RE: Windows Messenger Pop-up spam

From: Paul Kurczaba (paul_at_myipis.com)
Date: 11/29/04

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    To: "'Matthew Romanek'" <shandower@gmail.com>, <security-basics@securityfocus.com>
    Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 16:15:40 -0500
    
    

    I think that *most* major ISP's have now blocked ports 135-139 and 445;
    inbound and outbound. This is probably why there has been less windows
    messenger popups. Some people may have also gone into "services" and
    disabled the messenger service. (Now if ISP's could only just block port 25;
    comsumer ISP's that is :)

    -Paul

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Matthew Romanek [mailto:shandower@gmail.com]
    Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 10:25 AM
    To: security-basics@securityfocus.com
    Subject: Windows Messenger Pop-up spam

    Hey all,

    I've a question, asked purely for the sake of curiosity.

    I was just reminded of the bad old days working for an ISP where every other
    call was about lewd messages popping up on a user's screen when they weren't
    even doing anything. Windows messaging popups were THE complaint at the
    time, and slowly we convinced people that personal firewalls were a good
    idea (via messenger popups, no less. We were a scummy little ISP, and no
    great bastion of morality).

    It just occured to me that I (personally) haven't seen a popup in several
    years. I assume it's because we've learned about security and firewalling
    and all that. So my question is: Is this sort of stuff still a problem? Does
    it still exist in the wild? I suppose I could plug an unprotected windows
    machine into a public IP address, but I think I'd be likely to be taken out
    by something worse before a messenger ad comes along. And I'm not THAT
    curious. :)

    --
    Matthew 'Shandower' Romanek
    IDS Analyst
    

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