Re: Microsoft Word documents that "phone" home

[Brad <gryphonn () austarnet com au>]

In reply to:
Sender: Microsoft Security Response Center <secure () MICROSOFT COM>
Subject: Re: Microsoft Word documents that "phone" home
Dated: 1 Sep 2000,
Time: 7:27

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>
> Hi Kris -
>
> Thanks for your note.  I think we may be in violent *agreement*
> here.<g>
>
> We think it's a great idea to talk about this issue, and we do want to
> make sure that our customers understand the pros and cons of
> web-enabled applications.  Specifically, we are glad to participate in
> a dialogue about cookies, the risk they pose, and how to control them.
*snip*
>  - It pays scant attention to the fact that customers already have the
> tool to control cookies in their hands, namely, IE.  Customers who
> have used the Security Zones setting in IE to restrict how cookies are
> handled are automatically protected against all cookies, regardless of
> whether the web session was initiated by web surfing or by a
> web-enabled application.

Hi all.
May I draw your attention to the following link describing how MSN
has set up a number of hidden re-directs in order to place a GUID in
a cookie for tracking purposes.

http://www.pc-help.org/privacy/ms_guid.htm

This leads to possibilities of expanding on the phone home feature of
applications and/or documents being further exploited.

Cheers,
Brad

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Bradley.N.Griffin
Gryphonn Design
Web Design
Computer Systems Consultant
Security Solutions
gryphonn () austarnet com au
ABN: 12 095 821 961
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