Is it true that mods can read every message you’ve ever had or sent?
reddit / irc

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Beebow88 · 2019-04-28 01:35

Someone told me this and I don’t know if they’re pulling my leg or
not. (I’m new to IRC, So I’m sorry if this is a dumb question.)

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A-UNDERSCORE-D · 2019-04-28 01:43

Hi, that is very dependent on the server software in use. Most IRCds
and their developers are against that ability, and try very hard not
to provide the ability to the networks that use their software.

IRC itself is a plaintext protocol, meaning that by default anyone on
your network (as in your home network, such as wifi) could, if they're
listening, pick your messages out of the rest of the data. But in
recent years the use of TLS (A kind of encryption) makes that
impossible.

That said treating the servers you're using as hostile is never a bad
idea, using end to end encryption tools like OTR to move any sensitive
information is a pretty good idea. If you're just chatting with
friends or in a public channel, it should be fine without it.

tl;dr no, not on most "sane" networks

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Beebow88 · 2019-04-28 01:46

Wow. Thank you! Someone told me the mods on Freenode can but I thought
they had to be kidding me. It’s kinda creepy that people can read
through other’s messages, I think. Thank you a lot!

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LtWorf_ · 2019-04-28 06:13

Not true, but the owner of the server can. As is on facebook, google,
and anything else that is not encrypted end to end.

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OMGItsCheezWTF · 2019-04-28 16:37

At the end of the day, the protocol is explicitly plain text, and even
if  networks support TLS encryption, most clients don't do it by
default, and your messages are still plain text from the server to
them if they don't use it, and the message has to be parsed as plain
text by the ircd itself so the server software can be modified to
allow people to snoop if the admins so wish.

There are only two ways of ensuring something you say is not
intercepted.

1) Don't use IRC to send sensitive information

2) If you must, use another layer of encryption on top of your text,
so only cipher text is sent to the server, but this requires the third
party also having that set up.

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OMGItsCheezWTF · 2019-04-29 10:37

In addition to my other post. I went back and dug up my response on my
old account to someone asking about TLS and privacy on IRC. It was a
bit more thorough.

https://www.reddit.com/r/irc/comments/8vqkmg/how_anonymous_is_irc/e1pi
bc7/