sure, the same hole was already plugged in IE6, so the only affected people are folks who didn't upgrade, but IE5 is still officially a supported product, so Microsoft is currently working on a patch and "investigating why it did not fix the vulnerability in those versions before."

As it turns out, the hole was found by the good guys (the benefits of Open Source, anyone?) and the exploit was released as a demonstration of the problem instead of as an earnest attempt to bring the 'net to its virtual knees, so, no, it's not the viral cataclysm some people were predicting. But like we said, it's still early days yet; the fact of the matter is, less than a week after the code first appeared, someone found a hole and exploited it. Thor Larholm of PivX Solutions insists that "this has definitely proven the potential for critical vulnerabilities," so as long as the virus-writers don't get too lazy, the odds of a fairly major source-code-related security nightmare are apparently better than most people might like. Duck and cover, kids!

Meanwhile, the Bagle worm seems to be spreading just fine without any help from the leaked Windows source, so even if no one bothers to use the code to wreak havoc on the Windows-using world at large, Microsoft can rest assured that its customers will likely wind up infected by all sorts of nasty things regardless. Boy, that's a relief, huh?