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Skype Bug Sends Messages To Random Contacts

Posted by samzenpus on from the everyone-gets-a-message dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A bug has been discovered in Skype that sends users' private instant messages to other contacts whom the messages were never intended for. Skype has confirmed the issue and is working on a fix. 'We are aware that in rare circumstances IM's between two contacts could be sent to an unintended third contact,' a Skype spokesperson told Engadget. 'We are rolling out a fix for this issue in the next few days and will notify our users to download an updated version of Skype.'"

39 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. 48fps is too fast by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why would I go to a theater to see a movie not shot at 24 fps, 48fps is just too fast for me.

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    Time to offend someone
    1. Re:48fps is too fast by Ashbory · · Score: 4, Funny

      Did you post this comment from Skype?

    2. Re:48fps is too fast by Githaron · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Maybe he was commenting ironically?

    3. Re:48fps is too fast by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      That is what I was going for

      --
      Time to offend someone
    4. Re:48fps is too fast by X0563511 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Woosh, apparently. My bad ;)

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    5. Re:48fps is too fast by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      Maybe?

      --
      Time to offend someone
    6. Re:48fps is too fast by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      No problem. Apparently others felt it was off topic and it got bounced down to -1 for a bit.

      --
      Time to offend someone
  2. also by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Skype also sends crap to port 80 at systems where the skype client is or has been running.
    This shows up as garbage log lines in Apache.
    This has been going on for years and they never fixed it.

    1. Re:also by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's called an open proxy scan, you dipshit

      no its not, Skype listens on 443 and port 80 by default, just open your settings in Skype and see under "connections"

      if you have a webserver on your gateway then this is where the garbage appears as skype clients try to connect to 80/443 on the public IP before choosing a NAT'ed port

      dipshit

    2. Re:also by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      When you don't have Skype listening on 80 and 443, other systems are still trying to connect those ports and are sending garbage, which appears in the Apache logs.

      When Skype wants to run on port 80, it should encapsulate its traffic (at least the initial command to see if it is talking to another skype) in valid HTTP(S).
      It makes no attempt to do so, which I consider a bug.

    3. Re:also by tokul · · Score: 1

      This has been going on for years and they never fixed it.

      It is hard to fix something controlled by application config.

  3. Have they mentoned by floydman · · Score: 4, Funny

    how to find out if that happened...just in case i am cheating on my wife

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    The lunatic is in my head
    1. Re:Have they mentoned by SatanClauz · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ask your wife.

    2. Re:Have they mentoned by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 5, Funny

      Did you wake up with your penis still attached to your body?

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    3. Re:Have they mentoned by sound+vision · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      Or vagina.

    4. Re:Have they mentoned by antdude · · Score: 1

      Was that woman's name, Lorena Bobbit? :P

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    5. Re:Have they mentoned by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 1

      The GP's name is "FloydMan". I'm assuming that he's a dude.

      Admittedly, I've been shaving since 2004, but... uh... not that closely.

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    6. Re:Have they mentoned by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The above AC is referring to a previous slashdot story. It turned into another slashdot meta joke, so expect to see it a lot until people get bored of it.

    7. Re:Have they mentoned by rHBa · · Score: 1

      Blink and you'll miss it...

  4. Wait ... by lennier1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is it just me or did the Skype bugs get more entertaining after the MS purchase?

    1. Re:Wait ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I used skype as a ghetto surveillence system and it quit working around February. My gut feeling was it was microsoft playing with the backend, then i found out they were converting to linux, so they were fucking it up. It isn't reliable anymore for very long term use, like 10 hours or more. I switched to yawcam and vlc and it is better in some ways.

      Skype still cool though.

    2. Re:Wait ... by awehttam · · Score: 1

      Nah, these things have been happening for years. I first encountered something similar about 2.5 years ago when messages from me where being delivered to a contact of one of my Skype contacts.

    3. Re:Wait ... by Arkaic · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I was thinking along those lines. Has MS started adding code to Skype? :)

  5. Skype for Linux? by fph+il+quozientatore · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is Skype for Linux affected?

    --
    My first program:

    Hell Segmentation fault

    1. Re:Skype for Linux? by slashmojo · · Score: 5, Funny

      It will be in about 2 years..

    2. Re:Skype for Linux? by Bernal+KC · · Score: 1

      Yes, and it has been fixed. Updates available now.

  6. You call that a bug, lonely lonely Skype calls it by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 2

    You may call that a bug.

    the lonely lonely Skype program calls that "making friends".

    Come on, sign it up for a dating service, it wants to make friends.

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    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  7. I absolutely refuse by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 1

    To use the 5.0 series of Skype. I uninstalled it and went back to 4.2.0.187...........much nicer, thank you very much.

    --
    "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
  8. Did you actually have to call him a dipshit? by tlambert · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    It's called an open proxy scan, you dipshit. It's intentional.

    He just admitted to running Skype. It's kind of a given.

  9. Spyware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "We are aware that in rare circumstances IM's between two contacts could be sent to an unintended third contact"

    The wording is interesting. They are not saying its an error, they are just saying it was sent to an unintended receiver.

    In other words: "Yes, we spy on you. But it wasn't our intention your friends know". I wouldn't be surprised if the next story is about skype having simular chat content filters as facebook showed recently.

    1. Re:Spyware by KhabaLox · · Score: 1

      The wording is interesting. They are not saying its an error, they are just saying it was sent to an unintended receiver.

      In other words: "Yes, we spy on you. But it wasn't our intention your friends know".

      I think it's clear that what they meant by that comment is that the 3rd party is not who you, the user, intended to receive the message. However, what's interesting to me is that this can happen at all. I'm not an engineer by any stretch, and perhaps I'm being too paranoid, but isn't it conceivable that the bug might not be that it's sending the IM to an some 3rd party on your contact list, but rather it's sending it to that 3rd party instead of to some log file on Skype's servers, or worse yet, some NSA repository?

      --
      Ceci n'est pas un sig.
  10. Half working as intended. by JustAnotherIdiot · · Score: 1

    The part wrong is the recipient, it's supposed to forward your messages to big brother, not your friends.

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    What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
    1. Re:Half working as intended. by idontgno · · Score: 3, Funny

      Thoughtcrime. Big Brother is your only friend. Big Brother has always been your only friend.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
  11. sounds like by geoffaus · · Score: 5, Funny

    A new product - Skype Chat Roulette!

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    As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a reference to Godwin's Law approaches 1
    1. Re:sounds like by sociocapitalist · · Score: 1

      A new product - Skype Chat Roulette!

      It's not a bug...it's a feature...

      --
      blindly antisocialist = antisocial
  12. honey... by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 1

    The old bag is going to some suffragette meeting tonight or something. Bring your Mighty Mouse costume... there will be plenty of time. Can't wait to eat your cheese!!

  13. How about the exit button? by Fujisawa+Sensei · · Score: 2

    How about fixing the red exit button so that when I click it the application actually exits, and doesn't keep running in the background, so I have to exit it again, and the confirm?

    And before I hear the whiners say:"That's what its supposed to do". I say inability to exit the application with one click is a fucking bug.

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    If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
  14. feature or bug? by dhart · · Score: 1

    A "bug", really? Or was it a "feature" that went slightly wrong? The mere existence of code [in Skype's codebase] that sends messages without the user's input is troublesome (although hardly surprising, considering the source).

  15. Hotfix for Skype IM/chat bug by chaimhaas · · Score: 1

    The first set of hotfixes (Skype for Windows and Skype for Linux) to the Skype IM/chat bug are out – see http://blogs.skype.com/garage/2012/07/hotfix_for_multiple_skype_clie.html.