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Google Project Zero publicly disclosed a Windows 8.1 vulnerability on December 29, 2014, after a 90-day reporting period, according to SecurityWeek’s indexed report matching this headline. That describes the issue’s status at disclosure—not whether any Windows 8.1 computer remains vulnerable today. The specific flaw, its CVE, and the Microsoft update that may have addressed it are not established by the available reporting, so it should not be confused with other Windows vulnerabilities reported around the same time.
What the December 2014 headline means
SecurityWeek’s search-indexed report says Google reported the vulnerability to Microsoft on September 30, 2014, and that details became public after 90 days on December 29. The article page could not be independently reviewed, so those dates are best described as SecurityWeek’s reported account, not as details verified against a Project Zero issue record. SecurityWeek’s report
“Unpatched” refers to the situation described when the vulnerability was disclosed. The available evidence does not establish the flaw’s technical identity, its later fix history, or whether any particular computer is exposed now. It also does not establish that attackers were exploiting this specific issue in the wild.
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A different Windows privilege-escalation vulnerability was disclosed on January 11, 2015. SecurityWeek’s January 13 report describes that issue as involving the User Profile Service, resource creation, and impersonation; it says Windows 7 was affected as well. Those details belong to the January disclosure, not the December headline. December headline and January report
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Timing and shared references to Windows 8.1 are not enough to identify the two reports as the same flaw. The December issue’s mechanism and CVE remain unverified in the sources available here.
What can—and cannot—be tied to a Microsoft patch
Microsoft bulletin MS15-090 covers three named vulnerabilities: CVE-2015-2428, CVE-2015-2429, and CVE-2015-2430. Windows 8.1 appears among the affected systems, but the bulletin is not established as a fix for the December 2014 headline. Microsoft Security Bulletin MS15-090
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Without a verified connection between the disclosure and a specific CVE or Microsoft update, assigning the headline to MS15-090—or naming another patch as the resolution—would go beyond the evidence.
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How Project Zero’s disclosure policy works today
Google Project Zero’s current Vulnerability Disclosure FAQ, last updated July 29, 2025, says reports normally receive a 90-day disclosure deadline. If a fix is available to users before the deadline, details ordinarily become public 30 days after the fix; if not, disclosure occurs at the deadline. The FAQ also describes a possible 14-day grace period when a vendor commits to providing a fix within that period. These are the FAQ’s current terms; they should not be treated as a verbatim account of every detail of the policy in 2014. Google Project Zero Vulnerability Disclosure FAQ
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Project Zero explains its rationale this way: “While every vulnerability disclosure policy has certain pros and cons, Project Zero has concluded that a 90-day disclosure deadline policy is currently the best option available for user security.”
The policy reflects a tension between giving a vendor time to prepare and distribute a fix and reducing the period users face a known, privately reported flaw. A public deadline can also give users information about risk, while disclosure before a broadly available patch may leave them with details but no immediate remedy. Project Zero’s policy distinguishes a fix being developed from one available to users.
The same FAQ reports Google’s own policy statistics as of July 29, 2025: 2,131 issues with a 90-day deadline were in “New” or “Fixed” state, and 95 had been disclosed without a patch made available. Google says 95.5% of issues over the project’s lifetime were fixed under deadline. For the period beginning February 13, 2015, it reports 1,927 issues: 1,629 fixed within 90 days, 238 within the grace period, and 60 disclosed without an available patch; Google gives a 96.9% rate fixed under deadline for that period. These are Project Zero’s figures and analysis, not an independent assessment.
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