User Agent String Middle Fingery
posted on 11:29 09/25/2009 by planetidiot.com
Today I got a stupid email from Blockbuster Online telling me some crap I don't care about with some stupid offer I won't bother with. But it did provide me with a handy link to get around to doing what I'd been planning on doing for a while: downgrading my service. We have FiOS now and I don't need that many movies by mail anymore. Having done this and worked in the web world for over a decade it occurs to me that all of these actions were tracked and logged and and could be analyzed by some guy whose job it is to figure out why people downgrade their services. His conclusion? Some stupid unsolicited offer to buy crap on their site. I call this the "data middle finger".posted on 11:29 09/25/2009 by planetidiot.com
But it's a subtle data middle finger, and it's one that might go unnoticed. But it did remind me that while working at my current job, I stumbled on to a treasure trove of data middle fingers known as the "user agent" log. A user agent is a string that your browser uses to tell a server what type of browser it is. Usually it looks something like this:
"Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)"
But anyone can change their user agent string to anything with a bit of know-how. Here's a few of my favorite data middle fingers that I've found.
First off, some Atari fans:
"Atari/2600 (GalaxianOS; U; en-US) cartridge/$29.95"
"Mickymouse (compatible; Internet Exploder/6.66; (Atari 800 XL))"
"atari 2600 web enhanced"
There were also 16 "all your base jokes" like this one:
"mozilla/5.0 (windows; u; windows nt 5.1; en-us; rv:1.8.0.7) gecko/20060909 falaciousfart (all your base are belong to us.) firefox/1.5.0.7"
Here's a guy who likes beer! Or maybe his browser likes beer.
"I_like_beer!"
This person was sending a message to someone! I hope it wasn't us:
"Please Refrain From Sending PMs Asking For Plu-Fuckin-sses And Hey! I Dont Fuckin Do Fuckin CyberSexChat! ASL is 22.LEZZIE.from Cali-fuckin-fornia. SO DONT ASK ANYMORE! Sheeeesssh!!!"
User agent strings can also identify search engine spiders. Like this one!
"poopysearch##v1"
Now we get a little hostile:
"mozilla/4.0 (compatible; msie 7.0; windows nt 5.1; ranman says fuck you for looking at this; funwebproducts; .net clr 1.1.4322; .net clr 2.0.50727; ranman says fuck you for looking at this; ranman says fuck you for looking at this)"
"Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; Fuck You !!!)"
"mozilla/5.0 (windows; u; windows nt 5.1; en-us; rv:1.9.0.8) gecko/2009032609 firefox/3.0.8 ;(fuck you ass wipe)"
"mozilla/4.0 (compatible; msie 6.0; windows nt 5.1; what the fuck you lookin at; .net clr 1.1.4322)"
"mozilla/4.0 (compatible; full of shit; linux i686;")
"Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; Windows 98; DigExt) (bullshit - this is Linux w/ lynx, bitch -- CLI 4eF0r suX0r! ROTFL! LOL! OMG JFC!)"
"Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; Q312461; Fuck_You; Fuck_This_Shit; DVD Owner; .NET CLR 1.0.3705)"
And then there's my favorite:
"Code to W3C standards already and stop fucking obsessing over user-agent strings."
That's givin' 'em the ol' data middle finger!
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