The bug is one of several high-profile computer-security issues to emerge this week, though the impact isn’t yet clear.

Microsoft said that it hasn’t seen anyone take advantage of the flaw, which affects older versions of its Windows operating system, but that it believes it is “highly likely” the flaw will wind up being exploited by malicious software, now that it has been publicly disclosed….

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Any “future malware that exploits this vulnerability could propagate from vulnerable computer to vulnerable computer in a similar way as the WannaCry malware spread across the globe,” Microsoft said Tuesday in a blog post.

The flaw affects Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. It also affects Windows 2003 and Windows XP—older versions of Windows that Microsoft doesn’t typically patch. But, in a sign of the severity of the bug, Microsoft released XP and Windows 2003 patches as well.

“This is certainly one to take seriously,” said Chris Coulter, vice president of technology with BlackBerry Ltd.’s Cylance security group.

Users of Windows 10 and Windows 8 aren’t affected by the flaw, Microsoft said.

WannaCry spread quickly, and infected more than 200,000 systems world-wide with ransomware—software that rendered computer systems unusable and demanded a digital ransom. It affected systems at England’s National Health Service, FedEx Corp. and Nissan Motor Co…. (Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal, article by Robert McMillan)