Sending messages to users who don''t exist

Openfire Openfire Support
1

Can wildfire be configured such that when a client tries to IM a user that doesnt exist on the local server, an error gets sent back? Right now if a user were to IM a buddy with a typo in the username, the message seems to go off into the ether…

2

Hi shapeshifter,

What client are you using? Typically users can’‘t send messages to people who aren’‘t on their roster (buddy list) and people who don’‘t exist can’'t be on a roster.

Thanks,

Ryan

3

I don’'t know of a single IM client that doesn’'t allow sending messages to people not on the contact list.

4

anlumo wrote:

I don’'t know of a single IM client that doesn’'t allow sending messages to people not on the contact list.

That’‘s why I said typically. Most users I’‘ve see just select a contact from their roster than say going to File → New Chat… and then manually typing in a “to” address. (It’'s always seemed strange to me that you can send messages to other people without having to first establish a subscription.)

As for the original question, it appears that Wildfire is unaware of when a message is not delivered to local user which I’‘m not sure is intentional or not; after a quick search I didn’'t find anything the XMPP spec that indicates how this case should be handled. It seems to me that it might be intentional since it would prevent people from finding (phishing) users by randomly trying different usernames, which might not be a problem on a private server but a major one on a public one. So, as a possible work around, it would be possible to write a plugin that validates a recipients address and if it is unable to do so it could inform the sender as such. The downside to this (other than the previously mentioned phishing issue) is that since the plugin would have to examine every message pack as it was being processed it might really slow things down.

Hope that helps,

Ryan