Microsoft Bypasses HOSTS File

whitehatlurker writes "Dave Korn announced on the Full Disclosure and Bugtraq security lists that Microsoft is bypassing local lookups for some hosts, meaning that you can't locally block some sites through your HOSTS file. All of these sites are MicroSoft controlled sites. The general feeling in the rest of the thread is that this was to obfuscate these hosts and prevent them from being blocked by malware. However, there are no non-MicroSoft hosts listed, giving a competitive advantage for MicroSoft's anti-malware tools over other brands."

Interference with my sig!

[Teun]

How nasty of MS to interfere with my sig!
Now I'll have to include a disclaimer...

Just another reason to continue using a more robust system :)

Re:So what?

[Aaden42]

No, no... You just *license* the farm. MS still owns it. For a nominal fee, they'll let you step in the cow pies every second Tuesday.

Re:Permissions?

[Homology]

So ... if a user level virus couldn't write to the host file ...

Think about it.

Dear Tom,
this is Slashdot and the term "think" does not apply.

Furthermore

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't have bread, just eat cake.

Re:Is this necessarily a bad thing?

[DrSkwid]

> I didn't even know about the hosts file until 5 minutes ago

and already you feel qualified to comment

Re:WHY?

[Mister Transistor]

IIRC, it's a hangover from Windows 3.1 or maybe Win95.