“The instant messaging war between Microsoft and America Online
got uglier on Wednesday, with accusations that a Microsoft employee
authored a phony e-mail message accusing AOL of dirty tricks.
“Someone, posing as a software consultant, charged that AOL
created a security flaw to identify users of Microsoft’s MSN
Messenger Service. Microsoft released that software last month to
compete with AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).”
“The author wrote that he believes AOL is using a buffer
overflow exploit error, which would allow AOL to run code on a
subscriber’s computer. This would essentially give AOL the
ability to distinguish between AOL and Microsoft client software,
allowing AOL to kick off subscribers who are not registered with
AOL Instant Messenger, according to Smith.”