Daily Cup of Tech

While researching for an upcoming article, I stumbled upon the source code for a number of applications that Microsoft aquired when they purchased Sysinternal. It seems that even the mighty Microsoft needs to bow to The Wayback Machine and forgotten files!

If you go to the Sysinternals website today, you will automatically be redirected to a page on the Microsoft website. But back before Sysinternals was bought, they had an excellent array of freeware and open source applications on this page. Microsoft has made the vast majority of these programs available for free but they have changed the licensing by closing the source code. According to the licensing FAQ:

Q: Can I license or re-use any Sysinternals source code?
A: No. We will no longer offer the Sysinternals source code for download or license.

So imagine my surprise when a Google search brought up a link to the Sysinternals source code page! It appears that someone had either missed this page or intentionally let it up. As I was digging through the page, I did find that the majority of the links pointed back to Microsoft but the occasional page still worked! So I got thinking, if some of the pages are still there, are the source code files still there?

When I went to the root of the files directory, I was not surprised to see:

Directory Listing Denied
This Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed.

So, if I was to determine if the actual files were still there, I would need the actual file names. This is when I decided to go visit the Wayback Machine.

The Wayback Machine is attempting to create snapshots of the entire Internet at various points in time. With it, you can look up any website and see the information that is has archived. I looked up the Sysinternals source code page on the Wayback Machine and was not disappointed. The page was archived there and from it, I was able to determine what the original file names were.

I have to admit that I was pretty shocked when I realized that all of the source code files are still sitting on a website that Microsoft now manages!

AccessEnum v1.3
This simple yet powerful security tool shows you who has what access to directories, files and Registry keys on your systems. Use it to find holes in your permissions.
Source Code • Mirror

AdRestore v1.1
Restore tombstoned Active Directory objects in Server 2003 domains
Source Code • Mirror

Autologon v2.1
Bypass password screen during logon
Source Code • Mirror

CacheSet v1.0
CacheSet is a program that allows you to control the Cache Manager’s working set size using functions provided by NT. It’s compatible with all versions of NT and full source code is provided.
Source Code • Mirror

Ctrl2cap v2.0
This is a kernel-mode driver that demonstrates keyboard input filtering just above the keyboard class driver in order to turn caps-locks into control keys. Filtering at this level allows conversion and hiding of keys before NT even “sees” them. Full source is included. Ctrl2cap also shows how to use NtDisplayString() to print messages to the initialization blue-screen.
Source Code • Mirror

Device Object Security
Are your device objects as secure as they should be? Learn what permissions are applied to the objects you create with IoCreateDevice and get introduced to kernel-mode security APIs that can be used to close potential device object security holes.
Source Code • Mirror

DiskExt v1.0
Display volume disk-mappings
Source Code • Mirror

Formatx and Chkdskx v1.0
Complete source code for chkdsk and format clone programs. These examples demonstrate the use of file system utility functions that you can incorporate into your own applications.
Source Code • Mirror

Fundelete v2.02
This utility expands the NT 4.0 Recycle Bin to catch file deleted from command prompts and within programs, and it comes with full source code. Several powerful device driver techniques, including getting a user’s SID within a driver, enumerating a directory’s contents, and generating IRPs, are demonstrated in source code available for download.
Source Code • Mirror

Inside Disk Defragmenting
Find out about the APIs Windows NT Defragmentation products use, and download a free defragmenting demonstration program, complete with full source.
Source Code • Mirror

Inside the Disk Key
The HKLM\System\Disk\Information value is the heart of NT’s disk administration. It contains information on drive mappings and fault tolerant configurations. In this article I go inside the Disk\Information value to describe its format, and provide source code to a program, Diskkey, that reads and decodes it.
Source Code • Mirror

Junction 1.03
Create Win2K NTFS symbolic links
Source Code • Mirror

NewSID v4.06
Learn about the computer SID problem everybody has been talking about and get a free computer SID changer, NewSID, complete with full source code.
Source Code • Mirror

NTFSInfo v1.0
Use NTFSInfo to see detailed information about NTFS volumes, including the size and location of the Master File Table (MFT) and MFT-zone, as well as the sizes of the NTFS meta-data files.
Source Code • Mirror

ProcFeatures v1.1
This applet reports processor and Windows support for Physical Address Extensions and No Execute buffer overflow protection.
Source Code • Mirror

SDelete v1.51
Securely overwrite your sensitive files and cleanse your free space of previously deleted files using this DoD-compliant secure delete program. Complete source code is included.
Source Code • Mirror

ShareEnum v1.6
Scan file shares on your network and view their security settings to close security holes.
Source Code • Mirror

TCPView v2.4
See all open TCP and UDP endpoints. On Windows NT, 2000 and XP TCPView even displays the name of the process that owns each endpoint. Includes a command-line version, tcpvcon.
Source Code • Mirror

Tokenmon v1.01
Watch security-related activity, including logon, logoff, privilege usage, and impersonation with this monitoring tool. Full source code included.
Source Code • Mirror

TVCache
Here are the complete sources for a VCACHE replacement called TVCACHE (turbo-VCACHE). This version of VCACHE implements compression of cache buffers in an effort to improve performance. It documents the VCACHE interface for use in your own file systems work (or for caching of arbitrary data) in the source code implementation.
Source Code • Mirror

VCMon v1.0
A VCache (Windows 95 disk cache) monitor, from our May 1996 Dr. Dobb’s Journal article on VxD Service hooking. Full source is included.
Source Code • Mirror

VxDMon v1.0
VxDMon provides a never-before-seen look into Windows 95 VxDs. See how VxDs interact with one another and monitor the performance of VxD services, including your own.
Source Code • Mirror

If you are at all interested in this source code, you would be wise to snap it up quick. Who knows how long Microsoft will leave this on the Internet. According to the license agreement, I cannot put this code on my website so when it is no longer available, I can’t help you out.

Also, this means that The Wayback Machine might be in violation of the Microsoft license so it may not be available much longer, either.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/01/31/microsoft-source-code-found-on-internet/trackback/