Microsoft Download Center

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Microsoft Download Center
Microsoft Download Center logo
URL https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/default.aspx
Status Special case
Archiving status In progress...
Archiving type Unknown
Project source microsoft-download-center-grab
Project tracker microsoft-download-center
IRC channel #archiveteam-bs (on hackint)
Data[how to use] archiveteam_microsoft_download
microsoft_download_center_pages_202008

The Microsoft Download Center is one of Microsoft's platforms to distribute software and patches. Announcements of changes and various removals can be found here[IAWcite.todayMemWeb].

2020 removal of SHA-1-signed content

On 2020-07-28, Microsoft published the following announcement[1]:

SHA-1 Windows content to be retired August 3, 2020

To support evolving industry security standards, and continue to keep you protected and productive, Microsoft will retire content that is Windows-signed for Secure Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA-1) from the Microsoft Download Center on August 3, 2020. This is the next step in our continued efforts to adopt Secure Hash Algorithm 2 (SHA-2), which better meets modern security requirements and offers added protections from common attack vectors.

SHA-1 is a legacy cryptographic hash that many in the security community believe is no longer secure. Using the SHA-1 hashing algorithm in digital certificates could allow an attacker to spoof content, perform phishing attacks, or perform man-in-the-middle attacks.

Microsoft no longer uses SHA-1 to authenticate Windows operating system updates due to security concerns associated with the algorithm, and has provided the appropriate updates to move customers to SHA-2 as previously announced. Accordingly, beginning in August 2019, devices without SHA-2 support have not received Windows updates. If you are still reliant upon SHA-1, we recommend that you move to a currently supported version of Windows and to stronger alternatives, such as SHA-2.

This announcement was hidden away in their community forums and only made less than a week before the removal. Notably, no notice was shown anywhere in the Download Center itself.

Archival

There does not appear to be any way to determine whether a particular file is affected without downloading and analysing it. Therefore, we decided to simply archive everything on the MDC. User:JustAnotherArchivist retrieved all info and download pages with qwarc (microsoft_download_center_pages_202008). The actual files were retrieved in the microsoft-download-center DPoS project (archiveteam_microsoft_download) and partially by mgrandi ([1]). Or1dow6 created an index of the former at microsoft_download_center_html_index_2020-08.

A continuous archival of new files is planned by User:JustAnotherArchivist but not yet operational.

References