Re: [fw-wiz] Blocking Yahoo IM

From: kadokev@msg.net
Date: 11/21/02


From: kadokev@msg.net
To: Kowsik Guruswamy <kowsik@doublek.net>
Date: Thu Nov 21 07:10:01 2002

AIM is still the hands-down winner for getting past firewalls by tunnelling
in all sorts of different protocols (their FTP tricks are particularly
interesting), but Yahoo! gets an honorable mention for their ugly
implementation of HTTP 'polling' for IM, and the ugly attempts the client
uses to tunnel their proprietary YMSG protocol through SMTP.

I've been playing with writing a fake YMSG server to try to get the clients
to believe they are connected, with very little success. Most of the
published reverse-engineering covers the obsolete V9 protocol.

> You might need to use dst IPs for blocking. Yahoo! is pretty nasty in that
> they tunnel IM traffic through finger, discard, chargen, smtp and even
> http...
>
> Ugly, ugly...

FYI, Yahoo! recently started pushing the new "Messenger 5.5" client to
existing users. The new version changes the order in which the various
ports are attempted, and is more insistent at trying different ports and
destination IPs.

I have started to block their servers by IP network, so far I've found a
half dozen different subnets (ranging from a couple of /24's to a /19),
all used for the messenger servers.

If you think you are successfully blocking Yahoo Messenger, by protocol or
by destination IP, you might want to take another look.

Kevin Kadow



Relevant Pages

  • Re: NAT is not a mechanism for securing a network.. but.. HELP!
    ... each packet is modified to change the IP addresses ... and ports but uses the same protocol. ... build a "tunnel", where UDP packets are actually sent using the ... Notice that each layer can have multiple /different/ protocols. ...
    (comp.security.firewalls)
  • Re: Secure Yahoo logins
    ... Yahoo Messenger protocol do not transmit the password ... Messenger and use the ymsg10 or ymsg9 protocol. ... the architecture of e-mail: an internal e-mail server ...
    (Vuln-Dev)
  • RE: Uninstalling WMP on Vista
    ... I select the HTTP protocol in the list of protocols and choose ... The other issue (Yahoo! ... I tried downloading the newest version of WMP from the Microsoft web site. ... You cannot uninstall WMP from Vista. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsmedia.player)
  • Re: ipfw pipe show ... help with output is needed, please.
    ... protocol, and showing a tcp port number... ... Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! ...
    (freebsd-net)
  • RE: FIXED -- Protocol Transport Error
    ... wonder if that is something related to having installed Yahoo Jukebox ... specified protocol is not supported...try using a different transport ... Under the Network tab there's a section called "Streaming proxy settings." ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsmedia.player)