Turning the question on its ear a bit: Even given that Windows 8.1 is a large and complicated machine, what was it about this particular bug that required basi

Turning the question on its ear a bit: Even given that Windows 8.1 is a large and complicated machine, what was it about this particular bug that required basically all of Q4 for MS to patch it? It's one bug. I have a sinking suspicion that MS simply didn't consider it a priority, even after responsible disclosure to them, which is why it's good that Google's public disclosure policy is a hard-limit 90 days. Too many companies, when given the option to choose their own priority tree over the priority tree enforced by security needs, will choose the former.