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Microsoft Says Windows Flaw Crashes Online Games

By Tiernan Ray

June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp., which is battling Sony Corp. for control of the $8 billion video game hardware market, said a flaw in its Windows operating system software allows a hacker to shut down online video games.

A flaw in most versions of the Windows operating system would let a hacker shut down video games that are based on Microsoft's “DirectPlay” technology. It lets players compete against each other over networks including the Internet, Microsoft said in a statement on its Web site.

The flaw doesn't affect Microsoft's Xbox game console, Stephen Toulouse, security program manager for Microsoft, said.<

Microsoft in May convinced Electronic Arts Inc., the largest video game maker, to make copies of its games for Xbox playable over the Internet to compete with Sony's PlayStation 2 machine, which also supports online games. Microsoft in March announced technology making Xbox game development more like writing for personal computers. The Xbox is based on a version of Windows and has computer chips to prevent it from being hacked.msg<

John Lampe, a security researcher with software maker Tenable Network Security of Columbia, Maryland, said he brought the flaw to Microsoft's attention in mid-March. He said he observed the flaw while testing the game “Age of Empires” developed by Microsoft.

Microsoft made available a software patch for the flaw at its Web site and said newer games are written with a different version of DirectPlay that doesn't have the flaw.

The flaw doesn't affect the running of the operating system or other programs running on top of it, Toulouse said.

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