Windows XP will soon find its way into a large number of home users' computers. The casual and the simple user who just wants to use e-mail, read the news, or play some online games. These users know nothing about hacking and hackers except for what they hear in the news and see in some movies, but when they upgrade their machine to Windows XP this year, they have no clue they have the potential to serve a hackers dream. Many years ago, in the Unix age, when the Internet was created there were also some protocols created to transfer packets over the Internet, they are still in use today, TCP/IP and UDP sockets. But one day some people thought of an "Educational purpose only" idea to create a deeper set of sockets that actually controlled the client information. This "Educational plan" some how became fix in Unix systems, that also includes Linux. Hackers, from the early age used this "feature" to spoof their IP address so they remain undetected. These were called "Raw sockets". When windows was created Microsoft did not allow this feature to be available, they warped the information in the TCP/IP and UDP protocol so that no one could change it, well atleast it was this way until Windows 2000 was created, in Windows 2000 raw sockets were added. That wasn't the worst part of the story. The every day John Smith who only uses AOL because it's that easy(!!!), doesn't use Win2000, but rather Win9x/Me. Then XP came out, and what do you know, raw sockets were also there, even in home edition! Now someone may ask what's so bad about this anyway? well let's go through some scenarios:

• Little Johnny goes to smallvile Jr. High, he is also interested in computers, he is a very talented video game player! he also likes to hack some stuff! I mean come on, it's interesting! One day he hears some school geeks talking about hacking and DOS attacks, so he goes a little closer so he can hear what they're saying. He hears them talking about a very easy to use program called NukeEmGood! that is very easy to use and it crashes web sites! so he asks the geeks if he can get a copy, the geeks tell him "sure, only one thing, if any one even tries to find you, you're caught, because you can't spoof your IP in Win 9x". Little Johnny doesn't understand the last part but he thinks if the FBI find him, then he can't go to Yale, and his mom will be very sad, so decides not to do it! Some time later, after X-mass, that he just upgraded to WinXP he again hears the Geeks talking about a safe way to crash web sites! so he starts another conversation and finds about the new program that runs under WinXP and is totally safe, and if he and some of his friends use it at the same time at a certain web site, they can crash it! so Johnny decides to become a hacker...
• Mr.Joe hacker just got WinXP and found out about the RAW socket support that works just like the Unix Berkeley Raw socket! "Oh yes!" he shouts and then quickly turns on his computer and starts working on a new and simple Trojan, when he's done, he sends a copy to every of his "Smart" friends, saying this makes their game playing much more easier!!! of course all his friends run the program. Now, Mr.Joes friends are all pro gamers and they all have WinXP and cable connection so they can fully enjoy their online gaming! they are not aware that their computers are actually very powerful zombies under Mr.Joes control. Joe on the other hand, is waiting at his selected IRC channel and waits for all his Zombies to turn on their computer and come online. Wow, its better than he thought! 20 cable equipped WinXP zombies, ready for order!. Decisions decisions, which domain to DDOS.

Microsoft says "raw sockets were available in Linux and nothing happened, come on give us a brake!" they forget little Johnny and many others hardly know what linux is and never even used it.
Mr.Gates, congratulations, your crew made hacker heaven on earth.