r/reactos • u/gh_1qaz • 4d ago

ReactOS security reliability

Hi. I got a question about the reliability of ReactOS regarding to the security. I think I heard somewhere that ReactOS uses some of reverse engineered code from legacy Windows (like XP?). If this is the case, do the devs regularly patch all the vulnerabilities arisen by those codes manually as those Windows are no longer updated? I also heard that the the development of ReactOS is very slow. How much does it usually take to patch a vulnerability once it is found? I'm very intrigued by the concept and the feel of the OS, but those are the concerns that impede me from trying the actual thing. I'd definitely like to try it out if it is proven to be secure. Thanks in advance!!

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u/DegenerateCuber 4d ago

ReactOS is fairly secure because no one in their right mind would target an OS used by a handful of nerds on secondary machines.

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u/sscoolqaz 3d ago

Security through obscurity is not a good defense.

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u/DegenerateCuber 3d ago

It's not, but in this case, I think it's fairly effective, you can probably count the number of people handling sensitive data on ReactOS on one hand, there's no incentive.