How safe are IMs?

L

Lazarey

Gawd
Joined
Dec 17, 2006
Messages
558
I used to use AIM and Yahoo IM on my old computer, but now that I have my new computer I am paranoid about everything.

Are IMs like AIM safe? In the back of my mind I seem to remember hearing something about one or more of them having vulnerabilities (letting in spyware, ect).

Please let me know if they are safe, so I can start chatting again. If not, well I see my friends in real life too. ;)

Thanks for your time.
 
No IM's are safe. It's pretty simple, as long as you open a port, you're opening your computer to internet attacks.

Two weeks ago MSN Live Messenger had a vulnerability where if a user sends a message to someone, the message will include something they didn't type with a link to unknown web sites.. for example, a friend of mine typed:

"Hey Travis, whats up?"
"Hey dude, check out my new pics: www.whatever.com"

And I was like huh? what pics? and he said what are you talking about? We were confused for a moment there. He didn't send the second message.

It turned out to be some sort of spyware or virus or something.

ANYTHING that takes you online can be exploited.

I suggest you read this Sticky thread: Rampant Paranoia 101

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=768776

It's a pretty good read if you're truly the paranoid type =)
 
In general they are pretty ok as long as you don't use something made by a shitty company (ie microsoft or aol). If you use a free as in freedom client generally they are pretty safe, and if you need to transmit sensitive information for whatever reason the ability to encrypt your communication is available with many of the free as in freedom third party clients like gaim.
 
Whatsisname said:
In general they are pretty ok as long as you don't use something made by a shitty company (ie microsoft or aol). If you use a free as in freedom client generally they are pretty safe, and if you need to transmit sensitive information for whatever reason the ability to encrypt your communication is available with many of the free as in freedom third party clients like Pidgin.
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Fixed. Gaim is no more. It's been renamed Pidgin. I use it myself and it's a pretty decent client.

http://www.pidgin.im/

Wikipedia said:
Pidgin was originally known as GTK+ AOL Instant Messenger. In response to pressure from AOL, the program was renamed to the acronymous-but-lowercase Gaim. As AOL's IM program AOL Instant Messenger gained popularity, AOL trademarked its acronym, "AIM", leading to a lengthy legal struggle with the program's creators, who kept the matter largely secret.

On April 6, 2007, the project development team announced the results of their settlement with AOL, which included a series of name changes: Gaim would become Pidgin, libgaim would become libpurple, and gaim-text would become finch. The name Pidgin was chosen in reference to the term "pidgin", which describes communication between people who do not share a common language. It also harks back to its original name, as the pigeon bird is a popular game bird and messenger. The name "purple" refers to "prpl", the internal libgaim name for an IM protocol.

Due to the legal issues, version 2.0 of the software was frozen in beta stages. Following the settlement, it was announced that the first official release of Pidgin 2.0.0 was hoped to occur during the two weeks from April 8, 2007. However, Pidgin 2.0 did not release as scheduled, and on April 22, 2007, Pidgin developers announced the reason for the delay having to do with the preferences folder ".gaim".

On April 29, Pidgin 2.0.0beta7 was released. This has been the final beta version; Pidgin 2.0.0 was released on May 3. Beta 7 was the first version to be called Pidgin, and contained a completely new graphics design.
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