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README.TXT for ICQ Password Revealer 2.1 - Updated: May 20, 1999
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Copyright (C) 1999 Encryption Software.  All Rights reserved.

Table of Contents:
  Introduction
  Usage
  Problems
  Updates
  Bug reporting

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Introduction:
   ICQ Password Revealer is a freeware program provided to demonstrate the
     insecurity of ICQ. It reads the .DAT file located in ICQ99's NEWDB
     directory and parses it for a password (the password that a user uses to
     access the ICQ network) that is stored there in plain-text (completely
     unencrypted).
    We have also discovered that for those users that use ICQ to check their
     email, ICQ stores their email password in plain-text in the file.  While
     we are not planning to release any utilities that are going to extract
     that information, since we feel that it cannot and will not be used for
     anything legal, this is still something that the users should consider
     before deciding to make ICQ check their email accounts.

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Usage:  

	Save ICQPASS.EXE in ICQ99's NEWDB folder and run it from DOS Prompt.
	Enter your UIN when the program asks for it.
        
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Problems:  

   If ICQPass does not find a password in your DAT file, it could mean several
     things:
     
	1. You are using the old ICQ98 version or older, which uses a DAT
	   file that ICQPass does not recognize.  You can convert it to ICQ99's
           format with DB Converter that comes with ICQ99.

	2. You are using ICQ99 but the option to save password is turned off.
	   (You can verify this by checking if the "Save Password" option
           is turned off in ICQ's "Security & Privacy" dialog).
           
	3. You are using ICQ99 and the option to save password is turned on,
	   but ICQPass still reports no password or shows an incorrect password.
	   We found this to be VERY uncommon among all the people that we've
           tested, but we did encounter several cases when this happened.
	   If you are not paranoid and want to recover your lost password
           and don't mind us looking at it, you can try sending over your .DAT
           file to us.
	   Note:  We will request some verification that the UIN listed in the
		  .DAT file is indeed yours before we send you the password!
        
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Updates:
  You can go to http://www.encrsoft.com/ to retrieve the latest
    updates for all of our products.

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Bug reporting:
  To report bugs, please send us a detailed message describing your problem
    and your system (be sure to include the Operating System, Processor,
    Amount of Memory, ICQ version, and ICQPass version) to bugs@encrsoft.com