Ramblings of an old Doc

 

“The connection leaks a unique identifier that can be used to retrieve the name and profile photo in plaintext.”- Annoyed MS User

The blogger is located in Beijing…and his discovery has been confirmed by Ars Technica. according to Steven Parker at Neowin.

“There are really two problems: one being that CIDs get unnecessarily disclosed—in host names, sharing links, etc.—and the other that there are important, potentially personally identifying information about a Microsoft account that can be revealed simply by knowing its CID.
For most users, the simplest workaround is to modify the hosts file to avoid DNS lookups to cid-___.users.storage.live.com (where the blank stands for your CID (in 16-character 0-padded hexadecimal form)).  This won’t help, of course, if you must use a proxy server or make your DNS lookups remotely (as with Tor).  Also, this isn’t an option on most smartphones.

As we said in the beginning, when you use one of the free web apps from Microsoft and the host name containing your CID is resolved, the request is visible to anyone who can monitor your DNS traffic.  This includes everyone from your local coffee shop packet sniffers, to your ISP, and eventually to the men and women defending national security at the Internet backbones.  If you use Tor, your CID is visible to the exit node.” – ibid

So…until MS migrates all the accounts to Exchange.com (which they’re doing), or fixes this (which they say they’re doing), you’re vulnerable to tracking and retrieval of information, account pictures and do what they wish with them, know your display and maybe real name and when you created the account and still use it.

Sources:

http://www.neowin.net/news/your-microsoft-account-identifier-is-stored-in-plain-text-exposing-you-online

https://annoyedmicrosoftuser.blogspot.com/2015/10/microsoft-stop-sending-user-identifiers.html


Comments
on Oct 06, 2015

"Beware logging on to Microsoft user account page, Outlook.com......"

-What ? So I shouldn't check my e-mails ???

on Oct 06, 2015

Andy...the problem exists...I'm just reporting it.

You can read the articles I referenced, and understand what the risks/tracking/etc. are.

Then, make your own decision.

You might consider having alternative/additional email addresses...

on Oct 06, 2015

I don't have an MS account or Outlook or One drive. For one I have no need for an MS account, I use yahoo for my email and one drive......they can stick it. Its not installed on my laptop. But thanks for the heads up Doc. I know people who use Outlook.

on Oct 06, 2015

Good info. Thanks Seth.

on Oct 06, 2015

DrJBHL

Andy...the problem exists...I'm just reporting it.
Yeah, for real Seth, I just wanted to confirm that was actually what it meant.