Re: MSN Messenger forced upgrade

From: Russ (Russ.Cooper_at_RC.ON.CA)
Date: 12/07/03

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    Date:         Sun, 7 Dec 2003 09:06:17 -0500
To: NTBUGTRAQ@LISTSERV.NTBUGTRAQ.COM

    FWIW, I met Joel Scambray at Microsoft recently, he's running security at MSN now. Unfortunately, I didn't get his email address so I've been unable to get the question to him directly. I did ask MSRC to pass the message onto him.

    A summary of the replies so far in chronological order.

    From: "Rami Ramzy"
    Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2003 15:31:42 +0000

    Well I guess such force smells new spy or malicious software that Microsoft include, to spy and sniff quickly and "on the fly" all the conversations happened between the users, as part of the US National Security Rues that Microsoft signed on them recently.

    From: "Shooby@Shooby.org"
    Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2003 10:27:44 -0600

    This is more likely an attempt to 'lock in' IM customers, and force Trillian users and others to switch.

    From: John Michael Williams
    Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2003 10:55:30 -0800

    The solution would seem to be to avoid using MSN Messenger, wouldn't it?

    From: "Pete MacGhee"
    Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2003 14:52:46 -0500

    Ever consider decompiling both versions of MSN Messenger and comparing them to see what they did?

    From: Alexander Lukyanenko
    Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2003 22:34:39 +0200

    Maybe the forced update is related to some protcol changes? However, the changes must be really subtle, as MSN messenger 4.7.2009 works just fine, as Miranda MSN8 plugin does.

    From: Michael Chan
    Date: Sun, 07 Dec 2003 10:50:16 +1100

    I don't get this notice/prompt. I'm on 6.0.062 and just logged into MSN Messenger 2 minutes ago. Isolated case? Trojan?

    From: "Lee Thompson"
    Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2003 18:56:01 -0800

    Or it's just another step in the third party IM client war.

    Cheers,
    Russ - NTBugtraq Editor

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