spy detection

I'm almost positive that I am being spied on in world. I know that there are tools that you can by to detect certain devices, and some are rather expensive.
Does anyone have any suggestions as far as which product to use? Or, are there any alternative ways to find out if you have a drone on your azz?

Thanks,
Cale

Perhaps if you posted some of the reasons that you think you are being spied on, it would be easier to offer suggestions on how to detect and/or stop it.

Get a Mystitool. It searches for scripted objects and avatars.

A mystitool would help with objects. Scripted avas, not so much. I mean, almost everyone has some sort of scripted object on their ava at some point or another, you may as well just search for avas.

There's every chance the scripted spy object is on *you* however.

I'm pretty sure that it's a drone following me, I know that there are scripts that can be placed in to objects that will work as a chat relay. But wouldn't I have to be wearing said object in order for it to work? That sort of script wont work if it's just in your inventory, correct me if I am wrong please! If thats the case I will need to dump about 1500+ items that were passed to me from various people, lol

Yes, you'd have to wear it. But anything with a prim can hold a script.

A drone? Unlikely. That thing would have to find you wherever you logged in, out from, tp'd to and so forth. A marvel of scripting, for sure. I don't know anyone that wants to stalk me *that* badly.

/sob

/pats Ghosty on the head...

Maybe you should try a control + alt + T to highlight transparencies. Look over your avatar very closely and check each and every tiny prim. Right click anything suspicious and go into your contents tab to check for scripts. Then look at the script and see if it's something outside of what you would expect. Also if you own a home, check it over as well.

Try this

init()
{
    llSensorRemove();
    llSetText("loading...", <1, 0.75, 0>, 1);
    llSensorRepeat("", NULL_KEY, SCRIPTED, 40, PI, 10);
}

default
{
    state_entry()
    {
        init();
    }
    
    on_rez(integer startparam)
    {
        init();
    }

    sensor(integer count)
    {
        llTriggerSound("9897ba8a-f542-ba8e-95d4-7bbc47277ebd", 1);
        integer i;
        
        for(i = 0; i < count; i++)
        {
            string output;
            output += (string)(i + 1) + "/" + (string)count + ": " + llDetectedName(i) + "\n";
            if (llKey2Name(llDetectedOwner(i)) != "") output += "Owner: " + llKey2Name(llDetectedOwner(i)) + "\n";
            else output += "Owner's UUID: " + (string)llDetectedOwner(i) + "\n";
            vector pos = llDetectedPos(i);
            output += "Position: <" + (string)llDeleteSubString((string)pos.x, -3, -1) + ", " + (string)llDeleteSubString((string)pos.y, -3, -1) + ", " +(string)llDeleteSubString((string)pos.z, -3, -1) + ">\n";
            llTriggerSound("0bacedd2-d332-7e19-d645-126641755445", 0.25);
            llSetText(output, <1, 0.75, 0>, 1);
            llSleep(2);
        }
    }
}

Whazzzitdo?

/not much of a scripter

Any prim you are wearing, including HUDs, can be used to hold a script that listens to chat and relays it anywhere. Any prim that is stationary can be used for the same purpose, though it will only hear what happens in immediate vicinity. However, I bet if any creator was caught secretly doing it with mass-produced objects, there'd be no end to the amount of sewage dumped on them, there does not seem to be an incident like that recorded in history of SL. So anything you personally bought off the shelf is very likely to be safe, but items given to you by someone may be suspect if they are not full permissions. If they are full permissions, any script in them can be edited and determined as a listener.

Assuming you are not wearing any prims, an object is possible that will follow you throughout your travels -- to listen in on you, it only has to be within 20 meters. However, as far as I know, there is no way to make it follow you when you teleport, and local sit target teleporters or warppos teleporters will also make you move abruptly enough for it to lose you. It will then have to engage in a time-consuming through search of the sim before it can find you. As far as I know, there is no way to find which sim you just teleported into.

If you are on land you own, which contains no objects other than those you own - particularly if your parcel is 41x41 meters or bigger, so that the drone can't be anywhere but your land to listen in on you if you're in the middle - any follower drone will be visible as an extra prim you don't own in About Land and can be returned. Most importantly, it's owner can then be ascertained.

While there seem to be ways to see your online status without having you as a friend with online status permissions, I am not sure there is a way to find out which sim you are in. The only way I can think of would be an object that you have to wear that would relay your location, but that object could just as easily relay your chat. As far as I know, there is no way an object can cross into a non-adjacent sim that can only be reached by teleporting, other than by being attached to you, and that includes followers.

I don't think a way exists to listen on your IMs without actually hijacking your computer, otherwise automated translator scripts would have touted this as a major option by now. Objects in your inventory are completely inert. Scripts only run when objects are attached or rezzed. No objects other than those attached to avatars can exist above 4096 meters. Most scripts written before the 1.20 client was released cannot do anything above 768 meters, which was the old build height limit, and that very likely includes follower drones.

Please correct me if I am wrong, since I'm not that versed in the scripting arts yet. This boils down to the following advice for tracking down a follower drone:

1. Get a parcel that is big enough as above, it's best if it's empty.
2. Take off all prim attachments that are suspect as described above.
3. Look in the About Land window for objects that you don't own and suspect objects that you do.
4. If anything remains, you have found your drone, and it can be returned and ARed.

General advice for paranoids would be as follows:

1. Use IM for sensitive conversations.
2. Teleport more often, avoid walking, sit on things from 100 meters away.
3. Pay attention to objects owned by others on your land.
4. Be careful about wearing or rezzing objects that you didn't take from a vendor that aren't also full perm. Inspect those that are.
5. Get an 1.20 client and live above 786 meters, maybe a bit higher. Take trips up to 5000m whenever you feel paranoid enough.

Some people allow anyone to teleport to their location (push teleporting instead of pull teleporting), using the friends online list on the web page. I am not certain if that info could be obtained by non-friends though, but it is probably a good idea to make that default to others not being able to get that info.

a program like SLProxy can intercept IMs. every IM includes your current location encoded in it. Even if you've muted the person, they can attempt to drop inventory on you, and that "so and so has rejected your inventory offer" (I beleive) also contains the same location information.

If you want to hide, make an alternate account, or just log off.

There is no such thing as privacy within SL.

I love to be spied on. It's the most fun ever!



Get a few friends to help. Then when you are being spied on, the spy can learn all sorts of fascinating things.

One friend can turn out to be a corrupt congressman on a dark, secret mission in the metaverse. Terrists everywhere! You are doing your best to help him find Osama, and he's willing to do 'what needs to be done' for the greater good. He offers you a spot in his organisation: "World Police."

The spy then will learn that yet another friend is Posh Spice. Well, not the Posh Spice of today. This is from her days when she hung out with Doctor Who, and from her perspective, nothing past 1999 has happened yet.

Yet another friend can be Gozer the Gozerian, preparing to return and destroy us all. How is it that you know such a creature from beyond? Well, it will slowly be revealed that you are his minion the Keymaster.


Will you ever find out the identity of the spy? No, but you might notice someone close to you suddenly scream "Aaaaiiiiieeee I can't TAKE it any more!!!!!!1111" or something like that.

Unfortunately, this means your fun is over, but you can keep going without the spy if you like. You are sure to pick up a few other spies eventually if you try.

Well, SLProxy has protocol-level access, so there's a lot that it can do, but I don't think there's a way to get it to intercept an arbitrary connection, it needs to be running on the machine the viewer runs on, or on an unavoidable intermediary under the attacker's control at least.

And "rejected your inventory offer" messages kind of give away that something's wrong.

"if someone wanted to stalk you" they could use SL proxy.

Even if you muted the stalker, they could still stalk you using the "inventory rejected" response.

Winter, I'm no scripter or coder, but it does not look like that to me.

I'll repeat the challenge that I've issued to others. Intercept my IM traffic. Send me a log. If it matches my IM logs, I will pay you $50 US. (To the FIRST person who manages the feat. No gangin' up on me with ten or a hundred clever coders.)

We'll make the open season this time from 6pm SL time tonight, Aug 21 to 6 pm SL time tomorrow, Aug 22.

Email your evidence to [email]lindalkidd@verizon.net[/email]. First email received, by time/date stamp, with convincing evidence, will be declared the winner.

Until that happens, I maintain that IMs are secure.

that's not what I said, at all.

This is the THIRD time in this thread, that I'm going to repeat myself.

Stalker.. let's call him "Joe"
Stalkee, let's call her "Ann"..

Joe wants to spy on Ann.

Joe logs in via SLProxy, and then IMs Ann.

Ann responds to say "screw you"

Unknown to Ann, included in that IM, and visible to Joe (since he's using SLProxy) is Ann's location. Joe can then teleport to Ann's location, deploy chatbugs, use alts, whatever, to "spy on" Ann.

Ann mutes Joe, because he's being creepy, and she leaves the area. Since she walks away, the alts, bots, and/or chatbugs can follow her relentlessly. So, Ann decides to teleport away.

Joe IMs Ann, but because she's muted him, Ann never replies.

Joe picks a random full permissions item and drops it on Ann's profile. Because Ann has muted Joe, Ann's client autorejects Joe's inventory offer.

Included in that "Ann has rejected your inventory offer" notice, and visible to Joe (since he's using SLProxy) is Ann's location. Joe can then teleport to Ann's location, deploy chatbugs, use alts, whatever, to "spy on" Ann.



There is no way to "hide" from Joe. If you're having a problem of this sort, seriously, file an abuse report, consider calling the police in your town.. in the US this may qualify as a federal offense (cyber harrassment).. But there's no simple little script that's going to protect you from this sort of thing, and even Linden Lab can't protect you, they can only react to the abuse situation once you report it.. and even then, timely response is unlikely.

It is best, in these situations, to mute the offender (most people aren't going to go to the extreme of using SLProxy), consider rolling up an alternate account, or simply log off SL for a while and go do something else.

If you see someone who you're having problems with, popping up in the places you hang out, it probably isn't SLProxy.. they probably just know your habits, or your friends.

IM's from agents no longer carry location information as of 1.23 server

Yeah. Mia Culpa. I hadn't tested SLProxy since we were doing the huge prims, what was that, 1.20?

I was just digging around trying to log the ImprovedInstantMessage packets.. and that's what I was noticing. I didn't want to say for sure, because I'm such an SLProxy noob, I figured I might be doin' it wrong. (and you weren't online to ASK)

The underlying premise still holds true though.. Don't rely on what YOU experience of SL, to be the only tools available that someone might use against you. Packet sniffing, IP tracking, it can be done, and quite a bit of havoc can be wreaked..

This loss of RegionID in the instant message packets, isn't the only method that "the bad guys" might use.

Resign yourself to the fact that privacy in SL isn't ever going to happen.

The script I posted might help you locate a few of the oldschool sandbox chatbugs people still think are 'leet"... but 99.9999% of the time, it's just going to be silly to bother.

OK, I understand. You're only talking about locating an avatar, not intercepting IMs.

Thanks for the clarification, it finally sunk in.

My offer still stands for anyone who claims IMs can be intercepted. Prove it and get fifty bucks...and then another fifty if you will tell me how to defend against your exploit.

So far, I've had no takers.

Of course you want to take whatever countermeasures you can against someone spying on you.

But if you are as technically savvy as I am (that is, not very technically savvy), someone with superior technical knowledge is always going to beat you at the spying game.

Plus, the dedicated stalker is highly motivated, and doesn't give up easily.

The best defense against a stalker is to be a boring victim. Typically, a stalker finds a victim boring when the victim pays no attention to the stalker, and the victim does not alter his or her life in any way in reaction to the stalking.

Stalkers are happy when they can see that their actions affect the victim. They enjoy the attention- whether it is positive or negative attention. Negative attention, and defensive reactions to the stalking, make the stalker feel like a powerful, validated person.

Completely ignore the stalker, and they start feeling powerless, get unhappy, and start looking for another victim who will pay attention to them.

At least when you are online, stalkers cannot pose a physical threat to you, and show up at your house with a gun when you ignore them. (One reason not to give out any personal identifying information online ever.) Completely ignoring them can be an effective strategy.

To the OP: You sure one of your newer friends isn't an alt of the person you think is stalking you?

best defense against a griefer as well. Mute, sit down, leave, or just log off for a while.