oldbloke's mutterings

Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2007 16:42:25 -0400
From: Cody Boisclair <xxxx@xxxxxx.xxx>
Subject: Windows Live Messenger blocking even more completely innocuous text

In RISKS-24.35, there was an entry I submitted detailing how Microsoft's
Windows Live Messenger service silently filtered out any message containing
".scr" or ".pif", in a very ham-handed attempt to prevent links to trojans
from coming through.

Even more recently, Microsoft has decided that any IM containing the
substring ".info" should be silently discarded.

Yes, that's right. In an attempt to combat links to malicious executables
hosted on a few random .info domains, they've blocked every reference to an
entire top-level domain... and even *that*, as heinous as it may be, isn't
the full extent of the block. Sharing a link to an article on
www.infoworld.com via Messenger will be a futile effort indeed, for
instance. And good luck trying to ask other .NET developers whether
MessageBoxIcon.Information is the best icon for a given dialog.

The RISKS here are enough to leave one speechless-- in more ways than one!

Cody "codeman38" Boisclair XXXX@XXXXXX.XXX http://www.zone38.net/