I got an email today from a friend with some links to some interesting stories (link #1, link #2) about some changes in the recent versions of MSN Messenger regarding file transfers. Microsoft has started blocking a lot of file extensions in order to help prevent viruses from spreading through their network. This is understandable, given the rash of virus problems that they've had lately, but let me paste here the list of blocked extensions:
.exe; .bat; .com; .cmd; .reg; .vbs; .inf; .msi; .htm; .html; .swf; .js; .mp3; .mp2; .ape; .apl; .flac;.shn; .mpc; .mp+; .wma; .ogg; .mp4; .aac; .voc; .mid; .mac; .cda; .kar; .midi; .rar; .zip; .wav; .jpg; .gif; .png; .bmp; .jpeg; .doc; .xls; .pls; .pub; .dat; .html; .htm; .avi; .mpg; .mpeg; .nfo; .txt; .torrent; .diz; .ppt; .m3u; .sfv; .tar; .htt; .mht; .asp; .aspx; .tiff; .rtf; .ini; .cab; .ico; .icl; .ip; .iptheme; .msstyles; .theme; .dll; .psd; .vbs; .swf; .php; .xaml; .iso; .bin; .cue; .xml; .par; .par2; .ace; .arj; .lzh; .7z; .gz; .bz; .uue; .bz2; .jar; .z; .ade; .adn; .adp; .aia; .img; .date; .aip; .ait; .amf; .ani; .aob; .asf; .csv; .fla; .pxr; .wmv; .nrg; .mov; .sav; .xhtml; .php5; .pxr; .m4a; .qxr; .h; .cpp; .pdd; .rle; .dib; .eps; .jpe; .pcx; .pdp; .raw; .pct; .pict; .sct; .tga; .vda; .icd; .vst; .tif; .tpl; .log; .prx; .cdf; .nls; .ax; .msc; .cpl.
Security is most certainly good, but this is just ridiculous. People are now writing hacks to disable the filters. I don't know about you, but I hardly think that we should have to hack our software to do something it should allow in the first place--not to mention, is anyone sure that the hacks are safe? The net result is that everyone is just going to hack their copy of MSN and the filters will be worthless. Or they'll stop using MSN altogether because it's essentially crippled.
Challenge for the day: find a common extension that is allowed through these filters. You can't use .bwo, either. If you don't know what .bwo files are, go poke around BitWise for a while. :)
Lastly, in other news, the 1.0.4 release is on schedule for tomorrow. Yay!
Hey Kevin,
Just havet to know your Mac file extensions to answer your challenge: neither .sit (StuffIt files) nor .hqx (Mac BinHex) files are blocked.
Vilinx 1, Kevin 1000
Vil
Excellent point. Though given this ridiculous stance against viruses, I'm surprised they don't block those too in order to keep those Mac viruses that pretty much don't exist from infecting Mac MSN messenger users!
Ok, so I knew right away after reading this that something was not right. Block .txt files? no...
I knew I had seen a previous list, that had less file extensions listed. I spent probably a good hour searching around the Internet for the official list of blocked extensions. Unfortunatly they all seem to come from 2 sources (estimate only :P). One of these sites (http://msnblog.stuffplug.com/?p=111) has the original blocked extensions list, not including .txt and various others. The one Kevin posted is the "new" list. I still haven't been able to figure out if this is official or not, but it does not appear to be. Seems more like a prank. Both the original and new list appear on multiple sites, so it is hard to tell where either of them came from, and which is accurate. One thing is for sure, the new version of MSN does block at least some extensions. After reading a few forums I saw the common tip "to send a .blockedExtension file just change the extension to .txt". Assuming that there is no newer version of MSN that blocks .txt files, then I would consider this "new" list as partially made-up.