IRC-Junkie.org – IRC News

Version 6.32 of probably the most popular IRC client have been released yesterday.

“This version of mIRC builds on recent releases by focusing on stability and reliability and addressing the various issues that have been reported by users since the last release. It includes cosmetic changes to the interface, fixes, optimizations, and improvements to the scripting language,” the mIRC website reports.

Some of the major changes include longer nicknames, channel names and messages as well as longer variables in scripting. Other changes include:

* Added support for network-specific window position saving.

I can’t remember the logo of the most popular IRC client to ever had an upgrade or restyling. It happened now however, not a radical change, but one into an extra dimension making it 3D.

In 3D with a few gradients it got itself an update. The program itself also got an update to version 6.31. “For scripters, we hope you like the changes to the script editor. The interface has been improved, it is now cleaner and easier to read, we added Check Bracket/Sort Variables items to Edit menu, line numbers to the margin, and enter/home key indentation support. The editor also no longer flickers when resized”, the website reports. Speaking of, the website got an overhaul as well and matches the new design.

In February 2006 IRC-Junkie featured an article titled “Help! My Network is in Servers.ini!”. In short, the article names one of the problems small networks engage when they become listed in mIRC’s servers.ini.

One of the major drawbacks is that not only humans use this file, downloading an up-to-date servers.ini is also one of the first things a newly installed drone is doing. And thus, attracting drones is one of the side effects that could cause a lot of problems that eat up valuable resources, which are often not really in abundance on small networks anyway.

Assuming this was a commonly known fact, it was never reported before on IRC-Junkie. But as I had contact over the past few weeks with several smaller IRC networks, it became clear not many small networks with servers.ini aspiration also realize the potential negative effects of being listed in the world largest IRC server list.

mIRC has seen issues with DCC exploits in the past. In December of last year another possible exploit/vulnerability has been announced on SecurityFocus IRC-Junkie initially decided not to post about since its significance was so minor. However, this issue seems to ruffle up feathers across several forums now.

The issue is described as a local mIRC buffer overflow initiated over DCC. “The code executed are with current user privileges,anyway this bug could be dangerous in universities, cyber coffees, schools and any location with restrictions. Adding/editing filters to locate the specified folder for the files”, the announcement on SecurityFocus reads.