AOL IM 'Away' Message Security Hole Found

thedude13 writes " Infoworld is running a story about a major security hole in AOL ® Instant Messenger(TM) and how it handles away messages. AIM is vulnerable to a buffer overflow via the auto-response away message mechanism. Yet another reason to switch to, IMHO, a better client such as gaim."

A reason to sit at the computer?

[asciono]

Whatever you do, don't leave the computer. Oh, nice reason to sit more at the computer. :)

Obvious solution.

[Masque]

This vulnerability only affects those rare few that actually leave their computers and do things in the "real" world.

Those rebels deserve whatever they get.

My God!

[Anonymous Coward]

Fortunately, most of AOL users are known to be savvy enough to find some work-around until patches are available.

Thanks SP2!

[Meostro]

Thank goodness I downloaded SP2, since it will obviously keep my computer safe from this problem.

It's the bestest thing ever!

Re:GAIM? Fire too

[martingunnarsson]

I can't stand the Fire logo/icon. Yuck! If I'm gonna switch from ICQ to Fire I HAVE to find another icon!

oh god

[TechnologyX]

"However, AIM users would have to click on the URL to trigger the vulnerability, which will make it harder for malicious hackers or virus writers to use it in automated attacks, Weinstein said."

Yeah, this wouldn't be such a problem if the average IQ of an AIM user was above 2

MizzIz283334: "LIke, OMG Iz just gots a linky from somewhere!!!11!!oneoneone"
IzLikeBoizzz435435: "OMG u clic it?"
MizzIZ 283334: "OMG WTF BBQ My computer died!!!"

Re:Solution

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been "using" Jabber for like 2 years now. Unfortunately I am the ONLY one "using" it. Everyone I talk to uses yahoo, msn, or aim. I still keep myself logged into to Jabber via gaim, but I can't convince people to even try Jabber. What's your secret? Bribery? Black mail?

Re:gaim Bug

[dossen]

I'm not disagreeing with you, but apples and oranges [improb.com] can be compared quite well ;-)

Re:worm/virus?

[TeddyBare]

Would't you have to be a "less knowledgeable" user to use AOL in the first place?

Why all the AOL bashing?

[huchida]

I use AOL broadband and love it. Sure, I could have bought Earthlink and connected to the Internet... But with with AOL I can connect to both the Internet AND the World Wide Web!