MSN Messenger Blocking certain words

[Bryce W]

A few weeks ago I noticed that MSN Messenger will block a certain words it considers to be 'bad'. I am not talking about swear words, I mean potential virus words.

Most of us have already noticed that MSN will instantly cancel the transfer of .EXE's which is fair enough. However MSN also blocks certain URLs such as:

http://www.someurl.com/download.php

If you send a message containing "download.php" the message will appear to be sent on your side, but on the other end it will never show up, not even as a blank message.

A URL with download.php would more often be used for legitimate purposes than virus sending purposes, and virus/worm creators can easily by pass this anyway by using a file name like "software.php" or something. For example:

"HI! DOWNLOAD THE WEBCAM SOFTWARE TO SEE MY WEBCAM! IM WAITING! ~_^ : http://www.this-is-a-trojan.com/software.php"

Thoughts?

 

[Arden]

I don't think it's against viruses, I think both .exe block & the other one, are against sharing programs and other things.. but that's just my theory.

 

[Stealth]

It's the same logic GMail uses to prevent people from sending EXE files - heuristics, the ability to anticipate what could or couldn't act as a virus. Unfortunately, not letting you send EXE files as mail (or not letting you send a downloads.php site) is a hair trigger to say the least.

Moral of the story? Don't use proprietary IM programs, use a all-in-one tool like GAIM, Trillian or Miranda. Thy usually have a lot of restrictions removed.

I keep forgetting, Knuckles, do you use MSN alone or as part of one of the above programs?

 

[Rus]

Offtopic

Abouth exe files:

If you send them it wont send, if you zip/rar them it will scan it and find .exe inside and not send.

Solution: zip/rar it and change extension ftom zip/rar to something else.

 

[Bryce W]

I knew that they wont allow you to send .exes which I suppose is fair enough. But I wasnt aware that they scan zips/rars. I believe they stop .mp3's as well but I have to confirm this.

 

[Revan]

I knew that they wont allow you to send .exes which I suppose is fair enough. But I wasnt aware that they scan zips/rars. I believe they stop .mp3's as well but I have to confirm this.

it doesn't block mp3's but good luck getting them to complete the transfer.

I've yet to have one make it past 50%.

.exe files are for virus protection but I've had zip and rar files with them in it and haven't had a problem.

and most companies have all exe files sent through emails block its probably the reason why MS decided to block them with MSN.