[8292] in bugtraq
Re: Netscape "What's Related"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Matt Kemner)
Mon Oct 26 13:05:27 1998
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 10:02:00 +0800
Reply-To: Matt Kemner <kemner@NETWORX.NET.AU>
From: Matt Kemner <kemner@NETWORX.NET.AU>
X-To: "Flemming S. Johansen" <fsj@TERMA.COM>
To: BUGTRAQ@NETSPACE.ORG
In-Reply-To: <199810221122.NAA24819@terma.com>
On Thu, 22 Oct 1998, Flemming S. Johansen wrote:
> Starting with version 4.06, the Netscape browser has a new "What's
> Related?" button next to the Location: field. After having tried it
> in the new 4.5, I am more than a little worried by the functionality
> behind it.
> I would like to control this "feature" globally for my LAN, but as far
> as I can see, there are only two ways of doing it: Fascist control of
> Netscape preferences settings on every PC on my LAN, or block
> www-rl.netscape.com in the firewall.
Quick fix if you're using the Squid proxy server:
Create a perl script that contains the lines:
(replace YOUR.WEBSERVER with your webserver and /usr/bin/perl with YOUR
location of perl)
#!/usr/bin/perl
#
$|=1;
while (<>) {
s'^http://www-rl.netscape.com/wtgn.*'http://YOUR.WEBSERVER/netscape-related.html'i;
print;
}
Then create a "netscape-related.html" file on your webserver containing:
<RDF:RDF>
<RelatedLinks>
<aboutPage href="http://about:mozilla"/>
<child href="http://www.netcenter.com" name="Netscape Netcenter"/>
<child href="http://www.yahoo.com" name="Yahoo!"/>
<child href="http://my.excite.com" name="My Excite Channel"/>
<child href="http://my.yahoo.com" name="My Yahoo!"/>
<child href="http://personal.lycos.com" name="Lycos Personal Guide"/>
<child href="http://home.microsoft.com" name="Microsoft Internet Start"/>
<child href="http://www.altavista.digital.com" name="AltaVista: Main Page"/>
<child href="http://www.bigbook.com" name="GTE SuperPages Interactive Yellow Pages"/>
<child href="http://www.ebig.com" name="Britannica Internet Guide"/>
<child href="http://my.netscape.com" name="My Netscape"/>
<child instanceOf="Separator1"/>
<child href="http://excitesearch.netscape.com/search.gw?lk=excite_netcenter_us&search=about:mozilla" name="Search on this Topic..."/>
</RelatedLinks>
</RDF:RDF>
Then change your squid config file to point redirect_program at your perl
script above, and change redirect_children to an amount according to your
proxy server's load, restart squid, and all attempts for web browsers to
access netscape's "related links" server will be redirected to the dummy
response on your webserver, increasing your company's privacy and reducing
the bandwidth.
You can do similar evil tricks filtering out advertisement sites, or
blocking your staff/family's access to porn sites etc by adding rules to
the script.
eg. add the line
s'^http://www.sex.com/.*'http://YOUR.WEBSERVER/redirected.html'i ||
just below the "while" statement above and you will redirect all accesses
to www.sex.com to a local webpage.
- Matt Kemner
System Administrator "Words are too feeble,
Networx Internet they cannot contain"
++61 8 9345 3377 Live, "Stage"
