Crashes when clock year is five digit

[Guest]

I just thought I'd share this very strange error I just recovered from. Maybe
this will help someone else and maybe this is something that needs to be
fixed by Microsoft - at least to me it seems like this could be a potential
voulnerability? Or maybe it's already a known issue even though I couldn't
find anything about it.

After applying the Microsoft December update (I'm using WinXP SP2) I started
getting all kinds of strange errors, some examples:
- Grisoft AVG antivirus would crash on startup and give me error message and
a error dump stating Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
- Skype would crash on startup.
- Sun Java update process would crash on stratup.
- Running Ad-Aware could not start properly and/or download updates.
- Running Microsoft and/or Windows update just gave an error message saying
basically "there is something wrong with the web server right now, cannot
run, check back later"
- World Community Grid wouldn't start
- I couldn't log on to some forums I frequently visit, my guess was that
cookies were somehow being blocked. After awhile I found out that it didn't
work in IE but Firefox was ok.

Naturally I thought I had gotten some kind of virus. Since I couldn't get my
own Antivirus to work I went to Trend Micro's online scan ("HouseCall").
Using their "browser kernel" (active-x?) did not work at all, using the "java
kernel" did a 1 second scan of my entire computer! (ie it did not scan it at
all) and came back saying my computer is ok.

I restarted in safe mode, did chkdsk, defrag, removed page file, searching
the net for a solution etc. etc. and spent many hours last night trying to
get a grip on this.

Then just now I surfed a page in Firefox and got a certificate warning where
I notice my date is 18 December 40105. Year 40105 - What?? (give or take a
few hundred years, it's a five digit year, everything except the year is
correct) I double click my clock to correct it using "Update time" from the
"Internet time" tab but I get a time out error so after a few attempts I set
the year manually and --- everything starts working ok again!! (at least so
it seems at this time)

I don't know if this actually had anything to do with the December update or
if it's just my computer (I've been getting a lot of blue screens lately,
think I have some kind of hw failure) or maybe I somehow have changed the
date myself without noticing or it's just something else.
I would also get several Microsoft crash report dialogs - "Would you like to
report this error to MS" - and sent several of theese but none came back with
the solution - ie "Your clock is f**ked up".

I haven't tried to recreate this - I'm just all too happy having my computer
work again - but my guess is all you have to do is set the system date to a
year that is five digit.

Your thoughts on this?

Max

Ps: Sorry if I should be posting in some other newsgroup, please direct me
if I'm at the wrong place.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

I'm unable to duplicate that, as I can find no way to force the year field
to accept 5 characters. I've not seen any other complaints of this nature,
so I doubt it is related to any recent updates. It is possible that you have
a corrupt system file that allowed that format, so the only thing I might
recommend is that you run sfc /scannow and allow this tool to check the
integrity of the system file set.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Jon]

Seem to get firewall, antivirus, program crashes with any year beyond year
2100, from what I can see, plus an inability to reboot without changing the
clock via the BIOS.
[So don't try this at home]

Strangely, also you can set "18th December" dates up to year 8906, but not
8907 using the command line command

date 18/12/8906

but

date 18/12/8907 is not acceptable.

Perhaps Microsoft know something we don't about the date the world ends.

Thanks for sharing.

Jon

 

[Guest]

Thanks for reproducing. I did not have any problem rebooting however.

I can imagine that you might be able to go even further with the years using
C# or maybe bios settings (have not tried neither).

Seem to get firewall, antivirus, program crashes with any year beyond year
2100, from what I can see, plus an inability to reboot without changing the
clock via the BIOS.
[So don't try this at home]

Strangely, also you can set "18th December" dates up to year 8906, but not
8907 using the command line command

date 18/12/8906

but

date 18/12/8907 is not acceptable.

Perhaps Microsoft know something we don't about the date the world ends.

Thanks for sharing.

Jon

I just thought I'd share this very strange error I just recovered from.
Maybe
this will help someone else and maybe this is something that needs to be
fixed by Microsoft - at least to me it seems like this could be a
potential
voulnerability? Or maybe it's already a known issue even though I couldn't
find anything about it.

After applying the Microsoft December update (I'm using WinXP SP2) I
started
getting all kinds of strange errors, some examples:
- Grisoft AVG antivirus would crash on startup and give me error message
and
a error dump stating Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
- Skype would crash on startup.
- Sun Java update process would crash on stratup.
- Running Ad-Aware could not start properly and/or download updates.
- Running Microsoft and/or Windows update just gave an error message
saying
basically "there is something wrong with the web server right now, cannot
run, check back later"
- World Community Grid wouldn't start
- I couldn't log on to some forums I frequently visit, my guess was that
cookies were somehow being blocked. After awhile I found out that it
didn't
work in IE but Firefox was ok.

Naturally I thought I had gotten some kind of virus. Since I couldn't get
my
own Antivirus to work I went to Trend Micro's online scan ("HouseCall").
Using their "browser kernel" (active-x?) did not work at all, using the
"java
kernel" did a 1 second scan of my entire computer! (ie it did not scan it
at
all) and came back saying my computer is ok.

I restarted in safe mode, did chkdsk, defrag, removed page file, searching
the net for a solution etc. etc. and spent many hours last night trying to
get a grip on this.

Then just now I surfed a page in Firefox and got a certificate warning
where
I notice my date is 18 December 40105. Year 40105 - What?? (give or take a
few hundred years, it's a five digit year, everything except the year is
correct) I double click my clock to correct it using "Update time" from
the
"Internet time" tab but I get a time out error so after a few attempts I
set
the year manually and --- everything starts working ok again!! (at least
so
it seems at this time)

I don't know if this actually had anything to do with the December update
or
if it's just my computer (I've been getting a lot of blue screens lately,
think I have some kind of hw failure) or maybe I somehow have changed the
date myself without noticing or it's just something else.
I would also get several Microsoft crash report dialogs - "Would you like
to
report this error to MS" - and sent several of theese but none came back
with
the solution - ie "Your clock is f**ked up".

I haven't tried to recreate this - I'm just all too happy having my
computer
work again - but my guess is all you have to do is set the system date to
a
year that is five digit.

Your thoughts on this?

Max

Ps: Sorry if I should be posting in some other newsgroup, please direct me
if I'm at the wrong place.

 

[Guest]

I also noticed that you cannot go that far with years using the UI, but as
Jon found out you can at least go "high enough" to reproduce - >2100
according to his findings.

I did try the sfc /scannow but it did not report anything.

 

[Jon]

Quite possibly. This would be a possible c++ function to use, if anyone is
mad enough to try

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sysinfo/base/setsystemtime.asp

The code would be something like

SYSTEMTIME CurrentTime, NewTime;
GetSystemTime(&CurrentTime);

//Just change the year
NewTime.wYear = 40105;

//Change Time
SetSystemTime(&NewTime);
::SendMessage(HWND_TOPMOST, WM_TIMECHANGE, 0,0);


Jon

Thanks for reproducing. I did not have any problem rebooting however.

I can imagine that you might be able to go even further with the years
using
C# or maybe bios settings (have not tried neither).

Seem to get firewall, antivirus, program crashes with any year beyond
year
2100, from what I can see, plus an inability to reboot without changing
the
clock via the BIOS.
[So don't try this at home]

Strangely, also you can set "18th December" dates up to year 8906, but
not
8907 using the command line command

date 18/12/8906

but

date 18/12/8907 is not acceptable.

Perhaps Microsoft know something we don't about the date the world ends.

Thanks for sharing.

Jon

I just thought I'd share this very strange error I just recovered from.
Maybe
this will help someone else and maybe this is something that needs to
be
fixed by Microsoft - at least to me it seems like this could be a
potential
voulnerability? Or maybe it's already a known issue even though I
couldn't
find anything about it.

After applying the Microsoft December update (I'm using WinXP SP2) I
started
getting all kinds of strange errors, some examples:
- Grisoft AVG antivirus would crash on startup and give me error
message
and
a error dump stating Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
- Skype would crash on startup.
- Sun Java update process would crash on stratup.
- Running Ad-Aware could not start properly and/or download updates.
- Running Microsoft and/or Windows update just gave an error message
saying
basically "there is something wrong with the web server right now,
cannot
run, check back later"
- World Community Grid wouldn't start
- I couldn't log on to some forums I frequently visit, my guess was
that
cookies were somehow being blocked. After awhile I found out that it
didn't
work in IE but Firefox was ok.

Naturally I thought I had gotten some kind of virus. Since I couldn't
get
my
own Antivirus to work I went to Trend Micro's online scan
("HouseCall").
Using their "browser kernel" (active-x?) did not work at all, using the
"java
kernel" did a 1 second scan of my entire computer! (ie it did not scan
it
at
all) and came back saying my computer is ok.

I restarted in safe mode, did chkdsk, defrag, removed page file,
searching
the net for a solution etc. etc. and spent many hours last night trying
to
get a grip on this.

Then just now I surfed a page in Firefox and got a certificate warning
where
I notice my date is 18 December 40105. Year 40105 - What?? (give or
take a
few hundred years, it's a five digit year, everything except the year
is
correct) I double click my clock to correct it using "Update time" from
the
"Internet time" tab but I get a time out error so after a few attempts
I
set
the year manually and --- everything starts working ok again!! (at
least
so
it seems at this time)

I don't know if this actually had anything to do with the December
update
or
if it's just my computer (I've been getting a lot of blue screens
lately,
think I have some kind of hw failure) or maybe I somehow have changed
the
date myself without noticing or it's just something else.
I would also get several Microsoft crash report dialogs - "Would you
like
to
report this error to MS" - and sent several of theese but none came
back
with
the solution - ie "Your clock is f**ked up".

I haven't tried to recreate this - I'm just all too happy having my
computer
work again - but my guess is all you have to do is set the system date
to
a
year that is five digit.

Your thoughts on this?

Max

Ps: Sorry if I should be posting in some other newsgroup, please direct
me
if I'm at the wrong place.

 

[Vanguard]

Then just now I surfed a page in Firefox and got a certificate warning
where
I notice my date is 18 December 40105. Year 40105 - What?? (give or take a
few hundred years, it's a five digit year, everything except the year is
correct) I double click my clock to correct it using "Update time" from
the
"Internet time" tab but I get a time out error so after a few attempts I
set
the year manually and --- everything starts working ok again!! (at least
so
it seems at this time)

<snip>

Maybe it is time to replace the CMOS battery on your motherboard. Could be
during a reboot that the voltage was too low and you got a garbage string in
the date field. I'd also start checking the other BIOS settings, too, to
make sure they were correct.

 

[Jon]

Looks like you can go up to year 30827 using that method, which still
wouldn't explain your scenario.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sysinfo/base/systemtime_str.asp

Jon

Quite possibly. This would be a possible c++ function to use, if anyone is
mad enough to try

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sysinfo/base/setsystemtime.asp

The code would be something like

SYSTEMTIME CurrentTime, NewTime;
GetSystemTime(&CurrentTime);

//Just change the year
NewTime.wYear = 40105;

//Change Time
SetSystemTime(&NewTime);
::SendMessage(HWND_TOPMOST, WM_TIMECHANGE, 0,0);


Jon

Thanks for reproducing. I did not have any problem rebooting however.

I can imagine that you might be able to go even further with the years
using
C# or maybe bios settings (have not tried neither).

Seem to get firewall, antivirus, program crashes with any year beyond
year
2100, from what I can see, plus an inability to reboot without changing
the
clock via the BIOS.
[So don't try this at home]

Strangely, also you can set "18th December" dates up to year 8906, but
not
8907 using the command line command

date 18/12/8906

but

date 18/12/8907 is not acceptable.

Perhaps Microsoft know something we don't about the date the world ends.

Thanks for sharing.

Jon



I just thought I'd share this very strange error I just recovered from.
Maybe
this will help someone else and maybe this is something that needs to
be
fixed by Microsoft - at least to me it seems like this could be a
potential
voulnerability? Or maybe it's already a known issue even though I
couldn't
find anything about it.

After applying the Microsoft December update (I'm using WinXP SP2) I
started
getting all kinds of strange errors, some examples:
- Grisoft AVG antivirus would crash on startup and give me error
message
and
a error dump stating Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
- Skype would crash on startup.
- Sun Java update process would crash on stratup.
- Running Ad-Aware could not start properly and/or download updates.
- Running Microsoft and/or Windows update just gave an error message
saying
basically "there is something wrong with the web server right now,
cannot
run, check back later"
- World Community Grid wouldn't start
- I couldn't log on to some forums I frequently visit, my guess was
that
cookies were somehow being blocked. After awhile I found out that it
didn't
work in IE but Firefox was ok.

Naturally I thought I had gotten some kind of virus. Since I couldn't
get
my
own Antivirus to work I went to Trend Micro's online scan
("HouseCall").
Using their "browser kernel" (active-x?) did not work at all, using
the
"java
kernel" did a 1 second scan of my entire computer! (ie it did not scan
it
at
all) and came back saying my computer is ok.

I restarted in safe mode, did chkdsk, defrag, removed page file,
searching
the net for a solution etc. etc. and spent many hours last night
trying to
get a grip on this.

Then just now I surfed a page in Firefox and got a certificate warning
where
I notice my date is 18 December 40105. Year 40105 - What?? (give or
take a
few hundred years, it's a five digit year, everything except the year
is
correct) I double click my clock to correct it using "Update time"
from
the
"Internet time" tab but I get a time out error so after a few attempts
I
set
the year manually and --- everything starts working ok again!! (at
least
so
it seems at this time)

I don't know if this actually had anything to do with the December
update
or
if it's just my computer (I've been getting a lot of blue screens
lately,
think I have some kind of hw failure) or maybe I somehow have changed
the
date myself without noticing or it's just something else.
I would also get several Microsoft crash report dialogs - "Would you
like
to
report this error to MS" - and sent several of theese but none came
back
with
the solution - ie "Your clock is f**ked up".

I haven't tried to recreate this - I'm just all too happy having my
computer
work again - but my guess is all you have to do is set the system date
to
a
year that is five digit.

Your thoughts on this?

Max

Ps: Sorry if I should be posting in some other newsgroup, please
direct me
if I'm at the wrong place.

 

[Guest]

I believe, but i'm not completly certain the year was 4xxxx. It *could* have
been 3xxxx also. (I was more focused on just getting my computer to work than
to document what was wrong...)

Looks like you can go up to year 30827 using that method, which still
wouldn't explain your scenario.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sysinfo/base/systemtime_str.asp

Jon

Quite possibly. This would be a possible c++ function to use, if anyone is
mad enough to try

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sysinfo/base/setsystemtime.asp

The code would be something like

SYSTEMTIME CurrentTime, NewTime;
GetSystemTime(&CurrentTime);

//Just change the year
NewTime.wYear = 40105;

//Change Time
SetSystemTime(&NewTime);
::SendMessage(HWND_TOPMOST, WM_TIMECHANGE, 0,0);


Jon

Thanks for reproducing. I did not have any problem rebooting however.

I can imagine that you might be able to go even further with the years
using
C# or maybe bios settings (have not tried neither).


:

Seem to get firewall, antivirus, program crashes with any year beyond
year
2100, from what I can see, plus an inability to reboot without changing
the
clock via the BIOS.
[So don't try this at home]

Strangely, also you can set "18th December" dates up to year 8906, but
not
8907 using the command line command

date 18/12/8906

but

date 18/12/8907 is not acceptable.

Perhaps Microsoft know something we don't about the date the world ends.

Thanks for sharing.

Jon



I just thought I'd share this very strange error I just recovered from.
Maybe
this will help someone else and maybe this is something that needs to
be
fixed by Microsoft - at least to me it seems like this could be a
potential
voulnerability? Or maybe it's already a known issue even though I
couldn't
find anything about it.

After applying the Microsoft December update (I'm using WinXP SP2) I
started
getting all kinds of strange errors, some examples:
- Grisoft AVG antivirus would crash on startup and give me error
message
and
a error dump stating Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
- Skype would crash on startup.
- Sun Java update process would crash on stratup.
- Running Ad-Aware could not start properly and/or download updates.
- Running Microsoft and/or Windows update just gave an error message
saying
basically "there is something wrong with the web server right now,
cannot
run, check back later"
- World Community Grid wouldn't start
- I couldn't log on to some forums I frequently visit, my guess was
that
cookies were somehow being blocked. After awhile I found out that it
didn't
work in IE but Firefox was ok.

Naturally I thought I had gotten some kind of virus. Since I couldn't
get
my
own Antivirus to work I went to Trend Micro's online scan
("HouseCall").
Using their "browser kernel" (active-x?) did not work at all, using
the
"java
kernel" did a 1 second scan of my entire computer! (ie it did not scan
it
at
all) and came back saying my computer is ok.

I restarted in safe mode, did chkdsk, defrag, removed page file,
searching
the net for a solution etc. etc. and spent many hours last night
trying to
get a grip on this.

Then just now I surfed a page in Firefox and got a certificate warning
where
I notice my date is 18 December 40105. Year 40105 - What?? (give or
take a
few hundred years, it's a five digit year, everything except the year
is
correct) I double click my clock to correct it using "Update time"
from
the
"Internet time" tab but I get a time out error so after a few attempts
I
set
the year manually and --- everything starts working ok again!! (at
least
so
it seems at this time)

I don't know if this actually had anything to do with the December
update
or
if it's just my computer (I've been getting a lot of blue screens
lately,
think I have some kind of hw failure) or maybe I somehow have changed
the
date myself without noticing or it's just something else.
I would also get several Microsoft crash report dialogs - "Would you
like
to
report this error to MS" - and sent several of theese but none came
back
with
the solution - ie "Your clock is f**ked up".

I haven't tried to recreate this - I'm just all too happy having my
computer
work again - but my guess is all you have to do is set the system date
to
a
year that is five digit.

Your thoughts on this?

Max

Ps: Sorry if I should be posting in some other newsgroup, please
direct me
if I'm at the wrong place.

 

[Guest]

That might be the case, I did go into bios settings automatically about a
week ago but that was before the problems started. I will have to check the
battery.

But even if that's the explanation why I got a strange year into my settings
it still does not explain XP's behavior when year >2100 (accoridng to Jons
findings).

If this is a known limitation in XP then I think it should just simply
refuse to boot if year is greater than 2100. Having anti-virus etc shutdown
because of this could be a huge security vulnerability imho.

 

[Jon]

Your post reminded me of this thread, a few months back, which may be of
interest

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...subject:happens&rnum=3&hl=en#4bf7d29eca4dfa48


Jon

I believe, but i'm not completly certain the year was 4xxxx. It *could*
have
been 3xxxx also. (I was more focused on just getting my computer to work
than
to document what was wrong...)

Looks like you can go up to year 30827 using that method, which still
wouldn't explain your scenario.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sysinfo/base/systemtime_str.asp

Jon

Quite possibly. This would be a possible c++ function to use, if anyone
is
mad enough to try

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sysinfo/base/setsystemtime.asp

The code would be something like

SYSTEMTIME CurrentTime, NewTime;
GetSystemTime(&CurrentTime);

//Just change the year
NewTime.wYear = 40105;

//Change Time
SetSystemTime(&NewTime);
::SendMessage(HWND_TOPMOST, WM_TIMECHANGE, 0,0);


Jon


Thanks for reproducing. I did not have any problem rebooting however.

I can imagine that you might be able to go even further with the years
using
C# or maybe bios settings (have not tried neither).


:

Seem to get firewall, antivirus, program crashes with any year beyond
year
2100, from what I can see, plus an inability to reboot without
changing
the
clock via the BIOS.
[So don't try this at home]

Strangely, also you can set "18th December" dates up to year 8906,
but
not
8907 using the command line command

date 18/12/8906

but

date 18/12/8907 is not acceptable.

Perhaps Microsoft know something we don't about the date the world
ends.

Thanks for sharing.

Jon



I just thought I'd share this very strange error I just recovered
from.
Maybe
this will help someone else and maybe this is something that needs
to
be
fixed by Microsoft - at least to me it seems like this could be a
potential
voulnerability? Or maybe it's already a known issue even though I
couldn't
find anything about it.

After applying the Microsoft December update (I'm using WinXP SP2)
I
started
getting all kinds of strange errors, some examples:
- Grisoft AVG antivirus would crash on startup and give me error
message
and
a error dump stating Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
- Skype would crash on startup.
- Sun Java update process would crash on stratup.
- Running Ad-Aware could not start properly and/or download
updates.
- Running Microsoft and/or Windows update just gave an error
message
saying
basically "there is something wrong with the web server right now,
cannot
run, check back later"
- World Community Grid wouldn't start
- I couldn't log on to some forums I frequently visit, my guess was
that
cookies were somehow being blocked. After awhile I found out that
it
didn't
work in IE but Firefox was ok.

Naturally I thought I had gotten some kind of virus. Since I
couldn't
get
my
own Antivirus to work I went to Trend Micro's online scan
("HouseCall").
Using their "browser kernel" (active-x?) did not work at all, using
the
"java
kernel" did a 1 second scan of my entire computer! (ie it did not
scan
it
at
all) and came back saying my computer is ok.

I restarted in safe mode, did chkdsk, defrag, removed page file,
searching
the net for a solution etc. etc. and spent many hours last night
trying to
get a grip on this.

Then just now I surfed a page in Firefox and got a certificate
warning
where
I notice my date is 18 December 40105. Year 40105 - What?? (give or
take a
few hundred years, it's a five digit year, everything except the
year
is
correct) I double click my clock to correct it using "Update time"
from
the
"Internet time" tab but I get a time out error so after a few
attempts
I
set
the year manually and --- everything starts working ok again!! (at
least
so
it seems at this time)

I don't know if this actually had anything to do with the December
update
or
if it's just my computer (I've been getting a lot of blue screens
lately,
think I have some kind of hw failure) or maybe I somehow have
changed
the
date myself without noticing or it's just something else.
I would also get several Microsoft crash report dialogs - "Would
you
like
to
report this error to MS" - and sent several of theese but none came
back
with
the solution - ie "Your clock is f**ked up".

I haven't tried to recreate this - I'm just all too happy having my
computer
work again - but my guess is all you have to do is set the system
date
to
a
year that is five digit.

Your thoughts on this?

Max

Ps: Sorry if I should be posting in some other newsgroup, please
direct me
if I'm at the wrong place.

 

[Jon]

Better link

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...t:seen+insubject:what+insubject:happens&hl=en

Jon

Your post reminded me of this thread, a few months back, which may be of
interest

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...subject:happens&rnum=3&hl=en#4bf7d29eca4dfa48


Jon

I believe, but i'm not completly certain the year was 4xxxx. It *could*
have
been 3xxxx also. (I was more focused on just getting my computer to work
than
to document what was wrong...)

Looks like you can go up to year 30827 using that method, which still
wouldn't explain your scenario.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sysinfo/base/systemtime_str.asp

Jon


Quite possibly. This would be a possible c++ function to use, if
anyone is
mad enough to try

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sysinfo/base/setsystemtime.asp

The code would be something like

SYSTEMTIME CurrentTime, NewTime;
GetSystemTime(&CurrentTime);

//Just change the year
NewTime.wYear = 40105;

//Change Time
SetSystemTime(&NewTime);
::SendMessage(HWND_TOPMOST, WM_TIMECHANGE, 0,0);


Jon


Thanks for reproducing. I did not have any problem rebooting however.

I can imagine that you might be able to go even further with the
years
using
C# or maybe bios settings (have not tried neither).


:

Seem to get firewall, antivirus, program crashes with any year
beyond
year
2100, from what I can see, plus an inability to reboot without
changing
the
clock via the BIOS.
[So don't try this at home]

Strangely, also you can set "18th December" dates up to year 8906,
but
not
8907 using the command line command

date 18/12/8906

but

date 18/12/8907 is not acceptable.

Perhaps Microsoft know something we don't about the date the world
ends.

Thanks for sharing.

Jon



I just thought I'd share this very strange error I just recovered
from.
Maybe
this will help someone else and maybe this is something that needs
to
be
fixed by Microsoft - at least to me it seems like this could be a
potential
voulnerability? Or maybe it's already a known issue even though I
couldn't
find anything about it.

After applying the Microsoft December update (I'm using WinXP SP2)
I
started
getting all kinds of strange errors, some examples:
- Grisoft AVG antivirus would crash on startup and give me error
message
and
a error dump stating Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
- Skype would crash on startup.
- Sun Java update process would crash on stratup.
- Running Ad-Aware could not start properly and/or download
updates.
- Running Microsoft and/or Windows update just gave an error
message
saying
basically "there is something wrong with the web server right now,
cannot
run, check back later"
- World Community Grid wouldn't start
- I couldn't log on to some forums I frequently visit, my guess
was
that
cookies were somehow being blocked. After awhile I found out that
it
didn't
work in IE but Firefox was ok.

Naturally I thought I had gotten some kind of virus. Since I
couldn't
get
my
own Antivirus to work I went to Trend Micro's online scan
("HouseCall").
Using their "browser kernel" (active-x?) did not work at all,
using
the
"java
kernel" did a 1 second scan of my entire computer! (ie it did not
scan
it
at
all) and came back saying my computer is ok.

I restarted in safe mode, did chkdsk, defrag, removed page file,
searching
the net for a solution etc. etc. and spent many hours last night
trying to
get a grip on this.

Then just now I surfed a page in Firefox and got a certificate
warning
where
I notice my date is 18 December 40105. Year 40105 - What?? (give
or
take a
few hundred years, it's a five digit year, everything except the
year
is
correct) I double click my clock to correct it using "Update time"
from
the
"Internet time" tab but I get a time out error so after a few
attempts
I
set
the year manually and --- everything starts working ok again!! (at
least
so
it seems at this time)

I don't know if this actually had anything to do with the December
update
or
if it's just my computer (I've been getting a lot of blue screens
lately,
think I have some kind of hw failure) or maybe I somehow have
changed
the
date myself without noticing or it's just something else.
I would also get several Microsoft crash report dialogs - "Would
you
like
to
report this error to MS" - and sent several of theese but none
came
back
with
the solution - ie "Your clock is f**ked up".

I haven't tried to recreate this - I'm just all too happy having
my
computer
work again - but my guess is all you have to do is set the system
date
to
a
year that is five digit.

Your thoughts on this?

Max

Ps: Sorry if I should be posting in some other newsgroup, please
direct me
if I'm at the wrong place.

 

[Guest]

Ah, I can see you were already aware of this then.
It seems strange that XP allows changing to a date that obviously makes the
system unstable (to say the least).

Your post reminded me of this thread, a few months back, which may be of
interest

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...subject:happens&rnum=3&hl=en#4bf7d29eca4dfa48


Jon

I believe, but i'm not completly certain the year was 4xxxx. It *could*
have
been 3xxxx also. (I was more focused on just getting my computer to work
than
to document what was wrong...)

Looks like you can go up to year 30827 using that method, which still
wouldn't explain your scenario.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sysinfo/base/systemtime_str.asp

Jon


Quite possibly. This would be a possible c++ function to use, if anyone
is
mad enough to try

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sysinfo/base/setsystemtime.asp

The code would be something like

SYSTEMTIME CurrentTime, NewTime;
GetSystemTime(&CurrentTime);

//Just change the year
NewTime.wYear = 40105;

//Change Time
SetSystemTime(&NewTime);
::SendMessage(HWND_TOPMOST, WM_TIMECHANGE, 0,0);


Jon


Thanks for reproducing. I did not have any problem rebooting however.

I can imagine that you might be able to go even further with the years
using
C# or maybe bios settings (have not tried neither).


:

Seem to get firewall, antivirus, program crashes with any year beyond
year
2100, from what I can see, plus an inability to reboot without
changing
the
clock via the BIOS.
[So don't try this at home]

Strangely, also you can set "18th December" dates up to year 8906,
but
not
8907 using the command line command

date 18/12/8906

but

date 18/12/8907 is not acceptable.

Perhaps Microsoft know something we don't about the date the world
ends.

Thanks for sharing.

Jon



I just thought I'd share this very strange error I just recovered
from.
Maybe
this will help someone else and maybe this is something that needs
to
be
fixed by Microsoft - at least to me it seems like this could be a
potential
voulnerability? Or maybe it's already a known issue even though I
couldn't
find anything about it.

After applying the Microsoft December update (I'm using WinXP SP2)
I
started
getting all kinds of strange errors, some examples:
- Grisoft AVG antivirus would crash on startup and give me error
message
and
a error dump stating Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
- Skype would crash on startup.
- Sun Java update process would crash on stratup.
- Running Ad-Aware could not start properly and/or download
updates.
- Running Microsoft and/or Windows update just gave an error
message
saying
basically "there is something wrong with the web server right now,
cannot
run, check back later"
- World Community Grid wouldn't start
- I couldn't log on to some forums I frequently visit, my guess was
that
cookies were somehow being blocked. After awhile I found out that
it
didn't
work in IE but Firefox was ok.

Naturally I thought I had gotten some kind of virus. Since I
couldn't
get
my
own Antivirus to work I went to Trend Micro's online scan
("HouseCall").
Using their "browser kernel" (active-x?) did not work at all, using
the
"java
kernel" did a 1 second scan of my entire computer! (ie it did not
scan
it
at
all) and came back saying my computer is ok.

I restarted in safe mode, did chkdsk, defrag, removed page file,
searching
the net for a solution etc. etc. and spent many hours last night
trying to
get a grip on this.

Then just now I surfed a page in Firefox and got a certificate
warning
where
I notice my date is 18 December 40105. Year 40105 - What?? (give or
take a
few hundred years, it's a five digit year, everything except the
year
is
correct) I double click my clock to correct it using "Update time"
from
the
"Internet time" tab but I get a time out error so after a few
attempts
I
set
the year manually and --- everything starts working ok again!! (at
least
so
it seems at this time)

I don't know if this actually had anything to do with the December
update
or
if it's just my computer (I've been getting a lot of blue screens
lately,
think I have some kind of hw failure) or maybe I somehow have
changed
the
date myself without noticing or it's just something else.
I would also get several Microsoft crash report dialogs - "Would
you
like
to
report this error to MS" - and sent several of theese but none came
back
with
the solution - ie "Your clock is f**ked up".

I haven't tried to recreate this - I'm just all too happy having my
computer
work again - but my guess is all you have to do is set the system
date
to
a
year that is five digit.

Your thoughts on this?

Max

Ps: Sorry if I should be posting in some other newsgroup, please
direct me
if I'm at the wrong place.

 

[Guest]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

I crossed-posted this in the managed Windows XP newsgroup (sorry for cross
posting but at first I had forgotten that I have acccess to the managed
newsgroups).

Anyway, just to let you know: I have gotten a reply there from MSFT that
they have forwarded my "recommendation to the proper department for their
consideration", so who knows - maybe we will see this change in some future
XP SP. Thank you.