Warning: Security risk when using MSN Messenger 7 BETA

[BigBlueBall News]

dwergs

October 5, 2004

Not only can Winks be annoying, they’re exploitable even and thus a huge security risk for your system. The fact that the 7.0.0205 beta build doesn’t allow proper disabling the automatic playback of Winks increases the danger level.

Only hours afer the MSN Messenger 7 beta leaked, Mess.be forum members and site admins were thoroughly researching and discussing the possibilities of exploiting the new Winks feature.

In no time, Mess.be’s Timothy managed to clog up the receiver’s system memory and show him/her any image he wanted, because of the incapability of the current MSN Messenger 7.0.0205 beta build to succesfully disable the automatic playback of Winks (now don’t blame Microsoft, you weren’t supposed to be using this version after all).

More malicious techniques than this are easy to think of and -we kid you not- can easily result in serious system damage. Like before and with the knowledge we have now even more so, Mess.be strongly advises against using the current MSN Messenger 7 BETA. If you want to carry on using and exploring the new version anyway, please take your time to download Timothy’s Wink Blocker over at Mess.be and read the FAQ on how to disable winks in a conversation.

This is to be considered a temporary solution only. Ideally, you should would wait for the official public release of MSN Messenger 7 or at least a future build which fixes this issue. Meanwhile, Mess.be today is working on a easier and more effective security patch than the one described above.

http://www.mess.be/msnmessengerfaq/idx/0/093/article/How_can_I_disable_Winks_in_MSN_Messenger_7.html