Silence bug or hacking of silence feature

[ConVicT]

What does the log look like when you connect in under 3 seconds?

I don't actually own a server right now. These were other peoples' servers, so I couldn't say.
Anyway, it was just as an example for: you'd be surprised how quickly you can dis/reconnect.

[Z-Man]

What does the log look like when you connect in under 3 seconds?

Code: Select all

[1 IP=192.168.0.11:55466] received logout from 1.
[1 IP=192.168.0.11:55466] Beavis left the game.
[1 IP=192.168.0.11:55466] Killing user 1, ping 0.280742, IP 192.168.0.11:55466: You logged out regularly.
[1 IP=192.168.0.11:54992] Received login from 192.168.0.11:54992 via socket *.*.*.*:4534, network version: 0.2.9_alpha (ID: 17).
[1 IP=192.168.0.11:54992] New user: 1
[1 IP=192.168.0.11:54992] Beavis entered the game.

For the curious. And no, that does not unsilence you, as far as I can tell.
That said, neither does any sequence that produces sinewav's log unsilence you. Just before the "Spectator left" message is printed, the silence status is persisted away in the datastructure that survives the ePlayerNetID. That state should be picked up as he re-enters. He must be creating a third ePlayerNetID in between the two Durfs, created before the first is destroyed and destroyed before the second is created. One that leaves no trace in the logs for some reason. Hurm. No clue how he would manage that, but a scary possibility is now blocked.
Oh, and the exploit should now also be fixed. If you get silenced, your IP gets silenced right away and only unsilenced if enough time passes so the server forgets about it or you get unsilenced by a moderator.

I forgot:

Also, while silenced he was still able to /msg me, and I can't remember if I engaged silence on my client, but it was annoying as all hell.

That's a feature so they can tell you how sorry they are and ask politely to be given their voice back. I can see how it would not work for him. I suppose the two possible ways to deal with that would be a clientside silence (which he can still dodge) or what you did later on.

[ConVicT]

No, I didn't miss it, but he also left and came back which would make him unsilenced

And no, that does not unsilence you, as far as I can tell.

After some testing on a server I threw together and what Z-Man said, I retract that.
I've always just assumed that leaving and coming back unsilenced you, because when I played in the server "Happy Fun Time", I would use "/cmd silence player" (or at the time "/wish silence player") and they would leave and come back and laugh at me for wasting my mana.
Are they somehow different?

[Monkey]

@Convict and @Z-Man

So, to clarify for both myself and Convict (and please correct me/elaborate if I'm wrong or missing anything), there are two types of silencing mechanism being discussed here:
1) Server-side silencing, which an administrator/moderator does using /admin commands. This silences someone for everybody on the server.
2) Client-side silencing, which players do from their client's, either via the menu under "Player Police" or using some command (I'm not sure which one). This only silences someone for that player but not for anybody else on the server.
Durf has managed to evade both types of silencing mechanism. Z-Man has issued a fix for server-side silencing, however, this still leaves the issue of client-side silencing. Are there any solutions to this problem Z-Man?

[Word]

That's a feature so they can tell you how sorry they are and ask politely to be given their voice back.

Heh, I always liked that one can see the moral consideration in that, though sometimes I had preferred not to be the father confessor of someone I just silenced so he can't try to exploit my conscience...

Here's an idea:
If someone silences you on their client, why not notify the person who was silenced and grant them one private message, but none after that?

[Z-Man]

Are they somehow different?

Possibly. Complicated server code may keep the ePlayerNetIDs alive longer, postponing the storage of the flags.

this still leaves the issue of client-side silencing. Are there any solutions to this problem Z-Man?

Possible solutions, yes. First, the server needs to inform the client about some more persistent ID (not just the IP). The structure to create such an ID is already in place. And then the clients need to do the same persistent storage the server does. They can probably recycle most of the serverside code.
And yes, your clarification is correct.

Here's an idea:
If someone silences you on their client, why not notify the person who was silenced and grant them one private message, but none after that?

Umm, you can just tell them you're going to silence them and give them as many chances as you want. There are many cases where you may want to silence someone without them getting informed. Like the case where you know the silenced one will just shake it off as soon as he notices. Or two people chatting in a language you don't understand, or other stuff that is just a mild distraction you could do without.

[Word]

OK, I get that. I just thought that the technical setting which enables them to still send PMs to the admin/moderator should be fixed so the "apology feature" isn't abused by someone like Durf.

[Z-Man]

Ah, you mean the serverside silencing. Yes, for that, I can get behind limited chances for apologies.

[Word]

Oops, I confused the two, sorry about that (the way I understood it, if you silence someone on your server and in the police menu, but you're admin, the other guy can still override both by sending you a PM, heh)... And thanks for looking into this!