Microsoft, working with IBM, has patched a bug that has existed on the Windows system for 19 years, and which could remotely control a PC.

The bug, named WinShock by some in the industry, is hard to pull off and not a lot of hackers have used it as a means to access a computer. However, with the recent announcement of a patch, hackers might look to exploit outdated machines.

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IBM has been working with Microsoft on the bug and claims it has been on the system since Windows 95 launched. It also affects Microsoft Windows Server platforms, meaning websites could be in danger if they do not update.

2014 has been a big year for SSL issues, with the recent Heartbleed bug spotted by Google engineers, affecting 2/3 of websites using SSL. Secure Socket Layers is a type of web secure, capable of encrypting information passing from one computer to another.

Microsoft Secure Channel (Schannel) joins a long line of security standards that have had issues this year. Alongside OpenSSL - developed by thousands of different developers - Apple's SecureTransport, GNUTLS and NSS have all had bugs exploited in 2014.

Security experts believe the worst is yet to come, while WinShock has not been that big of a deal (or gone unnoticed for so long), now it is out in the open hackers can easily figure out how to exploit computers that have not updated.

This is amplified by Windows users' being slow to update software. Microsoft has never reported strong numbers on the current OS update, with 60 percent on Windows 7 and 15 percent on Windows XP; only 15 percent are currently running Windows 8.1.

Even though the emergency bugfix will be sent out to Windows 7 users, the 15 percent of Windows XP users will not receive any bugfix, following the end of support for the OS earlier this year.

Source: Game Informer

TagsWinShock, Windows 95, Windows XP, bugfix, SSL, Schannel, Heartbleed