Microsoft has suggested that malware may be responsible for the Blue Screens of Death that have afflicted some XP users applying a recent security patch.
Update KB977165 was intended to address a 17-year-old kernel bug present in all 32-bit versions of Windows, but shortly after release, Microsoft’s support forums began filling with XP users complaining of endless reboots and Blue Screens of Death.
However, Microsoft has suggested that the problems could be linked to the presence of a Tdss rootkit on the afflicted machines.
“In our continuing investigation into the restart issues related to MS10-015 that a limited number of customers are experiencing, we have determined that malware on the system can cause the behaviour,” the company says on its blog.
Microsoft has asked those experiencing the problems to send it memory dumps, and has even resorted to some drastic action to get hold of the information.
“In order to get the information we need to fully analyse the issue, some of our support engineers have actually driven to customer locations and picked up affected systems so we can get the needed crash data directly and help inform our investigation,” the company claims.
The company says it is continuing to investigate the matter, and has suggested XP users avoid the patch for the moment.
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