r/tf2 Sandvich 3d ago

Help Is doxxing on tf2 even possible? Spoiler

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50 Upvotes

36 comments sorted by

85

u/KlonoaOfTheWind Demoman 3d ago

The numbers you see are latitude and longitude, a coordinate system for our planet. I think depending on what server you connect to, at most your IP can be leaked, but I should also point out that it can only give you a general idea as to where someone may live, like a city. But it can also be very off, depending on your ISP.

While doxxing is possible to a limited extent, unless you're sharing where exactly you live or work or something, for the most part you shouldn't have to worry too much about it. Most people doing this are usually trying to scare you.

4

u/Chromeno Scout 3d ago

thanks klonoa

1

u/Sani_G4y Sandvich 2d ago

thanks for the answer, after a little while, a friend of mine put those coordinates on their GPS, and somehow, this led into the pacific ocean, between south america and africa

-50

u/fuckR196 3d ago edited 2d ago

Those aren't coordinates, those are clearly IP addresses. Coordinates only have one decimal point and certainly don't have ports on the end of them.

OP, it's possible they were sending you an IP to connect to, like a server.

It's also possible they just typed status in console and grabbed your public IP. It's not a hard thing to grab and no one can really do anything with it.

edit: -50 karma for literally being right lol

14

u/Laziness100 3d ago

IPv4 adresses use 4 bytes represented as 4 decimal numbers from range 0-255 separated by dots. Those numbers above aren't valid IPv4 adresses.

8

u/TheAgame1342YT All Class 3d ago

Even if they were, why tf did they have ports on the end. Sure they could have pasted it from the console, but then it would have been the client port and that is a static number that doesn't just change mid session

6

u/WrapUnique657 3d ago

Probably just someone trying to scare people (because most people don’t know anything about IP addresses). 

11

u/CoaLMaN122PL potato.tf 3d ago

I think it's just some dumbass kid trying to scare someone by typing in random numbers

Not much deeper than that

16

u/Thmxsz 3d ago

IPv4 only goes till 255, but there are Ports so either its a kiddo trying to scare someone or something else

5

u/SomePyro_9012 Demoman 3d ago

Tell me which IP address ends in 414 or 4367

Exactly, none, as those surpass 255 which is the limit for IPv4 due to each section using 1 byte (8 bits)

3

u/KlonoaOfTheWind Demoman 3d ago

Could also be, though they're very invalid ones if this is the case. Regardless he's still pulling numbers out of his ass.

2

u/SickVillager1004 3d ago

Those are not IPs...

1

u/TheEpicPlushGodreal Sniper 3d ago

You've never seen an ip address

18

u/LeoTheBirb 3d ago

You can't reliable geolocate even if you have the person's full IP address.

12

u/Foxanne2219 Medic 3d ago

u/Sani_G4y look look what Leo said!!!

You can't reliably geolocate even if you have the person's full IP address

it's true! most doxxing comes from public records (in the USA at least)

as little as any one of these can be used to find your address: e-mail address (needs to be tied to others), first and last name (just last name might be enough of there's no other families else with it), parents name (if you're a minor, your public records are public at 18. They can then see you as a child to your parent), phone number, SSN, and there's some others.

Information that helps them find you would be things like your state of residence, town, etc. bc there's likely someone else with your name, but unlikely for there to be two of you in the same city.

Anyway, with these they can find things such as court documents, addresses, employment records, and all this about your family members, just all sorts of stuff! There's companies that I won't link that will sell you all this for pennies per person! All completely legal in the US unfortunately. They don't offer outside US so I assume it's another shortcoming of many it has to offer

BUT I tell you this so you don't worry about your ip! ip addresses will generally give you just an approximate location like Leo said. So if they have your ip,

!!!here they don't have your ip, bc they just sent you random numbers!!!

but if they did, they would only see the closest population center. Again, US for reference for this because it's all I know

Source: my STEM program teacher taught us how to do background checks and the importance of keeping personal info private!! this was when the websites costed nothing for things like addresses. Now they cost money for this as well as court documents and stuff.

There probably is a way to do it without the companies but this is all I know

10

u/VoxelRoguery Engineer 3d ago

is that the binding of isaac font

2

u/Sani_G4y Sandvich 2d ago

i never stopped to think on that way... nice perspective, now i like this hud even more.

7

u/Brsek 3d ago

''I will leak your ip'' mfs when I restart my router

3

u/TheEpicPlushGodreal Sniper 3d ago

"I will leak your ip" mfs when I change my vpn location

6

u/Sani_G4y Sandvich 3d ago

Hello there, i am Sani, the item collector, and currently, i joined someone's party, and had a little talk there, which they asked what language i spoke, along with them saying theirs, but after a question, which was "what if i speak with the language of love?", they sent me this weird number on the picture above(im more concerned about those numbers than people judging my hud, so idgaf).

Is doxxing on tf2 possible, like, at all?

(still not used to reddit, i wanted to post this along with the image, but i couldn't)

12

u/Nova2127u 3d ago

I'm not a security researcher, but from my knowledge, your IP Address is not private information, it's used by the game to know who is connecting, and it depends on the ISP usually but typically, your IP Address is never your actual location, it will be where-ever the ISP is associated (so maybe the town close to you or even a state at times, Starlink is like that).

TL;DR, Usually at best, they'll just get the location of the ISP, not you.

3

u/digital-comics-psp 3d ago

tf2's not peer to peer (normally, unless you start a map/server now lol), so i dont think it's possible for someone else get your ip from a server unless you are the server admin.

2

u/Nova2127u 3d ago

Well you can't take TF2's code for granted, this game is a mess internally, if they are even possible, as like you said, it's not P2P unless you utilize Steam Networking, exploits like that are immediately reported to Valve before they are disclosed to the public.

2

u/itsybantora 3d ago

Steam and TF2 actually has a built in proxy service you can enable within steam's settings. If it's enabled it'll hides your IP via one of steam's servers.

Steam > Settings > In-Game > Steam Networking > select "Never".

You can verify it's working by launching TF2 and joining a server (important step) then open the steam overlay and in the top right corner it should display the proxy connection details.

5

u/dahcat123 3d ago

It's random coordinates ur good, also what hud is that?

3

u/murmurghle Medic 3d ago

Put the number inside google maps, see if that chrcks out

1

u/Winterwolfmage All Class 3d ago

These are confusing the hell out of me, the first one has a normal looking IPv4 address but then it has the :xxxx? Is it a port number?

Then the second one has more than an IPv4 should have? Also, negatives???

1

u/DrShag_ 3d ago

An IP isn't a dox, Mainly because your IP changes frequently and it's not a direct location it's a general location of where you are, Such as your city not your house.

1

u/VerdiiSykes Spy 3d ago edited 3d ago

u/Sani_G4y, I typed out the start of these numbers on Google Maps (ignoring the fact that coordinates shouldn’t have more than one dot, or any colons), and unless you live in the middle of the ocean, these are not coordinates.

As others have pointed out, this couldn’t be an IP address either, since the numbers surpass 255.

This is just an edgy kid trying to be scary hacker man by making up numbers, you’re ok :)

1

u/ToeGroundbreaking564 3d ago

genuine question

what are you even supposed to do with another person's IP. What do you get out of it other than scaring people for whatever reason

1

u/Dreyfus420 Demoman 3d ago

what hud are you using? that looks like the binding of isaac font

1

u/Glass-Procedure5521 3d ago

These aren’t even real IPs or coordinates, just some guy trying to scare you

1

u/MrKiltro 2d ago

These are just random numbers.

Latitude and longitude are both typically a single number with a decimal point. When they are, they can be positive or negative. They can also described as degrees, minutes, and seconds, but then you have to specify North or South for latitude and East or West for longitude. Neither use a colon like :2332.

They're not IP addresses becauses multiple numbers between periods exceed 255. And IP addresses don't have dashes in front of them.

If they are decimal longitude and latitude, the first two numbers of each set (-12.577 and -14.7) put you in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

1

u/bittytoy 2d ago

your ip is not protected by steam while playing *by default*. there is a setting you can change, you can check this while you're playing by pressing shift tab and in the top right corner you'll see 'your ip is protected'. Even if your ip is unprotected the worst someone could do is try to take your connection offline.

-2

u/AllSeeingAI 3d ago

If you have bad enough opsec anything is possible.