[Pidgin] #9488: Yahoo Connection Requires Separate Proxy Settings

[Pidgin]

#9488: Yahoo Connection Requires Separate Proxy Settings
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 Reporter:  somnambulist823              |        Owner:  marv  
     Type:  patch                        |       Status:  new   
Milestone:  Patches Needing Improvement  |    Component:  Yahoo!
  Version:  2.5.8                        |   Resolution:        
 Keywords:  proxy                        |  
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Comment(by dlevine278):

 Commenting on rekkanoryo's comment...."othing more than an ugly hack that
 ignores the fact that many proxies can and do handle SSL connections
 perfectly well"


 I agree that many proxies can handle SSL connections perfectly well and
 unfortunately is at odds with the underlying issue that began this thread.


 'THE PROBLEM' is that the Y! client and the Pidgin client (i.e.,
 libPurple) are NOT behaving the same way; this is the problem.  In Y!
 messenger like Pidgin, the user can configure their proxy settings for a
 connection; this is where the similarities end.

 The Y! client when authenticating ignores the proxy setting defined by the
 end user in the client when issuing a connection to login.yahoo.com:443
 but instead uses the value defined the system settings (e.g., LAN Settings
 on Windows) for this particular connection.


 The Pidgin client (libPurple) when authenticating tunnels the request to
 login.yahoo.com:443 through the proxy as defined by the end-user in
 Pidgin.


 This is problematic in environments that are running corporate IM
 compliance solutions such as FaceTime, Quest, Symantec that attempt to
 proxy traffic by acting like the network itself...they don't know what to
 do with the request to login.yahoo.com:443 because they never see the
 request if the user is using Y! Messenger.

 I posted packet captures with bug 9717 that shows the difference in
 behavior between Y! messenger and pidgin.  This bug was marked a dupe of
 this one.

 I'm sorry that the root cause of the issue wasn't clear but next time
 please don't be so quick pass judgement on the solution w/o understanding
 the problem/motivation first.

 There is no pride in authorship here...I posted this for two reasons:

 1. hope it would help anybody else out stuck like us in the near term
 while the folks working on libPurple come up w/ a permanent solution
 2. hope the solution itself would give folks a better appreciation of the
 underlying problem.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/9488#comment:14>
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