Defeating Tracking Software — RedSherrif

Published 6 years ago in publishing + content

Adam Kalsey describes a way to defeat RedSherrif’s Java measurement applets in his latest blog entry. I think I first read about RedSherrif in a MarketingSherpa email newsletter and I was intrigued at the time (can’t remember if that’s really where I heard of them).

I’d still like to research them a little as their technology looks like something that might help those of us driving the production side of the web, and data is useful, but I also don’t know how I feel about collecting potentially private data without a users knowledge or explicit permission. I still believe that privacy is gone for the most part, but I’d like to know that people’s feelings about their own privacy online are as good as possible, for the survival of the whole internet market.

It’s still a touchy, touchy subject that has to be treated very carefully by providers of content.

27 Responses to “Defeating Tracking Software — RedSherrif”

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1 Robert Doisneau Jan 30th, 2003 at 10:06 pm

How many people know about this company and their tidy little program?

I now do.

Is the age of information awareness upon us?

Who are we if we fear to be ourselves?

Why? For fear that we will be stolen.

That who we are and what we know should belong to us. Call that the ego.
2 JLDean Mar 27th, 2003 at 5:58 pm

AdaWARE 6.0 PICKS UP ON RedSherrif tracking cookie and I run it after surfing web all the time RedSheriff always shows up just so Adaware can delete it.gOTTAOVE ANTI-sPYWARE STUFF- Thanx Adaware.
3 Niko Jul 5th, 2003 at 12:13 am

I too found the RedSherrif Tracking cookie using AdAware which I use alot now thanks to my buddy Tim Knowlton from Biola University. We used to surf the web for bisexual porn DVD’s on the net and used AdAware to scrub the history from the rec center’s internet connection PC at the school (thank the Lord). Anyone know about this RedSherrif thing? This is interesting.. please post about it ANYONE!
4 Niko Jul 5th, 2003 at 12:13 am

I too found the RedSherrif Tracking cookie using AdAware which I use alot now thanks to my buddy Tim Knowlton from Biola University. We used to surf the web for bisexual porn DVD’s on the net and used AdAware to scrub the history from the rec center’s internet connection PC at the school (thank the Lord). Anyone know about this RedSherrif thing? This is interesting.. please post about it ANYONE!
5 Afa Jul 27th, 2003 at 5:55 pm

found redsherrif through temp. user with no permission to write to hard drive and no administrative powers. it appears this program can create a window for hackers and open its own user profile. then they can also assume adminstartive power in your pc ?? it appears to alter the browser and settings are saved even when changing users after log off..this can be the forefront of a real problem for privacy. any ideas on defeating this program ??
6 Dave Aug 16th, 2003 at 8:31 am

Adware picked it up on one of my computers to, still not sure what it can do and where it came from.
7 cpkfolief Sep 14th, 2003 at 7:30 pm

http://nz.redsheriff.com/news/news_4_24.html
8 Stuart Sep 18th, 2003 at 6:26 am

I have been finding RedSherrif for a long time via AdAware. In addition to other sites that use it, I suspect my ISP (Ozemail ) is also using it as the cookie appears in the cookies folder as Ozemail is loading up. Not happy with this “surveilance” but I am unable to kill it, other than by using Adaware. And by the time it is removed, it probably has already doine its job
9 Ivan Oct 6th, 2003 at 11:27 am

Please chech this site.

http://kalsey.com/2002/11/java_spyware/

Got some info for killing the bloody bug.
10 mo Oct 7th, 2003 at 1:49 pm

Alll MARKETING SPAM WHORES MUST DIE DIE DIE DIE…

YOU SUCK…

This article reveals the spam gurgling marketing whore attitude that is screwing up the web.

If I had a hammer, I’d nail all the marketing spam flinging whores to the bottom of my boat.
11 Paul Oct 21st, 2003 at 10:09 am

Does anyone have a cure? Like a stopkey, or somesuch?

What if you take a cookie such as Red Sherrif, open it in an editor such as wordpad, add a lot of meaningless garbage, save it, and make it a read-only file?

Won’t that cure the blasted thing? It can’t perform, and it can’t be replaced, right?
12 Titus Andronicus Nov 6th, 2003 at 3:11 pm

If you realy want to get rid of this stuff try using proximatron. It is a dummy proxy server that will filter all this stuff out. It is fully customizable.
13 Dane Nov 28th, 2003 at 4:05 pm

When I am surveilled, whether or not I think that’s O.K. depends upon the use. Like security camera tapes; if they were just used for security and evidence that would be O.K. with me. When they sell the images to tabloids (whether print or TV) I don’t think that is O.K. Same deal with spyware. If it is there to help me navigate so I’ll buy more stuff, O.K. But if it guides them to send me popups or spam on “related items”… NOT O.K.
14 john d-a Dec 23rd, 2003 at 12:19 pm

I have found Redsherrif cookie on my sys a few times, but use Adaware and Armour2NET firewall.

Armour2Net stops this cookie in its tracks.
15 Danny Jan 8th, 2004 at 1:34 pm

Why do people do this? There should be a law where companies can get fined for taking up my computer space just so they can annoy the hell outta me.
16 Rob Jan 22nd, 2004 at 9:02 am

The more I learn about these types of data mining cookies, the more upset I become with the industry. The way I think of it is this… how would you feel if every time you went to the mall, someone started following you every time you walked through the door. Every store you visit, every think that you look at, every thing you buy is monitored and recorded. Every time you come back to the mall, this information is updated. How would you feel about that?

The problem is… what are you going to do about it? You can make laws, but just like telemarketers did with the ‘do not call registry’, they will just move overseas. This is an issue that needs to be dealt with on a universal level, not just in the US.
17 Danny Jan 22nd, 2004 at 1:53 pm

Yeah, and also there is no software that you can download that will just DO THE JOB and get rid of all the crud that they’ve somehow put on your computer. Even the mighty Ad-Aware doesn’t get rid of my problems.

Maybe one day the government will find some way of stopping these stupid people. I go on Neopets and that has over 100 million members and yet I still get a pop-up saying I’m the millionth member to this site. People are stupid…
18 Andy Feb 3rd, 2004 at 10:58 am

I have no problem with a site gathering information on how I use THEIR site until I leave providing no information is taken off my computer. IMO this is their right and can help improve the site.

But I agree with the earlier comment by Rob,

‘…how would you feel if every time you went to the mall, someone started following you every time you walked through the door…, every thing you buy is monitored and recorded…’

Although I would put it more like: Making you carry someone around the mall, (spyware uses system resources), who will record which stores you visit etc. This person will occaisonally push you into another store and not let you leave untill youve looked at some p0rn, (re-directing URLs and pop-ups). And then when you’ve finished shopping and drive home (via the post office to send someone else�s mail), you find that you now live in a red-light district, (home page hijacking). When you finally get home for dinner, still carrying your unwelcome shopping companion, your wife has heard you were looking at p0rn, (others can easily find evidence on the computer). When you think it wont get any worse… your 10 year old daughter walks in and asks why someone has mailed her a hardc0re p0rn magazine, instructions on making her penis bigger, and several credit card application forms? (SPAM e-mails sent to anyone regardless of age, gender, orientation etc.)

I also get annoyed with being directed to adult sites that make you close 3-6 boxes asking you to install their software before you can close the page. There is a tick-box which allows you to ‘Always Trust’ and allow D/Ls from a particular company, but I would like to see one for ‘Never Trust’ that company so it will automatically refuse the D/L.

I know this may all seem a bit over the top, but it is what happens. I found RedSherrif earlier with Adaware and removed it, but I have had other Spy/Adware problems that resulted in some of the above problems.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this computer hijacking and Spam mailing will stop anytime soon. Laws will need to be international and enforced which will be very difficult. If there was a security setting on the OS to always require your consent before installing any software this problem could be reduced, but they will find ways around that. Until the problem improves, I shall continue to run Adaware each time I go online.
19 mags Feb 3rd, 2004 at 8:04 pm

I have found RedSheriff with ad-aware can anyone tell me is it dangerous to my comp. I am not very comp literite.
20 Duckmo Feb 6th, 2004 at 3:56 am

Do spyware have the abilety to steal my bandwidth. My connection’s just getting worse every day… adaware wont do for me, neeb better stuff.
21 Cooky Feb 12th, 2004 at 6:06 pm

You can stop the Red Sheriff from being placed on your computer at all by following this simple procedure.

1. Browse to your Cookies folder

2. Find a Cookie called cgi-bin.txt

* if your computer is on a network, the file will be called “name@cgi-bin.txt”

** the file may be called cgi-bin[n] where n is a number.

3. Open the file in Notepad. It should contain an IMRID instruction and a V5 instruction.

4. Highlight everything in the file and press DELETE

5. Type in a note to yourself to remind you what you have done. I have typed “I shot the Red Sheriff!”

6. Save and close Notepad.

7. Have a nice day!
22 Mags Feb 20th, 2004 at 9:38 am

I have just found a redsherif on my comp but cant find it in cookie file to follow instructions above. Is that because I used Ad-Aware to remove?
23 Duckmo Feb 24th, 2004 at 3:08 pm

Great stuff Cooky! Love your little note. Thx man this is what I needed!
24 Mags Feb 25th, 2004 at 10:43 pm

Cooky Followed the instructions, But where do I save the notepad to?.
25 testingmymicpls Aug 4th, 2004 at 1:47 am

well, i just found this RSheriff on my W2K using Ad-Aware given to me by one of our friends. now, does quarantine of Ad-Aware 6.0 work? or just useless and better delete this after clicking next button?
26 Trev Aug 31st, 2004 at 1:41 pm

Try peerguardian ..stops access by RS even when no cookie showing !! V.good site- & free.
27 dok Sep 8th, 2004 at 5:43 pm

cooky what is IMRID and V5?

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