Remember the Y2K bug? Microsoft confirms new Y2K22 issue

[GEOINTAnalyst]

Microsoft says it is aware of a programming flaw which saw some customers' Exchange servers stop processing emails just as the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve.
System administrators, who are sharing workarounds on social media, have dubbed the bug Y2K22 - in the style of the Y2K bug which affected some computers at exactly the same time 22 years earlier.
What actually went wrong?
The technical issue seems to lie with the way that Microsoft was naming updates for its malware-scanning engine, putting the year, month, and day (220101) at the front of another four-digit number (0001).
Microsoft seems to use this system because when an update is named "2,201,010,001" it is simple to mathematically check which update is the most recent as it will have the higher value.
The problem appears to be that the field this number was stored in had a limit of being 31 bits, meaning the highest number that could be represented was 2,147,483,648 or 2 to the power of 31.
As soon as the clock ticked over to 2022, this naming system was going to exceed the maximum value that could be represented in 31 binary symbols.

https://news.sky.com/story/remember-the-y2k-bug-microsoft-confirms-new-y2k22-issue-12507401
https://www.neowin.net/news/y2k22-b...eaking-exchange-servers-all-around-the-world/

 

[GEOINTAnalyst]

SonicWall: Y2K22 bug hits Email Security, firewall products​

Even though SonicWall did not explain what is causing the Y2K22 bug in its products, they are not the only company hit by this issue.
Starting with January 1st, Honda and Acura car owners began reporting that their in-car navigation systems' clocks would automatically get knocked back 20 years, to January 1st, 2002.
The reports say that the Y2K22 bug impacts almost all older car models, including Honda Pilot, Odyssey, CRV, Ridgeline, Odyssey, and Acura MDX, RDX, CSX, and TL.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...22-bug-hits-email-security-firewall-products/

 

[Chet]

So you to tell me "they" missed their chance for a big....errrr HUGE payday?? Didn't they pay attention 20 years ago...... they wait until AFTER Jan 1st to announce this bug of fear? Y2K they started the "scare" well over a year prior...... unless I missed something, is the date still coming, like on 2-22-22? I can't imagine the fear and panic on 2-22-2222 (if by some dreadful reason, we're (people) are still here)

 

[Saved and Waiting]

I agree with Chet...at 68 years old I freely admit to not knowing jack crap about these things but as soon as I saw that the combined "intelligence" at Microsoft couldn't seem to foresee these possibilities...three words came to mind....liars, bull-hockey, and fear-factor. A few more came to mind but I'll just go with those. Discernment and common sense have almost totally been replaced with what itching ears want to hear and we are just seeing more sheep falling into the line for slaughter....sad.

 

[GEOINTAnalyst]

I agree with Chet...at 68 years old I freely admit to not knowing jack crap about these things but as soon as I saw that the combined "intelligence" at Microsoft couldn't seem to foresee these possibilities...three words came to mind....liars, bull-hockey, and fear-factor. A few more came to mind but I'll just go with those. Discernment and common sense have almost totally been replaced with what itching ears want to hear and we are just seeing more sheep falling into the line for slaughter....sad.

Therein is the problem - Microsoft (MS) is proprietary - that means no one else is allowed to tear the code apart and examine it for stupid bugs like this - when bugs are found by the users they get reported to MS and they try to fix it, so it ends up being a bigger deal then it needs to be.
Linux does not have this issue since it is FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) - anyone can tear apart the code for Linux and make it more secure and fix code, which is why Linux is more stable and secure then Windows or Windows based software - Windows puts their updates out whenever they choose, Linux puts their updates out daily
So when Automakers or whoever uses Windows based software they cannot examine it for faulty code it is pretty much "as is", if they use Linux they can examine the code, this is why more companies are switching to Linux especially when it comes to servers, computers for cars and the like - even cell phones are starting to use Linux, like PinePhone, Librem and a few others. Android is based on Linux and uses a Linux Kernel

 

[JSTyler]

So you're saying this wasn't a red moon or Mayan calendar level event?



Phew!

 

[Ghoti Ichthus]

Y2K fix was to convert all 2-digit year fields to 4 (or 5 or 6) digit fields.
If done properly, there would not be any Y2K-type issue until the year 10,000 or 100,000 or 1,000,000 AD, depending on the number of characters in the year fields If a lazy/incompetent programmer failed to uninstall a place-holder program that was used during Y2K fix, the issue should have showed up in 2002, 2012, or 2020, depending on the program. Although thinking about it, I guess someone could have used 2022 or 2222 [sigh] I suppose February 2nd or 22nd would be the month and date, although maybe January 1st [sigh]

No place-holder was required if an XML overlay was used to easily, automatically, and (relatively) cheaply fix all the year date fields in a program/database


This is most likely something else. Perhaps some of these companies or some programmers have something against the number "2" Never heard of hate of the number 2, so no reason to get alarmed that someone with a house number, phone number, or license plate containing the number 2 will have something catastrophic happen as a result.

Hope everyone affected by the faulty programming/algorithm is unscathed (or minimally at worst).

 

[JSTyler]

Y2K fix was to convert all 2-digit year fields to 4 (or 5 or 6) digit fields.
If done properly, there would not be any Y2K-type issue until the year 10,000 or 100,000 or 1,000,000 AD, depending on the number of characters in the year fields If a lazy/incompetent programmer failed to uninstall a place-holder program that was used during Y2K fix, the issue should have showed up in 2002, 2012, or 2020, depending on the program. Although thinking about it, I guess someone could have used 2022 or 2222 [sigh] I suppose February 2nd or 22nd would be the month and date, although maybe January 1st [sigh]

No place-holder was required if an XML overlay was used to easily, automatically, and (relatively) cheaply fix all the year date fields in a program/database


This is most likely something else. Perhaps some of these companies or some programmers have something against the number "2" Never heard of hate of the number 2, so no reason to get alarmed that someone with a house number, phone number, or license plate containing the number 2 will have something catastrophic happen as a result.

Hope everyone affected by the faulty programming/algorithm is unscathed (or minimally at worst).

I think it could've been as simple as a millennial projecting their non-binary worldview into the binary world as they wrote code. Whose to say whether 0 or 1 actually identifies as 0 or 1. We all know that the fabric of reality is subject to our feelings, right?

 

[Umbrella Girl]

Life was so “normal” back in the Y2K days of 1999. If I think about it long enough, I could cry…