[sldev] Re: "But your IP wouldn't be safe"

[dale at daleglass.net]

On Tue, Jul 10, 2007 at 03:08:44AM +0200, Nicholaz Beresford wrote:
> Ummm, I'm probably missing the point of this discussion completely,
> but what exactly do you think is this attacker doing with your
> your IP address? 
DoS, for instance

> I mean what is he doing different from that
> which about 20+ people per hour aren't trying already through
> IP scan.
That on SL you can connect it to a name (even avatar name), and a random
IP scan doesn't.

Think IRC -- Doing something nasty to another person's computer is
pretty common there, and people don't pick targets at random. 

If Bob is on IRC, and Mallory hates him for some reason, and the IRC
server makes the IP addresses visible, then Mallory has all the required
data to attack Bob specifically.

Now, DoS is illegal of course, but it doesn't mean it won't happen, and
it's a fuzzy concept as well. You can perform a DoS without making it
really obvious it's an attack.

For instance, there are plenty people with very low upload speeds. If you
find this person runs a webserver or some other service that it's 
possible to download lots of data from, you don't even need to do 
anything particularly malicious.

Just connect to the server, with maybe just 1-3 connections (to avoid
looking obviously evil), and start downloading. On many connections
that'll cause plenty lag.

They can take the server down, but if you managed that, that's a DoS
in itself.


IMO, in SL this is even more likely. On IRC it's just name, on SL there
are multiple well known groups targeted by various morons, who are
identifiable by the way they look.

And since there even are people trying to bring the grid down, despite
LL's attempt at prosecution, I doubt legal threats are enough to
dissuade everybody.
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