Spying?

unlearnthetruth

unlearnthetruth

Recycle Me!
Ok - dilemma...

My friend is worried that her father is spying on her AIM conversations. She's using AIM's official client, on a Mac - i'm trying to find out what OS but she's not being very helpful. Basically i'm wondering if this is possible. Any ideas? I'll post more as i find out...
 
I would assume there are, and there may be other ways if he knows her password. Does anyone know AOL or AIM well and can tell us if there is a way to view old IM's?
 
i know with adium you can log all IMs, but i don't think you can with AIM for 9.x, which is what she's using... interesting...
 
Does she have anything to hide? :D :p

Seriously, though. I *do* think AIM has some hidden logging feature somewhere in the prefs. May want to check that out.

Also, check for anything in startup items or suspicious extentions. There *are* known keyloggers for OS 9.. Not sure about 10.. yet.
 
There are keyloggers as well for OS 9 as well as OS X, and AOL DOES log chats. I believe that option can be turned off, but the difference is that anyone who really knows their pref-hacking stuff will be able to access the logs.

AOL specifically says it is NOT secure, and it's not. If that bothers her, I'd suggest ICQ as it's better for those kind of things. Though it does have a history you can turn it off and it's actually OFF.
 
sounds about right

thanks for all the advice guys - it's nothing major really, i think she just doesn't want her dad knowing about all the crazy sh*t she does - i dunno.

Thanks again!
 
aim for os 9 has a log saved by default.... not sure where it is.

aim of OSX saves no log by itself... check versiontracker to see if someone has built an app to do that.
 
Originally posted by unlearnthetruth
Ok - dilemma...

My friend is worried that her father is spying on her AIM conversations. She's using AIM's official client, on a Mac - i'm trying to find out what OS but she's not being very helpful. Basically i'm wondering if this is possible. Any ideas? I'll post more as i find out...
Click to expand...

If her father knows about TCP/IP, a simple packet sniffer is enough. I've tried it, and it is easier than you think. Also, if the connection is running through any kind of firewall/proxy/gateway, it is easy to set up an automatic tcpdump to the AIM port which logs all the traffic, and with the right scripts, filters the needed parts out of the packets.

To be completely secure, a firewall based on packet filtering and IP masquerading is needed on the system itself, so that the tcpdump can no longer identify the packages.

IMs are maybe the biggest security hole one can install :rolleyes:
 
AOL for 9.x does save logs, though not by default, they are stored in the
/system folder/prefrences/AOL instant messanger/*screenname/logs folder. If this option has been turned on, I reccommend scrubbing the logs and then changing the password to a set of numbers and random letters.

If you're not worried about snooping parents (or if you plain don't live with them) AIM log files are worth their weight in gold, as far as blackmail goes.:p
 
oh definetly - thats why i keep adium's logging feature on 24/7 - i talk with a lot of people who like to deny saying things, so it's a life-saver sometimes!
 
I'd also suggest you keep any truly sensitive messages restricted to email, encrypted using PGP - GnuPG offers a fantastic implementation of this and is surprisingly easy to use.
That won't protect you from key-loggers or human stupidity, though!
Frankly, if you aren't willing to say something in a crowded supermarket, you probably shouldn't be saying it on the net.
;)
 
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