Should I worry about somebody tracing my IP on IRC? reddit / irc ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Grandtank19 · 2017-03-11 00:18 It doesnt feel safe to chat on IRC without a VPN, since without one anybody could drop a /whois on you, drop that into google, then they know where you are. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MuffinMedic · 2017-03-11 00:23 That depends on how much it worries you. Assuming geolocation is accurate (it's not always, but that's another discussion), it is certainly possible for someone to narrow down your location. If this concerns you, you can use either a VPN or a bouncer, the latter which can be used through a service or self hosted on a VPS. Both of these options are <= $5/month. If IP geolocation concerns you, then it is wise it invest in one of these. If it doesn't, then a bouncer still offers additional benefits. Ultimately, you need to device what level of privacy you are comfortable with. Note: Some people bring up the idea of cloaking as a means of security. **Cloaks do not hide IP addresses and do not provide any form of security or privacy.** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- yunocchi · 2017-03-11 00:24 Unless that person knew a bit about you already and had access to your public IP (at the time), then they'll likely face issues trying to find you on the internet based on your IP, assuming that your ISP assigns dynamic IP addresses. If you're worried about a particular IRC operator finding your real location, or have other concerns, I recommend either continuing to use a VPN or avoiding that place altogether. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Madbrad200 · 2017-03-11 00:36 I personally connect to most IRC networks through a bouncer, so my home IP is hidden, with the added benefit that I'm never disconnected. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wantonexplosion · 2017-03-11 01:00 No one is tracing your IP to your door unless they're the cops or your ISP. Geolocation is only accurate to a region. You should be more concerned that your network is secure. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Grandtank19 · 2017-03-11 04:22 Not really concerned about ISP or police since I don't do anything illegal. Also, no, I traced my own IP once, and it took me straight to my (pretty small) town. What if my network isnt secure though? I mean yes I have WPA2, and a password on it, and I use HTTPS everywhere. What else can I really even do? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wantonexplosion · 2017-03-11 05:17 I meant literally finding your address which I assumed is what your concern was. What's someone going to do knowing what town you're in? By network security I mean you should have a firewall between your home network and the internet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GTB3NW · 2017-03-11 14:37 An IP is assigned to a certain ASN which will be a datacenter which announces the IP. It isn't nesecarilly the same as the one in the whois. So it sounds like your small town has its own exchange announcing the IP's. It's not uncommon for ISP's to put an exchange between towns which are close. Essentially the IP tells you where the datacentre is, not where you live. But it's usually close. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Grandtank19 · 2017-03-11 14:54 How I know this is I did trace myself once. And I had a server admin on Teamspeak once that thought it would be cute to trace me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GTB3NW · 2017-03-11 15:19 Unless you run a data centre in your house it will only ever trace back to the nearest exchange I promise you that. The admin likely doxxed you based off your username. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saber_UK · 2017-03-12 09:51 It depends on the network. Most decent networks use some form of hostname cloaking nowadays. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saber_UK · 2017-03-12 10:16 >Cloaks do not hide IP addresses and do not provide any form of security or privacy. I don't think this is really a very accurate claim. If you use a weak cloaking method or a short cloak key then cloaking is not reliable but if you use a decent cloaking method (like the InspIRCd "full" cloaking mode) and a strong cloaking key (50+ characters ideally) then cloaking is good enough to provide reasonable levels of privacy. At that point its probably easier for someone who wants to find out your IP to link you something in PM and then get your IP when you click it (or when your client automatically embeds it as many modern clients do) or one of several other methods they could use. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MuffinMedic · 2017-03-12 15:37 There are multiple ways to obtain a cloaked user's IP address, including methods that rely solely on IRC and do not involve use of external mediums, such as URLs. See [Uncloaking IP Addresses on IRC](http://decal.sdf.org/spotfedsonline/Uncloaking-IP-Addresses-on- IRC.pdf) and [Cloaks do not effectively hide your IP](http://freenode.net/kb/answer/cloaks) (scroll down) for some, although these are certainly not extensive. While decloaking is out of scope for most IRC users, it is certainly possible and I think it's important to caution people against using cloaks as a means of protecting themselves. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saber_UK · 2017-03-12 16:01 >Uncloaking IP Addresses on IRC The main cloaking vulnerability this talks about is with weak cloaking methods and/or bugs in old services implementations which have either since been fixed or are now EOL. >Cloaks do not effectively hide your IP This information either outdated, freenode-specific, or something that can only be avoided by not using IRC at all. >While decloaking is out of scope for most IRC users, it is certainly possible and I think it's important to caution people against using cloaks as a means of protecting themselves. Nobody is claiming that its not possible. Technically its possible to crack *all* forms of encryption or hashing, its just very hard to do so. For the average person good cloaking makes it reasonably hard so for for the average attacker its just not worth it to try and bypass. They will use other methods instead like the one I have previously mentioned. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ilbelkyr · 2017-03-14 03:52 > bugs in old services implementations which have either since been fixed or are now EOL Hi, atheme developer here. The issue is with functionality such as ChanServ's `UNBAN` command (and similar things taking IP addresses into account through cloaks). The most efficient method of exploiting this I've come up with involves only a few uses of services commands. I believe our current stance on this is that it isn't a bug on IRCds where IP bans apply through cloaks. (In fact, on those IRCds, you could use a similar method, although it would involve the target joining a channel you control multiple times, making it a lot harder.) We are, however, open to solutions that do not break `chanserv/unban` and friends. Additionally, on an IRCd that does *not* apply IP bans through cloaks, this would obviously be considered a bug.