Windows 2000 security threat patched

Six banks and three major PC makers have been affected by a bug in the still-unreleased Windows 2000 operating system.

The OS isn't scheduled for general release until Feb. 17, but Microsoft has already issued the first bug patch.

The fix repairs two security holes in Microsoft Index Server, the worst of which lets hackers access files stored on a target Web server. Index Server is an add-on to Windows NT 4.0 and is built into Windows 2000 to provide developers with Active Scripting and query management capabilities.

The second bug, allowing an intruder to access information about the targeted network, is comparatively minor.

A detailed report is available at www.zdnn.com .