Impostor
From AssaultWiki
An impostor or imposter is a person who pretends to be somebody else, often to try to gain social advantages, but just as often for the purpose of damaging somebody's reputation.
Contents
Types of impostors
- Impersonator
- An impersonator is someone who imitates another player, usually with using his nickname and sometimes also with imitating or coping the behavior or actions of the another. Well known players and contributors to community become often a target of impostors.
- Fake clan member
- A fake clan member is someone who puts a known clantag to his nickname without being allowed to. The reasons to doing this are quite different. The easiest possibility is that he want to participate on the good reputation of the clan. Another possible reason is that he has failed to get into a clan and is now ingoring the clan's decision or want to take vengeance on them. A third possibility for the appearance of fake clan members is the intention to damage a clan's reputation with actions like cheating or insulting.
Identifing an impostor
With server logs
Jul 25 08:00:48 [201.58.249.143] mde changed his name to winstrol{TyD}.
...
Jul 25 08:05:22 [201.58.249.143] winstrol{TyD} says: 'type /ban 0'.
Jul 25 08:05:42 [XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX] Quick_burger says: 'winst..tyd is a cheater'.
Jul 25 08:05:48 [XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX] Undead[C=64] says: 'and impersonator'.
...
Jul 25 08:07:12 [XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX] metal kicks winstrol{TyD} (13).
Jul 25 08:07:12 [201.58.249.143] disconnecting winstrol{TyD} from IP 201.58.249.143 [kicked by server operator]
...
Jul 25 08:07:57 [201.58.249.143] AnY (10) connected on IP 201.58.249.143.
...
Jul 25 08:09:18 [201.58.249.143] AnY changed his name to Paulet{TyD}'s.
Jul 25 08:09:27 [201.58.249.143] Paulet{TyD}'s says: 'hey'.
Jul 25 08:09:34 [201.58.249.143] Paulet{TyD}'s says: 'going to bed now'.
Jul 25 08:09:37 [201.58.249.143] Paulet{TyD}'s says: 'see u all'.
Ingame
The identfication of a fake clan member takes normally a simple look at the clan's members list on their website (which should be regulary updated). Another common way takes place if the fake clan member is playing on a server which is hosted by "his" clan: Just ask him to take admin, which he normally should be allowed to do so.
Prevention
Recent versions of AssaultCube allow you to create a nickname whitelist and blacklist. Information about this, taken from nicknameblacklist.cfg:
// Server Nickname Blacklist + Whitelist // ===================================== // WARNING: You can NOT use CubeScript in here!! // accept nickname [IP range ...] [password ...] // add this nickname to the whitelist // (if IP ranges are specified, only connects from that ranges are allowed; if one or more passwords are specified, the connect password has to match) // block nicknamefragment1 [nicknamefragment2 ...] // block nicknames that contain all specified fragments (up to 5) // blocki nicknamefragment1 [nicknamefragment2 ...] // block nicknames that contain all specified fragments (up to 5), ignore cases // accept, block and blocki can be shortened to a, b and bi // 'accept' has higher priority than 'block' // accept matches whole nicknames; block matches parts of nicknames // examples: // accept lorem // 'lorem' is an allowed nickname, no IP restrictions, no blacklist entries can block this name // accept ipsum 192.168.0.0/16 // accept 'ipsum' only, if he connects with an IP in the range 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255 // accept ipsum 10.0.0.0/8 // add another allowed IP range for 'ipsum' // accept ipsum foo bar // add two possible passwords for 'ipsum' // block dolor // block all nicknames that contain the substring 'dolor', for example 'dolores' or 'odolor'; does not block 'DOLOR' // block sit amet // block all nicknames that contain both substrings, for example 'sitamet' or 'dametosit' // blocki consectetur // block all nicknames that contain the substring 'consectetur', ignore case; block for example 'aconsectetur', 'oConSecTeTuR' // accept foobar 192.168.0.0/16 127.0.0.1 1.2.3.4-2.3.4.5 // accept 'foobar'; allow several IP ranges // clan whitelist example: a clan named 'DEV' with two members, 'foo' and 'bar' // accept DEV|foo 1.2.3.4 // foo has a static IP; no password required // accept DEV|bar 192.168.0.0/16 pwdpwd // bar has a dynamic IP from that range; in addition, the connect password has to match 'pwdpwd' // block DEV| // don't allow anyone else to wear the clan tag
