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Removing HTTP "Referer" Header

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Wolf ODonnell
 
Reply Sat 25 Jun, 2005 06:27 am
Hello.
I'm currently trying to access an online art gallery on the Net, because it has some of the best drawings and pictures I have ever seen. Beautiful works of art that... Sorry, I'm digressing from the point.

Anyway, the site is very anti-Internet Explorer. Fair enough, so I use Firefox to access the site; using IE actually prevents me from accessing the art gallery, which kind of begs the question as to who the site is for.

That isn't the problem. I can't view the images and every time I try to, I come up with an image that basically says the following.

Quote:
You are attempting to access this image directly, or from a web site which is not allowed to link to this image. If you feel this message is incorrect, please ensure that you are not removing the HTTP "Referer" header. Programs that are known to do this by default include:

Norton Internet Security
Norton Personal Firewall
McAfee Privacy Service
ZoneAlarm
Ad-Subtract

Many other firewalls also provide this option, and some others not listed may have it enabled by default. "Privacy services" and anti-spyware programs are a waste of your money and a waste of our time. Please uninstall them if you have them installed and request a refund. If you are concerned about privacy or security, use a non-IE based web browser such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Konquerer or Safari for all your web browsing.

As a note, some web browsers can also be configured to disable the "Referer" Header.

Within Firefox, the "Referer" header can be enabled/disabled using the network.http.sendrefererheader configuration variable in the "about:config". (The default is 2)

If you continue to experience problems viewing images on the site even after ensuring you have none of the above "privacy" software and that your firewall is not blocking "referer" headers, please double-check that you do not have your web browser configured to go through an anonymising proxy, such as proxomitron, privoxy, muffin, or webwasher.


I've left out the paragraph about Opera seeing as it doesn't apply to me.

I do have Norton Internet Security, which I suppose means that I have Norton Personal Firewall as well, because it does have a "Personal Firewall" option.

I personally don't want to remove NIS. It's the only thing that protects me when Norton Anti-Virus's definitions go out of date.

However, temporarily disabling NIS when viewing the website doesn't seem to work.

So, how do I stop NIS from removing the http "referer" header?
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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 8,512 • Replies: 4
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timberlandko
 
  1  
Reply Sat 25 Jun, 2005 12:59 pm
See This Topic - That discusses a different firewall, not Norton, but same thing, really. The website you're trying to access essentially wants identifying info - "Private Headers" - from your machine before it will let you see the images. Your call - personally, I'd prolly scratch the webite off my list of places to go, and drop the site's owner an email saying that I had done so, and saying why.
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Craven de Kere
 
  1  
Reply Tue 28 Jun, 2005 03:41 am
I disagree. The referrer header it is requesting is only for the purpose of eliminating bandwidth leeching from other sites hotlinking the image.

The site just wants to make sure that the image requests are generated from requests to its own pages, and not that of other websites.

The referrer header is a standard http header and blocking it is not likely to add any significant security improvement.

If you would like to pass the referrer header only for that particular site:

Quote:
Open Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall.
Do one of the following.
In Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall 2003: Click Options > Internet Security, and then click the Web Content tab.
In Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall 2004 or newer: Double-click Privacy Control, and then click Advanced.
In the bottom of the Advanced window, click Add Site.
In the New Site/Domain box, type the name of the site that you want to receive the referrer information, and click OK.
The site name appears in the left frame of the Options window.
Click the name of the new site.
On the Global Settings tab, under the Information about visited sites section, uncheck Use default settings.
Click Permit.
Click OK to close the Options window.


http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nip.nsf/735050b77b1fcece88256bc7005c3bc6/b9b47ad7eddd343b88256c6b006a85a8
0 Replies
 
timberlandko
 
  1  
Reply Tue 28 Jun, 2005 09:13 am
Very good point, CdK, and I stand corrected - shoulda looked at the question a little closer. Guess I'm too focussed on yuckware. Thanks for chipping in.
0 Replies
 
Wolf ODonnell
 
  1  
Reply Sun 17 Jul, 2005 02:15 pm
Thanks guys. That works a treat.
0 Replies
 
 

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