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To the idiots…

To the idiots who thought it would be cute to use the Sylverant DNS resolver to launch DNS-related attacks, you really are not amusing. Thanks to you idiots, the DNS server I host is now locked to only provide the addresses for PSO-related hostnames. I’m also reconsidering whether I should host said DNS or not at this point, since it is obviously more trouble than it is worth. Not that I expect said idiots to ever read this post or anything else anyway.

To those who aren’t amongst the idiots, I guess this needs a bit of explaining… One of the options for connecting to Sylverant with certain versions of PSO for the Dreamcast (Network Trial Edition, USv1, EUv1, EUv2) and all versions of PSO for Gamecube was to use the Sylverant server as your DNS in your network configuration. This works because I host a DNS server that provides the IP addresses for certain PSO-related hostnames that the game uses to try to connect to a server. All of these addresses resolve to the same IP address as the Sylverant server itself. For convenience, the DNS server could also be used for general day-to-day use and with other online games, as it would recursively look up any hostnames it did not know about, and return the correct IP address for said servers by way of (primarily) Google’s Public DNS server. However, someone recently decided it would be a good idea to use this service that I provide (the DNS server) to launch a DNS query amplification attack (see here for more info on what that is). Thus I have had to stop allowing recursive lookups to prevent someone from performing such an attack. What that means is that the Sylverant DNS is now not usable for general day-to-day lookups (not that I expect many people were using their Dreamcasts for web browsing), nor can you use it in your network configuration for playing games like Quake 3 Arena on the Dreamcast any more (which was probably more commonly done).

I highly suggest that anyone playing PSO on the Dreamcast that does not already use the Sylverant PSO Patcher disc consider doing so in the near future. I may end up having to discontinue the DNS service if people continue to abuse it, so I’d like it if everyone was prepared for that possibility.

8 Responses to “To the idiots…”

  1. mahkbooks says:

    So if I am using the BBA to connect using your DNS, am I out of luck? Is there another way to connect from DC besides using your DNS?

    • BlueCrab says:

      For the moment, the DNS still works for looking up PSO-related hostnames, it just does not work for anything else. I’ll keep it up and running as long as it doesn’t get attacked again.

      If you use the PSO Patcher disc, you do not have to use any special DNS (since it patches the game binary to point to sylverant.net instead of Sega’s old hostnames), so I recommend that to all DC users.

  2. mautheus says:

    Okay, I will continue using the Sylverant PSO Patcher to play my PSO DC USA v.2
    Whenever someone comes along to disrupt. This is boring.

  3. FaithY says:

    That sucks. I’m not surprised, though. This has been a problem with quake DC for years. dDOS attacks on quake are what got me playing PSO. 😛

  4. Scud! says:

    Very frustrating to hear, hope the server will stay up. I just got my internet back so I’m finally able to play!

    • BlueCrab says:

      The server itself is in no present danger, just my hosting of a DNS server for it. Even without the DNS server, everything will still work fine for anyone using the Sylverant PSO Patcher or anyone using CodeBreaker codes to patch the server address.

  5. K_I_R_E_E_K says:

    Boy does this sound familiar.
    Either this was random or it was intentional, either way i doubt it will happen again, nonetheless keep your eyes open.

    I can see you weren’t happy with this, but trust me, dc-talk has already felt the exact same thing and wasn’t only a ddos, so if you somehow think i or someone hate a particular member, GM, admin or supporter for no reason then think again, there’s always a reason, in a particular time frame 9 reasons can be given and unfortunately one of your precious GMs is the blame for one of them, heck just the website forum hosted at sylverant contains all the members that caused the incidents at dc-talk (some even affected dreamcast related development).

    So bluecrab, while i understand why you are upset, try not to give much attention, if you had to manage the same thing dc-talk felt before then sylverant would continue as it is, dc-talk is also a fine website, it’s not down or anything and resisted far worse.

    Mention the situation but don’t get carried over, do what needs to be done but don’t make a huge fuss over it, you never know if you’re gonna get hit by far worse things, all at the same “time”, what you’re gonna do, post 12 times or so?

    Consider this as a friendly advice, you may think I’m the most unlikely friend you will ever find atm, but my and dc-talk members experience far exceeds yours on this matter.
    I can’t really give you more info like who did this, sure i have my list of suspects but unlike the issues at dc-talk where certain ppl actually bragged about the issues, here it’s a shot in the dark altough i’m sure you do have some info and you do well in not releasing it, afterall that’s a principle of security.

    • BlueCrab says:

      From what I heard from the person who hosts the site, it appeared to be pretty much a random person performing the attack. It didn’t seem like someone was specifically targeting Sylverant, just making use of the fact that it had an open DNS resolver to DDoS someone else. In all honesty, I’m not really all that upset about it. Perhaps a bit annoyed, but I also realize that the world is full of idiots who just love to make other peoples’ lives miserable. The person who attacked the DNS is just one of the many idiots of the world.

      I wasn’t trying to imply it was anyone in particular that orchestrated the attack, hence the statement in the first paragraph that I doubt the idiots would ever see that message. The issue has pretty much been taken care of, so it’s not really a big deal anymore. I just wanted to make sure that everyone that might actually use it legitimately knows that there’s the possibility that if someone finds another way to attack it that I might have to take it down entirely.

 
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