IP not kept private by Yahoo Answers

[YardDog1]

It has come to my attention as of late that even if sent through yahoo answers. your IP will show up in details of header. and i was wondering, even with security on router and computer, What would a black hat possibly do if he/she had that IP ?

Any thoughts about this , and if a bad guy could do something.. what additional security should one use/ do ?

Thanks for any thoughts..

Lil Bit 96

[ShyWriter]

It has come to my attention as of late that even if sent through yahoo answers. your IP will show up in details of header. and i was wondering, even with security on router and computer, What would a black hat possibly do if he/she had that IP ?

Any thoughts about this , and if a bad guy could do something.. what additional security should one use/ do ?

Thanks for any thoughts..

Lil Bit 96

IMHO, showing the IP does more good than bad as it identifies the poster regardless of their handle and cuts down on the clowning around. Most good/great boards (present company excepted ) do this in ALL forums and on every post.

Shy

EDIT: Most (all) "black hats" have software scanning 100% of the time for vulnerable IPs and open ports. Starting with your IP in hand saves them maybe 1 or 2 seconds

Edited July 19, 2011 by ShyWriter

[YardDog1]

My bad.. Ip visible on email sent through yahoo answers... not worried what Yahoo Answers Team see.. The email being sent is my concern.. sorry for forgetting that in OP .

[DarkSnakeKobra]

It is possible for emails to be intercepted if not properly handled. Such as:

1. Not checking your email via public wifi

2. Using https connection rather then http(most sites at least allow you to enter https if not an account switch for automatic login with https)

3. Close any open ports on your computer/router

4. Enable router wireless security features

5. Disable wireless and only use ethernet

[YardDog1]

Ip that gets seen in the email header details is the external ip . if that helps anyone on what can a black hat do with that.. .. I am not seeing any issues myself.. just wondering about unprotected peeps with no security and a Black Hat were to get that external IP addy ...

[DarkSnakeKobra]

Well that's a different story. If they are "unprotected" then it's highly possible they could break in. A computer plugged directly into a modem with just Windows Firewall would probably be far more vulnerable then a computer behind a router with a built in firewall and Windows Firewall. It may not even matter though if they have knowledge of how to bypass it.

[YardDog1]

This one yahoo user said some trolls were getting the IP from yahoo emails sent.. now, my thinking as most of you guys is that the external IP address seen in email header details really is not an issue .. My real question concerning this.. cause i have no idea what a hacker can do , is even if a hacker got the external email addy. which goes to your ISP location. or should say , is assigned to it.. Is all a hacker gonna know is where the ISP is located or can they get into stuff ?

[DarkSnakeKobra]

There are sites that are able to determine where the isp is located. Such as below. A black hat can easily acquire tools to break into anyones computer. Such tools are out there free of charge, but are intended to be used for good.

http://ip-address-lookup-v4.com/

[YardDog1]

Yeah.. my guess is Yahoo Answer does not care much about the external IP addy getting in wrong hands..as most yahoo answer users are not important enough of a target to hack.. but.. was just curious.. Thanks Buttons and ShyWriter for your chat about this..

[DarkSnakeKobra]

You're welcome.

[noknojon]

Hi lilbit -

I have used Yahoo mail for years and I even report some Spam back to them by opening the header -

This will only give the IP from where the email was sent - It never gives any more than that -

There are 100 better ways to hack an email rather than only knowing the IP (as all with active IP MBAM blocking know) -

It never shows anything except the nearest 'base' for the IP that sent the email -

I have checked mine (via 3 computers) and find that the towns can be over 500 miles away from the sent point -

My IP 'base' is 150 Kms from here (Melbourne Aust), but it has shown on some checks to be in Canberra or Sydney -

[noknojon]

Typical IP Header from a Spam in my emails - - -

I just pulled my email out of the Spam -

X-Originating-IP: [121.101.151.211]

Authentication-Results: mta1233.mail.ac4.yahoo.com from=gmail.com; domainkeys=neutral (no sig); from=yahoo.com; dkim=pass (ok)

Received: from 127.0.0.1 (HELO nm1-vm0.bullet.mail.in.yahoo.com) (121.101.151.211)

by mta1233.mail.ac4.yahoo.com with SMTP; Fri, 22 Jul 2011 01:11:22 -0700

Received: from [121.101.151.236] by nm1.bullet.mail.in.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 22 Jul 2011 08:11:20 -0000

Received: from [121.101.151.235] by tm1.bullet.mail.in.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 22 Jul 2011 08:13:16 -0000

Received: from [127.0.0.1] by omp1004.mail.in.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 22 Jul 2011 08:11:20 -0000

X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-3

X-Yahoo-Newman-Id: 295699.68646.bm @omp 1004.mail.in.yahoo.com

Received: (qmail 53747 invoked by uid 60001); 22 Jul 2011 08:11:19 -0000

DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=yahoo.com; s=s1024;

EDIT - Just 1 of 15 delivered today (about the usual number) -