MSN Chat
Encyclopedia
MSN Chat was the Microsoft Network
version of IRCX
(Internet Relay Chat
extensions by Microsoft
), which replaced Microsoft Chat
, a set of Exchange-based IRCX servers first available in the Microsoft Comic Chat client, although Comic Chat was not required to connect.
According to the MSN Chat website, the following were required to use the MSN Chat Service:
The Microsoft Network Chat Control was developed as an ActiveX
Component Object Model
(COM) Object. ActiveX, being a Microsoft
technology provided limited compatibility for other products. The other major platforms beside Internet Explorer
that MSN Chat was supported on, was Netscape Navigator
and MSNTV
(formerly known as WebTV). To ensure the MSN Chat network was only being connected to by authorized clients, Microsoft
created and implemented a SASL
based Security Service Provider
authentication package known as GateKeeper. This used a randomized session key to authorize users not using the Microsoft Passport system. Microsoft used another SSP known as GateKeeperPassport, that worked from the same method but required certain attributes related to the user's account.
Defeating the "Authentication Challenge"
There have been various methods through the use of mIRC
to access the MSN Chat Network. Most of the methods were through the use of the MSN Chat Control itself, yet others were more complicated.
In the beginning, shortly after the move from Microsoft Chat
, the MSN Chat Network could be directly connected to through any IRC Client to irc.msn.com on port 6667. Perhaps because of abuse or other factors, such as the desire to authenticate users based on their Microsoft Passport, Microsoft
implemented GateKeeper and GateKeeperPassport, and integrated both into their chat control. The weakness of GateKeeper and the fact the early MSN Chat Controls (1.0 - 3.0) had public functions for doing GateKeeper authentication seemed to indicate Microsoft wanted third parties to be able to access their network
as before, but they wanted to be able to control automated abuse. In any event, these public functions allowed normal IRC clients to authorize themselves.
With the release of the MSN Chat Control 4.0, the public functions were removed. Users found a way to authorize by a "Proxy Method", forcing the Chat Control to bridge connections between mIRC
and the Chat Network.
With the release of the MSN Chat Control 4.2 and later, they blocked this proxy method by blocking connections the 127.0.0.0/8 network.
The second change was the major part, allowing the Chat Control to bridge the connections between the Client and MSN Chat Service.
The most popular third party applications were mIRC, IRC Dominator and Viperbot.
authentication type and is used by the MSN Chat control as a means of Authentication between the MSN Chat Control and the Server.
As specified in the IRCX Draft, The client sends a string using the prefix "I" for initial and then the client and server will attempt to authenticate.
The GateKeeper mechanism is not publicly documented.
GateKeeperPassport is the same system, But uses parameters supplied by the HTML webpage to log you into a personal account.
authentication on MSN Chat. It was widely believed that it was only used by MSN Chat staff to authenticate, and that they authenticated through Microsoft's Active Directory
, either because they were connected directly to Microsoft's network, or because they were connecting via a virtual private network
(VPN). However, in reality most staff simply used the PASS command to authenticate with MSN Chat, as this circumvented the need to pass the SASL authentication challenge (GateKeeperPassport on MSN Chat).
The MSN Chat Admin client, which was leaked by a MSN Chat administrator and quickly found its way all over the internet, was known to use the NTLM protocol, and bears many similarities to the Microsoft Comic Chat client. It was based on MS Chat 2.5.
Staff:
Users:
Many of the MSN Chat Clones started up directly after MSN closed its services (2006), and additional networks have continued to spring up since then.
There is speculation that these chat networks may have pulled potential subscribers away from MSN Chat, ultimately bringing on the demise of MSN Subscription Chat Services.
While the majority of MSN Clone Chat sites are free, most of them rely on adverts to provide a small income. In addition, some of the clones have begun to charge, or allow for donations.
The legality of sites offering the MSN Chat Control has been in question for some time due to many "Clone Sites" hosting the Chat Control.
The Chat Control download is publicly available by Microsoft to download at http://fdl.msn.com/public/chat/msnchat45.cab.
A claim was that there were a multitude of rules which the host didn’t make clear to the users, so many people were booted out of the room for breaking a rule they weren’t aware of. Any content that was viewed as offensive or sexually explicit was immediately removed and the person who wrote it was expelled from the room. Asking other chatters to press certain keys, displaying any kind of URL, or displaying what location you were from were all punishable offenses by temporary banishment. The convenience of an automated system for MSN led to problems for its users, problems solvable by a person able to interpret positive and negative content.
A big reason for MSN chat shutting down was that it provided another opportunity for pedophiles to have access to underage prey through the chat rooms. As shown on the popular MSNBC programming, To Catch a Predator, a show about catching pedophiles as they meet up with who they thought were children from online interaction, a majority of the child molesters first made contact in a MSN or AOL chat room.
On August 31, 2006 Microsoft announced that MSN Chat would no longer be provided. On October 16, 2006 MSN Chat shut down their servers at about 11:30 a.m. EST. The service closed as allegedly MSN no longer deemed it profitable to run as a subscription service.
MSN
MSN is a collection of Internet sites and services provided by Microsoft. The Microsoft Network debuted as an online service and Internet service provider on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of the Windows 95 operating system.The range of services offered by MSN has changed since its...
version of IRCX
IRCX
IRCX is an extension to the IRC protocol, developed by Microsoft.IRCX defines ways to use SASL authentication to authenticate securely to the server, channel properties/metadata, multilingual support that can be queried using the enhanced "LISTX" command , an additional user level IRCX (Internet...
(Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...
extensions by Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
), which replaced Microsoft Chat
Microsoft Chat
Windows Chat is a simple LAN-based text chatting program included in the Windows NT-line of operating systems, including Windows NT 3.x, 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. It utilizes the NetBIOS session service and NetDDE. Users can chat with each other over a LAN or the...
, a set of Exchange-based IRCX servers first available in the Microsoft Comic Chat client, although Comic Chat was not required to connect.
History
Client CompatibilityAccording to the MSN Chat website, the following were required to use the MSN Chat Service:
- Windows 95Windows 95Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
or later - Internet Explorer 4.0 or later OR;
- Netscape NavigatorNetscape NavigatorNetscape Navigator was a proprietary web browser that was popular in the 1990s. It was the flagship product of the Netscape Communications Corporation and the dominant web browser in terms of usage share, although by 2002 its usage had almost disappeared...
4.x
The Microsoft Network Chat Control was developed as an ActiveX
ActiveX
ActiveX is a framework for defining reusable software components in a programming language-independent way. Software applications can then be composed from one or more of these components in order to provide their functionality....
Component Object Model
Component Object Model
Component Object Model is a binary-interface standard for software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993. It is used to enable interprocess communication and dynamic object creation in a large range of programming languages...
(COM) Object. ActiveX, being a Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
technology provided limited compatibility for other products. The other major platforms beside Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
that MSN Chat was supported on, was Netscape Navigator
Netscape Navigator
Netscape Navigator was a proprietary web browser that was popular in the 1990s. It was the flagship product of the Netscape Communications Corporation and the dominant web browser in terms of usage share, although by 2002 its usage had almost disappeared...
and MSNTV
MSN TV
MSN TV is the name of both a thin client which uses a television for display , and the online service that supports it....
(formerly known as WebTV). To ensure the MSN Chat network was only being connected to by authorized clients, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
created and implemented a SASL
Simple Authentication and Security Layer
Simple Authentication and Security Layer is a framework for authentication and data security in Internet protocols. It decouples authentication mechanisms from application protocols, in theory allowing any authentication mechanism supported by SASL to be used in any application protocol that uses...
based Security Service Provider
Security Support Provider Interface
Security Support Provider Interface is an API used by Microsoft Windows systems to perform a variety of security-related operations such as authentication....
authentication package known as GateKeeper. This used a randomized session key to authorize users not using the Microsoft Passport system. Microsoft used another SSP known as GateKeeperPassport, that worked from the same method but required certain attributes related to the user's account.
Defeating the "Authentication Challenge"
There have been various methods through the use of mIRC
MIRC
mIRC is an Internet Relay Chat client for Microsoft Windows, created in 1995 and developed by Khaled Mardam-Bey. Although it is a fully functional chat utility, its integrated scripting language makes it extensible and versatile....
to access the MSN Chat Network. Most of the methods were through the use of the MSN Chat Control itself, yet others were more complicated.
In the beginning, shortly after the move from Microsoft Chat
Microsoft Chat
Windows Chat is a simple LAN-based text chatting program included in the Windows NT-line of operating systems, including Windows NT 3.x, 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. It utilizes the NetBIOS session service and NetDDE. Users can chat with each other over a LAN or the...
, the MSN Chat Network could be directly connected to through any IRC Client to irc.msn.com on port 6667. Perhaps because of abuse or other factors, such as the desire to authenticate users based on their Microsoft Passport, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
implemented GateKeeper and GateKeeperPassport, and integrated both into their chat control. The weakness of GateKeeper and the fact the early MSN Chat Controls (1.0 - 3.0) had public functions for doing GateKeeper authentication seemed to indicate Microsoft wanted third parties to be able to access their network
Computer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
as before, but they wanted to be able to control automated abuse. In any event, these public functions allowed normal IRC clients to authorize themselves.
With the release of the MSN Chat Control 4.0, the public functions were removed. Users found a way to authorize by a "Proxy Method", forcing the Chat Control to bridge connections between mIRC
MIRC
mIRC is an Internet Relay Chat client for Microsoft Windows, created in 1995 and developed by Khaled Mardam-Bey. Although it is a fully functional chat utility, its integrated scripting language makes it extensible and versatile....
and the Chat Network.
With the release of the MSN Chat Control 4.2 and later, they blocked this proxy method by blocking connections the 127.0.0.0/8 network.
Versions
The versions of MSN Chat were designed from IRC1 through to IRC8, Even with the newer versions, MSN Chat still had the possibility to replicate older MSN Chat versions by issuing the IRCVERS command.- IRC1 -
- IRC2 -
- IRC3 -
- IRC4 -
- IRC5 -
- IRC6 -
- IRC7:
- MSN Chat introduces profile icons, Profile icons indicated if the member had a profile, gender (if known), and if the user had a picture
- IRC8:
- As MSN Chat had now become a Subscription Only (Premium) service, This introduced extra user and channel modes. The channel mode 'S' was added to indicated that only subscribers could talk. The user mode 'B' (to indicate the user was subscribed) and O (to indicate the user was not subscribed) were added. With the exception of Official MSN Staff. It was impossible for a user with the mode "O" to chat in a channel with the Channel Mode "S".
- Update to the GateKeeper Authentication method (known as the "4.5 Auth", due to the MSN Chat Control 4.5 being the first to implement it). It was a slight change, that added the value taken from the Server Parameter (before the ":" (if one is present)) to a MD5MD5The MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm is a widely used cryptographic hash function that produces a 128-bit hash value. Specified in RFC 1321, MD5 has been employed in a wide variety of security applications, and is also commonly used to check data integrity...
Checksum.
Third party applications
The use of third party applications on the MSN Chat Network was not prohibited, although it was unsupported. Third party applications were required to use the same Authentication Methods as the MSN Chat Control.The second change was the major part, allowing the Chat Control to bridge the connections between the Client and MSN Chat Service.
The most popular third party applications were mIRC, IRC Dominator and Viperbot.
Notable features
- Webchat using MSN's Chat Control
- Chat nicknames
- Profiles
- Chatroom creation
- Emoticons
- ChatRoom listings
- User created rooms
- MSN created rooms
- MSN WebTV chats
- Celebrity chats
- Adult chats, Moderate content chats, All aged chats
- Integration with MSN GroupsMSN GroupsMSN Groups was a website part of the MSN network which hosted online communities, and which contained Web pages, hosted images, and contained a message board...
GateKeeper and GateKeeperPassport
GateKeeper is a SASLSimple Authentication and Security Layer
Simple Authentication and Security Layer is a framework for authentication and data security in Internet protocols. It decouples authentication mechanisms from application protocols, in theory allowing any authentication mechanism supported by SASL to be used in any application protocol that uses...
authentication type and is used by the MSN Chat control as a means of Authentication between the MSN Chat Control and the Server.
As specified in the IRCX Draft, The client sends a string using the prefix "I" for initial and then the client and server will attempt to authenticate.
The GateKeeper mechanism is not publicly documented.
GateKeeperPassport is the same system, But uses parameters supplied by the HTML webpage to log you into a personal account.
NTLM
Little is known about the role of NTLMNTLM
In a Windows network, NTLM is a suite of Microsoft security protocols that provides authentication, integrity, and confidentiality to users....
authentication on MSN Chat. It was widely believed that it was only used by MSN Chat staff to authenticate, and that they authenticated through Microsoft's Active Directory
Active Directory
Active Directory is a directory service created by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems. Server computers on which Active Directory is running are called domain controllers....
, either because they were connected directly to Microsoft's network, or because they were connecting via a virtual private network
Virtual private network
A virtual private network is a network that uses primarily public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or traveling users access to a central organizational network....
(VPN). However, in reality most staff simply used the PASS command to authenticate with MSN Chat, as this circumvented the need to pass the SASL authentication challenge (GateKeeperPassport on MSN Chat).
The MSN Chat Admin client, which was leaked by a MSN Chat administrator and quickly found its way all over the internet, was known to use the NTLM protocol, and bears many similarities to the Microsoft Comic Chat client. It was based on MS Chat 2.5.
User levels
MSN Chat had the following user levels:Staff:
- Administrator (Admin)
- System Operator Manager (Sysop Manager)
- IRC operatorIRC operatorAn IRC operator is a user on an Internet Relay Chat network who has privileged access. IRC operators are charged with the task of enforcing the network's rules, and in many cases, improving the network in various areas...
(Sysop) - GuideGuideA guide is a person who leads anyone through unknown or unmapped country. This includes a guide of the real world , as well as a person who leads someone to more abstract places .-Guide - meanings related to travel and recreational pursuits:There are many variants of...
(Guide) - BotIRC botthumb|409px|right|An IRC bot performing a simple task.An IRC bot is a set of scripts or an independent program that connects to Internet Relay Chat as a client, and so appears to other IRC users as another user...
(Bot)
Users:
- Owner
- Host
- Participant
- Spectator
Similar Services
There are many chat networks attempting to simulate the service that was provided by the Microsoft Network, which use the "MSN Chat Control". These simulation chat networks are often referred to as "MSN Chat Clones". These are generally small chat networks, which often rely on home-made IRC servers, or IRCX servers. Many of the "MSN Chat Clones" are non-compliant and do not follow the RFC 1459 (IRC) or the "eXtensions to Internet Relay Chat" (IRCX) standards and often contain many bugs/exploits that may cause a Denial Of Service with The MSN Chat Control.Many of the MSN Chat Clones started up directly after MSN closed its services (2006), and additional networks have continued to spring up since then.
There is speculation that these chat networks may have pulled potential subscribers away from MSN Chat, ultimately bringing on the demise of MSN Subscription Chat Services.
While the majority of MSN Clone Chat sites are free, most of them rely on adverts to provide a small income. In addition, some of the clones have begun to charge, or allow for donations.
The legality of sites offering the MSN Chat Control has been in question for some time due to many "Clone Sites" hosting the Chat Control.
The Chat Control download is publicly available by Microsoft to download at http://fdl.msn.com/public/chat/msnchat45.cab.
Problems with MSN Chat
There were many documented problems from users about the MSN chat function. Most were directed to the “chat host.” This was a person who would enter the chat room under the name “host”, and act accordingly regulating the room. This service was useful for controlling the room, making sure that everyone was behaving accordingly, answering users’ questions about the rooms, and other assorted tasks. While the idea of a supervisor would put a lot of users at ease, there were reported disagreements between the two with what was considered appropriate.A claim was that there were a multitude of rules which the host didn’t make clear to the users, so many people were booted out of the room for breaking a rule they weren’t aware of. Any content that was viewed as offensive or sexually explicit was immediately removed and the person who wrote it was expelled from the room. Asking other chatters to press certain keys, displaying any kind of URL, or displaying what location you were from were all punishable offenses by temporary banishment. The convenience of an automated system for MSN led to problems for its users, problems solvable by a person able to interpret positive and negative content.
A big reason for MSN chat shutting down was that it provided another opportunity for pedophiles to have access to underage prey through the chat rooms. As shown on the popular MSNBC programming, To Catch a Predator, a show about catching pedophiles as they meet up with who they thought were children from online interaction, a majority of the child molesters first made contact in a MSN or AOL chat room.
Closure
In 2003, Microsoft announced that it would close "unregulated" MSN Chat rooms in 28 countries, including "most of Asia" due to problems with spam and concerns about child pornography, with plans to convert to a subscription model for "better accountability." Messenger chat services remained open. MSN Chat became a subscription service for $20/year.On August 31, 2006 Microsoft announced that MSN Chat would no longer be provided. On October 16, 2006 MSN Chat shut down their servers at about 11:30 a.m. EST. The service closed as allegedly MSN no longer deemed it profitable to run as a subscription service.