MVPS HOSTS File Update January-18-2012



The MVPS HOSTS file was recently updated [January-18-2012]
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

Download: hosts.zip (147 kb)
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.zip

How To: Download and Extract the HOSTS file
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts2.htm

HOSTS File - Frequently Asked Questions
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hostsfaq.htm

Note: the "text" version makes a great resource for determining possible unwanted connections ...
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt (596 kb)

Get notified when the MVPS HOSTS file is updated
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/updates.htm

 If you find the MVPS HOSTS file useful ... please consider a donation ...

Published Wed, Jan 18 2012 19:08 by winhelp2002

Comments

# re: MVPS HOSTS File Update January-18-2012

Wednesday, January 18, 2012 9:51 PM by Randy Knobloch

Posted in the usual places.

Thanks !

# re: MVPS HOSTS File Update January-18-2012

Saturday, January 21, 2012 3:22 PM by altermatt

Surprised not to find "iesnare" and its associated cohorts in the hosts file. This is apparently a tracking, flash-cookie based bug planted by a number of sites, including gambling sites (which I've never used). Shortly after I updated my Flash to the latest, I noticed in TCPView a connection to iesnare that was waiting to close. I did a search and found out what it was. Apparently this is a bug that allows a site to validate that you are using a consistent identity on the Net. Most of the info I could find on this was on sites for online gamblers (again, never did any online gambling and hadn't seen this mentioned on any security sites I do frequent.)

They said you'd find both cookies and files with either iesnare or mpsnare.iesnare in the name, none of which I found---only the open connection in the TimeWait box in TCP View. However, to play it safe, I followed directions I found to supposedly block this from tracking/installing. Here are the instructions I found in case anyone else is interested:

1. enter iesnare.com, www.iesnare.com, mpsnare.iesnare.com and ci-mpsnare.iovation.com in your hosts file. I was surprised not to find any references to any of these in the latest MVPS hosts file, and added them myself.

2. in Flash's settings manager website storage panel, select mpsnare.iesnare from list and delete. I personally did not find any entry, nor was anything related in my cookies.

3. enter iesnare.com in IE's "block cookies" settings.