Windows XP question

[GeorgeKellow]

Why can't you name a file con?

 

PS. I miss XP :((((((((

[Toxicknight79]

i wondered that myself back in the day ,, perhaps it is reserved for another  important system process or something? 

or maybe this bulletin from back in the day can explain it.

Spoiler

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS00-017 announces the availability of a patch that eliminates a vulnerability in Microsoft® Windows® 95, Windows 98, and Windows 98 Second Edition. Under certain circumstances, the vulnerability could cause affected systems to crash. Microsoft is committed to protecting customers' information, and is providing the bulletin to inform customers of the vulnerability and what they can do about it.

What's the scope of the vulnerability?

This is a denial of service vulnerability. If a malicious user were able to entice another user into attempting to access a file whose path contains certain reserved words, it would cause the machine to crash.

The vulnerability does not provide any way for the malicious user to usurp control of the machine or to read, add or modify data on it. The machine could restored to normal operation by restarting it, but any work that hadn't been saved when the attack occurred would be lost.

What causes the vulnerability?

The vulnerability results because of a flaw in the way Windows 95 and 98 (including Windows 98 Second Edition) parse file path names. Device names such as COM1, CON or LPT1 are reserved words, and they can't be used as folder or file names. When parsing a reference to a path, Windows 95 and 98 check for the presence of a single DOS device name in the path. If one is found, the path is correctly treated as invalid and an error is returned. However, neither Windows 95 nor 98 check for multiple DOS device names. This is the source of the vulnerability.

If a read or write operation is attempted to a path whose name contains multiple DOS device names, it will cause Windows 95 and 98 to attempt to access invalid resources. In some cases, the effect of this invalid access would be to cause the application that supplied the path to hang, but the more likely effect is that the machine would present a blue debug screen and crash.

come to think of it I remember i couldnt on 98  either.