"Access to this port is disabled for security reasons"

Huge Yellow Canary

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Apr 5, 2002, 9:48:34 AM4/5/02

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I've noticed, much to my dismay, that Opera will not allow me
to connect to certain "non-standard" ports, which is something
I occasionally need to do.

Is there any way to disable this "feature"?

Thanks

Rijk van Geijtenbeek

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Apr 8, 2002, 8:13:41 AM4/8/02

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On Fri, 05 Apr 2002 14:48:34 +0000, Huge Yellow Canary
<big....@sesame.street> wrote:

>I've noticed, much to my dismay, that Opera will not allow me
>to connect to certain "non-standard" ports, which is something
>I occasionally need to do.

It is also a security hazard if the browser allows this.

>Is there any way to disable this "feature"?

No, there isn't.

--
If you don't like having choices | Rijk van Geijtenbeek
made for you, you should start | Documentation & QA
making your own. - Neal Stephenson | mailto:ri...@opera.com

Neil R. Channen

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Apr 9, 2002, 12:21:25 PM4/9/02

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Rijk van Geijtenbeek wrote:

> On Fri, 05 Apr 2002 14:48:34 +0000, Huge Yellow Canary
> <big....@sesame.street> wrote:
>
>
>>I've noticed, much to my dismay, that Opera will not allow me
>>to connect to certain "non-standard" ports, which is something
>>I occasionally need to do.
>>
>
> It is also a security hazard if the browser allows this.

Could you elaborate, please? How would this be a security
hazard?

>
>
>>Is there any way to disable this "feature"?
>>
>
> No, there isn't.
>
>

--
Neil R. Channen
Nortel Networks Corporation
8200 Dixie Road, Brampton, Ontario, Canada L6T 4B8
ncha...@nortelnetworks.com

Rijk van Geijtenbeek

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Apr 9, 2002, 3:27:06 PM4/9/02

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On Tue, 09 Apr 2002 12:21:25 -0400, "Neil R. Channen"
<ncha...@nortelnetworks.com> wrote:
>Rijk van Geijtenbeek wrote:
>> On Fri, 05 Apr 2002 14:48:34 +0000, Huge Yellow Canary
>> <big....@sesame.street> wrote:

>>>I've noticed, much to my dismay, that Opera will not allow me
>>>to connect to certain "non-standard" ports, which is something
>>>I occasionally need to do.

>> It is also a security hazard if the browser allows this.

>Could you elaborate, please? How would this be a security
>hazard?

I've gotten these links from the experts:

http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/476267
http://online.securityfocus.com/bid/3181
http://www.remote.org/jochen/sec/hfpa/

I don't claim to understand this issue myself :)

Huge Yellow Canary

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Apr 9, 2002, 4:22:54 PM4/9/02

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Rijk van Geijtenbeek <ri...@opera.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 09 Apr 2002 12:21:25 -0400, "Neil R. Channen"
> <ncha...@nortelnetworks.com> wrote:
> >Rijk van Geijtenbeek wrote:
> >> On Fri, 05 Apr 2002 14:48:34 +0000, Huge Yellow Canary
> >> <big....@sesame.street> wrote:
>
> >>>I've noticed, much to my dismay, that Opera will not allow me
> >>>to connect to certain "non-standard" ports, which is something
> >>>I occasionally need to do.
>
> >> It is also a security hazard if the browser allows this.
>
> >Could you elaborate, please? How would this be a security
> >hazard?
>
> I've gotten these links from the experts:
>
> http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/476267
> http://online.securityfocus.com/bid/3181
> http://www.remote.org/jochen/sec/hfpa/
>
> I don't claim to understand this issue myself :)

I'm far from an expert on anything like this but if you're interested,
this .pdf explains it very simply:

http://www.remote.org/jochen/sec/hfpa/hfpa.pdf

It's actually a rather clever exploit.