Comments on: Modifying the Paros Proxy User-Agent String

By: Paco Hope

Paco Hope — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:29:37 +0000

This is not true security, but every irritations put in front of a hacker may make them go elsewhere. This kind of defense won’t stop any kind of determined hacker, but it probably makes script kiddies and wannabes struggle more. That means they either go away frustrated or are noisier as they try to get past this stupid protection. Either way, it reduces the population of people attacking you at a trivial cost.

I shudder to think how many people will misread this and think I advocate silly defenses instead of real ones. That’s not it. If the developers did this to protect shoddy code, they’re dumb. If they did it to repel script kiddies, they put in a low cost defense that has some trivial value.

By: GooHackle

GooHackle — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:09:42 +0000

Hi, I do the same to remove the “Paros/3…” string from the user agent because some applications check this and doesn’t return the expected results.

I use Eclipse to work over the Paros project and now I’m thinking in add functionalities and improve the paros proxy… looks easy… let’s see…

By: cutaway

cutaway — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 02:15:46 +0000

@Paul,

The version that I used was older than the most recent version of Paros Proxy. Also, I have started using the work around posted by Brad in the comments above.

Or you can change the target on on the shortcut to include -nouseragent

C:\WINDOWS\system32\javaw.exe -jar paros.jar -nouseragent on my system.

Because I am using this option I do not need to modify the code or rebuild the executable. Therefore, I do not have a build.xml to provide for you.

Good luck,
Cutaway

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:37:06 +0000

Thanks for the articule dude, it’s quite useful.
However, i’m having problems while compiling.
Some kind’a error in the Kb.class file.
I asume something is going wrong in my build file.
Could you please post me the build.xml file to see what is it that i’m doing wrong?

Thanks a lot.
Paul.

By: Phishme » EXIF Scrubbing: Hey, Harry! Know your Tool and Wash your Hands.

Phishme » EXIF Scrubbing: Hey, Harry! Know your Tool and Wash your Hands. — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:01:34 +0000

[...] In short, tools often leave a footprint - whether it’s a user-agent tag in the popular Paros tool, or not so steathly NMAP scans. If you have a way to dig deeper and see what the tool is [...]

By: Brad

Brad — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 19:14:11 +0000

Or you can change the target on on the shortcut to include -nouseragent

C:\WINDOWS\system32\javaw.exe -jar paros.jar -nouseragent on my system.

But I never would have found the flag without your write up valuable information.