removing UB's iesnare from your system - Computer Technical Help

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removing UB's iesnare from your system

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03-13-2011 , 12:38 PM

TookURCookie

grinder

Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 493

User "Micro Rec Player" posted this in a UB Scandal thread and I figured I'd post it here in case you missed it. http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=719

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Slight diversion, but here is some info on iovaton's iesnare software, and how to remove it from your system. I have come across this software in the past, unsurprisingly what it does is slightly suspect/an invasion of privacy, and very possibly unlawful (in the UK don't know about the US) under the Data Protection Act.

All of this is lifted from this thread: http://www.thegamblingtimes.com/boar...g-snooped.html

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What is iesnare?
Iesnare is a ‘reputation management’ system by a company called Iovation that stores a digital fingerprint of your current system in a database on their website. That fingerprint can then be accessed by all of their customers - ie online gaming websites - to track your online activity.

The main purpose of the system is to block criminal activity where fraudsters use multiple stolen identities / credit cards to sign up for multiple accounts on the same gaming sites.

Whilst this sounds like a good thing and any lawful user shouldn’t have anything to worry about, what is worrying is the fact that your computer’s identity is being monitored as you use it across many different gaming websites. So for example if you use the same machine to sign up to two or more different sites that use the iesnare system, each site will know that you’ve recently signed up somewhere else and potentially earmark you as a criminal or abuser.

In the UK (no idea of the equivalent in the US) the Data Protection Act makes the sharing of personal information between different organizations is unlawful and it’s arguable that iesnare is in contravention of that law. Iovation would probably argue that they’re not storing or sharing any personal information, it’s only your PC’s identity that they’re storing and sharing. Whether your PC’s identity is a part of your personal identity is up for question.

Also, you don't get the option to opt in or out of this, the iesnare cookie is installed secretly without your knowledge or explicit permission (as opposed to the permission you give when you agree to the T&C of most gaming sites which probably includes a clause that allows them to use companies like Iovation to track users).

Who is affected?
You might be affected if:

* You use a PC with Macromedia Flash installed
* You access online gaming sites regularly

The name ‘iesnare’ seems to have been used because ‘iesnare’ is the name of the website that installs the dodgy files. However because it has ‘ie’ in it, it doesn’t mean you’re only affected if you use Internet Explorer (IE) or if you only use a Windows based PC. You could use Mozilla Firefox on a Mac or on Linux and still be affected.

Which gaming sites use iesnare?
To date the following gaming sites have been flagged as POTENTIAL (ie some are unconfirmed) users of iesnare:

* Bodog
* Sportingbet
* Bet365
* Jaxx
* Noxwin
* Miapuesta
* Bluesquare
* Intertops
* BetUK
* Ladbrokes (added 27/08/08)
* Bwin (added 27/08/08)
* Unibet (added 12/01/09) thanks moneyjon
* Betcris (added 13/01/09) thanks GlobalSquare
* Virgin Casino (added 05/02/09) thanks pfpf
* i4poker (added 20/03/09, thanks GlobalSquare)
* doylesroomcasino (added 15/07/09, thanks AdvancedGambler via PM)
* Mansion88 (added 06/12/09, thanks GlobalSquare)
* BetUS.com (added 10/12/09, thanks Rollops)
* Chilibet/poker/etc (added 23/01/10, thanks Rollops)
* Skybet (added 29/01/10, thanks Morlock55)
* Diamond (added 20/03/10, thanks King_Suckerman)
* Paddy Power (added 20/03/10, thanks DavidX)
* Foxy Casino (added 21/04/10, someone reported on MSE)
* William Hill (added 11/06/10, thanks Digi)
* Paf (added 02/08/10, thanks kamoon)
* Coral (added 07/03/11, thanks Fella)

This list is taken from experiences of users on the MSE forum and not all are confirmed. It’s still worth checking to see if you have iesnare on your machine even if you don’t have an account at any of the sites above. It's likely there are hundreds of sites using the Reputation Management system.

How to check if iesnare is installed on your machine

1. In Windows XP etc, hit 'Windows-key - F' to open the Search window. (press the windows key and the 'f' key at the same time). In Windows Vista, do same as for xp but note you will probably have to goto 'advanced search' and then tick the 'include non-indexed ...' checkbox.
2. Type in 'mpsnare' in the Search window.

If iesnare has been used on your machine you'll find one or more of the following folders:

* #mpsnare.iesnare.com
* #ci-mpsnare.iovation.com
* mpsnare.iesnare.com
* ci-mpsnare.iovation.com

How to disable iesnare
Step 1 - enable access to the file/folder security properties so you can change the permissions on the folders:
Note: you must have administrative privileges on the machine. The following steps are for Windows XP Service Pack 2/3.

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Go 'Tools > Folder Options'.
3. Select the 'View' tab.
4. In 'Advanced Settings', scroll down to the bottom and make sure 'Use simple file sharing' is NOT ticked.
5. Click 'OK'.

This allows you access to the security settings for each file/folder which isn't usually displayed by default (presumably to stop people effing up their system beyond recognition).

Step 2 - deny write access to the iesnare folders:

1. In Windows XP etc, hit 'Windows-key - F' to open the Search window. (press the windows key and the 'f' key at the same time).
2. Type in 'mpsnare' in the Search window.
3. When the search is completed, if iesnare has been used on your machien you'll usually find two or more folders with names like: #mpsnare.iesnare.com, #ci-mpsnare.iovation.com, mpsnare.iesnare.com and ci-mpsnare.iovation.com.
4. Select all of these folders, right click and select 'Properties'.
5. Select the 'Security' tab and then in the section where it says 'Permissions for ', click the 'deny' checkbox for each of the permission types (full control, modify, etc) - you can probably get away with just denying write perms though.

Be very careful not to change any other permissions on any other files/folders because this could make your machine unusable.

Step 3 - re-enable 'simple file sharing'

1. Follow the details in Step 1 above, but make sure the 'use simple file sharing' option IS ticked this time.

Disable iesnare cookies in your web browser
If all that above weren't enough, you should also block any regular HTTP cookies from the domain iesnare.com. These are the cookies that you can control from within your web browser (you can't control Flash cookies by default in your web browser):

Firefox:

1. Goto the Tools > Options menu.
2. Click on the Privacy tab.
3. Click on 'Exceptions'.
4. Enter 'iesnare.com' and click 'Block'

Internet Explorer

1. Goto the Tools > Internet Options menu item.
2. Click on the Privacy tab.
3. Click on 'Sites'.
4. Enter 'iesnare.com' and click 'Block'.

EDIT: See here for a whitepaper by Iovation on the ieSnare technology:
hxxp://www.apwg.com/sponsors_technical_papers/iovation_whitepaper.pdf

Crippling iesnare by modifying your 'hosts' file
This is an alternative to either uninstalling Flash or following the guide above.

The way it works is that you modify a file called 'hosts'' on your PC so that the iesnare software thinks that your PC actually IS the iesnare website. This way, every time the iesnare software tries to communicate with it's website, it's actually contacting YOUR machine which of course doesn't know anything about iesnare and so the whole communication process fails.

To achieve this:

1. Log into Windows as Administrator.
2. Open the 'Run' dialog box (press 'Windows+R' or click 'Start', 'Run').
3. Type in (or copy): 'notepad.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts' (note replace 'C:' with whatever drive your windows folder is on, most machines it should be just c: ). Hit 'enter' to open up the file in notepad.
4. At the end of the file, add the following line:
Code:

127.0.0.1 iesnare.com www.iesnare.com mpsnare.iesnare.com ci-mpsnare.iovation.com

5. Save the file (press 'ctrl-s' or go 'File > Save').

To test whether your changes worked:

1. Open the 'Run' dialog box (press 'Windows+R' or click 'Start', 'Run').
2. Type in 'cmd' and hit enter, this brings up the commandline.
3. Type in: 'ping iesnare.com' - this will try to send a ping packet to the address that your machine thinks is 'iesnare.com'.
4. Type 'exit' to close the command line window.

If your modifications were successful, you should see 'Pinging iesnare.com [127.0.0.1]' when you run the ping command above. Don't worry if it says 'ping failed' or similar, just the fact that iesnare.com resolves to 127.0.0.1 is enough to know your modifications were successful - this means the iesnare software will think your machine is the iesnare.com website

With thanks to odeed on MSE.

Disabling Flash Objects / iesnare in Firefox using 'Objection'
Objection is an addon for the Firefox web browser which allows you to block local shared objects (LSO) - iesnare being an example of a Flash based LSO.

It works in the same way as the built-in cookie blocker does in Firefox, allowing you to enter fully qualified domain names for which you don't want LSOs to be installed.

Step by step guide not really needed although will add it if someone requests it!

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03-13-2011 , 01:25 PM

TookURCookie

grinder

Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 493

Posted this here last week. Didn't get any responses. You can delete Mods. Sorry for any inconvenience.

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03-13-2011 , 01:45 PM

nilaynilay

journeyman

Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 390

thanks mate. i think ppl underestimate how evil isnare really is. hence the lack of responses.

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03-14-2011 , 02:17 AM

wellju

BSOD and racetrack Ninja

Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 5,247

Using WinXP and care about computer security or privacy at the same time does not compute.

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03-14-2011 , 06:54 AM

Alex Scott

adept

Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 966

I really don't understand why this is posted. Why would you want to help cheats and fraudsters?

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03-14-2011 , 11:04 AM

TookURCookie

grinder

Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 493

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alex Scott

I really don't understand why this is posted. Why would you want to help cheats and fraudsters?

are you a cheat and fraudster? I know someone who is, Greg Pierson

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