IRC security for Android
reddit / irc

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Deegs80 · 2015-02-21 13:48

Hey everyone,

Just starting to get back into the community after a good number of
years.  I'm wanting to use IRC on my phone but want to know if using a
VPN is enough security-wise.  Let me know your setups and suggestions.

Cheers

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tavaryn · 2015-02-21 14:10

What kind of security are you looking for? If you want to protect your
chat from being "overheard," no VPN will help as anyone wanting to
listen to your conversation can just listen to the server traffic or
the traffic of the person you're talking to (or that of any individual
in a channel you're in). I can think of no real benefit to using IRC
over VPN unless you wish to hide your identity from the server, in
which case you're probably better off using Tor.

IRC is inherently an insecure protocol, only as strong as the weakest
link in the chain. If even one user is connected via plaintext, all
traffic they can see, including your text to the channel and your PMs
with that user, is available for the whole wide world to see.

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Deegs80 · 2015-02-21 14:17

That's the type of answer I was looking for.  Well explained with more
knowledge on the subject than me.  I didn't want to assume anything
and possibly narrow replies back. Just looking to be more aware of the
mediums I'm wanting to use before using them.  Thank you Tavaryn.

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NeuroG · 2015-02-21 18:07

Some networks don't mask your IP, so it's possible for anyone to
monitor your IP and when it changes. If that's what you are concerned
about, a VPN, proxy, or IRC bouncer gives you a different IP and
doesn't leak connection/disconnection information. Alternatively, I
use the android Weechat app to connect to a remote instance of Weechat
on a VM, so it does basically the same thing, with some other
benefits.

edit: As /u/tavarin said, the chat content on IRC is completely
public. There are some protocols to encrypt IRC, like FiSH, but that
would finding people interested in using it and exchanging a password
by some other means. Might be useful for a few friends, but not for
the types of groups that typically hang out on IRC.

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rkos · 2015-02-23 08:16

What is your opinion on [FiSH](http://ultrx.net/doc/fish/) though?