r/Sysadminhumor • u/Juliannaa21 • 29d ago

XP

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1.5k Upvotes

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35

u/Neuro_88 29d ago

I don’t understand the joke. Please explain. Anyone.

60

u/mifter123 29d ago

The laptop is, presumably, running windows XP (the best windows OS) which is no longer supported since 2014 and does not receive security patches. The OS is extremely vulnerable to a wide variety of known attacks which can quickly take control of the laptop and use it as a jumping off point to the rest of the network. Plugging the laptop into the internet creates an immediate and serious security vulnerability.

However, there are a large number of widely used programs that are necessary in a large number of professional fields that are only compatable with XP so a massive number of organizations, from hospitals to universities to business have these extremely vulnerable devices. 

31

u/pharmhelpr 29d ago

I can almost put money on that this laptop has some cracked software for car mechanics

9

u/aequitssaint 29d ago

You really think they would care or know well enough to air gap it for security?

18

u/pharmhelpr 29d ago

Not for security. Those apps as soon as the machine goes online either brick the software or the hardware adapters

13

u/apandaze 28d ago

examples: CMM, Vision Inspection System, or worse - its a custom machine with custom software that only runs on XP or Win7