Its really surprising to hear that win XP doesnt support raw sockets
!!!! Here is one mail I got.

===============================================
Fyodor mail:
"When an Nmap user asked MS why security tools such as Nmap
broke, MS responded [1]:

We have removed support for TCP sends over RAW sockets in
SP2. We surveyed applications and found the only apps using
this on XP were people writing attack tools."
===============================================

Well i dont understand how is that going to help microsoft ??? The attackers will run their tools from Linux !!!

One case where i see its usefulness is in the case of virus writers who used raw socket programming to perform DoS. But still that wont affect much. coz vxwrites can use process injection to inject IE and attack.

Seems this step of microsoft will still stop ppl from installing the sp2.

Moreover though the %age of developer using RAW sockets is very less but still there are many........apart from NMAP many other security audit tools will find their way out of Win XP??

aaah!!!!!!!!!! Only GOD or BILL Gates knows what M$ is upto??

peace