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Re: work around the hosts-file (system32/drivers/etc) Windows

From: Ralph Mitchell <ralphmitchell_at_gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:14:36 -0600

 Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 3:02 PM, Dan Fandrich <dan_at_coneharvesters.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 08:52:57PM +0000, finn johansen wrote:
> > >From time to time computers get infected by malware and the hosts-file
> gets
> > hijacked - preventing the victim from downloading programs that could
> clean
> > there computers. Is there a way - using cURL - to "navigate" to an URL
> > circumventing the hosts-file. It would be convinient to direct a victim
> with an
> > infected computer to use cURL to download relevant programs without
> trying to
> > clean the hosts-file first...
>
> curl uses the standard Windows resolving mechanisms by default, so if they
> are configured to look at the hosts file first, then so will curl. It's
> possible to rebuild curl using a modified version of the c-ares resolver
> that ignores the hosts file that would accomplish what you want. But I
> imagine it would be much easier to explain to a user how to delete the
> hosts
> file than how to download a modified version of curl that might not even
> be accessible because of a hacked hosts file.
>
> >>> Dan

Does Windows still use the resolving mechanisms if the url contains the IP
address in place of the hostname??

Ralph Mitchell

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Received on 2009-01-14