Testing a plugin

[Dark Nexus]

I have been working on a security plugin that limits access to arenas based on configurable access rights. What I am really looking for is high traffic zones to help test the effeciency of the plugin, and root out any bugs i haven't found yet. The plugin is pretty stable as I have been doing some testing of my own in a development server. The only big issue (besides the possibility of the plugin being malicious ) is that the bot requires SysOp access to send *info to verify MacId's.

 

In an ideal situation, the zone owner could set up a bot to run the plugin (avoiding any passwords being given out) and allowing me to configure the plugin; then a few days later the log file is emailed back to me.

 

If you can help out, send me a message at darknexus@cableone.net

 

If you are concerned about running the plugin in your zone, I will be more than happy to foward the source to you.

 

The following is a link to provide some more details on the plugin: http://darknexus.no-ip.com/c++/bots/secure

 

Any help would be appreciated, Thanks in advance.

[50% Packetloss]

How do you keep players out of an arena? Just setting the arena limit to 1? Does changing the settings after the player is in the arena still send the player back to a pub arena?

[Dark Nexus]

actually you add names and macids to an access list, and when someone tries to enter it compares their name and macid (if you supplied an ID) against the ones in the access list. The intial access rights are set in a .txt file, but more can be added later in game.

 

.txt file looks like this

 

Name:Arenas:MacID's

Dark_Nexus:0,test,#nexus:16533325,45696652

 

if the player is not found in the access list, or there is a MacId mismatch, it sends the player an Access-denied message (based off of arenas.ini where the messages can be changed) and then *kill's the player for a set amount of minutes (also found in arenas.ini).

[50% Packetloss]

Sounds useless. The only people you would want to keep out of an arena would be non-mods. You can do that by setting the arena's limit to 0 and then only mods can get in it. Plus the setting doesn't *kill people from the zone.

[Dark Nexus]

it's good if you have a dev team that are not moderators, or if the biller is offline, to verify macids.

 

i would also like to thank you for the un-requested and un-needed opinion.

[»Maverick]

I can test the plugin in SSCU 17th Parallel for you and notify you of any bugs I encountered.

 

(besides the possibility of the plugin being malicious)

but this makes me not want to test it anymore. Maybe you can send me the source so im sure im risking anything?

 

50% Packetloss is partially correct; *kill'ing players isn't a very good method. But since there is no other method for the bot to remove players from an arena, its good.

[Dark Nexus]

like i said i would be more than happy to supply you with the source, drop me a message at darknexus@cableone.net and i will be sure to reply back with the source, thanks again.

[50% Packetloss]

The other method is to use ASSS. Bots are fairly limited.

[»SOS]

However, ASSS makes coders mentally limited

[Confess]

hehe, As ive been helping dark_nexus testing this plugin, i've actually found it quite usefull.

 

Back when assault was attacked, i was afraid it would happen again, so i talked to DN and had her drop a bot in there to log everything, she did better, she put in the secure bot.

 

Anyways, if you do not want to use permit, this is a good way to keep people out, while still allowing them to see the news for upcoming things/etc. The plugin is very easy to use and setup. It also sends all the errors/login attempts to a chat so if you are ingame, you can see that they tried to login to that particular place, then you can laugh at them for even trying Those of you that say this is useless, are fools(Although i do see where you are coming from). Look at the plugins such as 8ball (Dark_nexus' statement ).

 

Good Luck/Happy cybering!

[»Maverick]

Confess, 50% was only pointing out that a bot can't do the job of keeping away people from an arena. The maxplayers setting is the best way but isn't really usuable to keep certain people out while letting other in.

 

I like how dark_nexus is open for bug reports and opening the plugin to the community but, to be honest (and no offence), the plugin isn't that hard to make. I haven't seen the plugin yet so I can't really judge anyway.

 

EDIT: Hm received the plugin and looks impressive. Why also use macids anyway?

[Dark Nexus]

well while i was running an older version of the plugin on confess' server, his biller went offline for a few hours (and when the biller goes down you can login under any name with any password) and someone managed to log in under a name that had access to the arena, but wasn't really that player. So i figured if i added macid's that it would only allow users from certain machines to log in. The MacID filter is purely optional, no MacId's have to be tied to names, it can just be based off of the players screen name.

 

EDIT: and i whipped this plugin up a few years ago when i was still developing for MERC (when the plugin was based only off of a single text file, and had no in-game commands), and i was only a moderator in a sub arena, yet the dev'ing was taking place in a different arena. The secure plugin was merely a last resort so that if someone happened to stumble upon the arena, nothing would be compromised, and you would not have to take the time to move everything to a different arena.

 

Editx2: I also understand fully that the plugin is not that hard to make, and concerning confess' statement earlier, an 8ball plugin isn't that hard to make either, yet it is still available to the community, regardless of it's importance. Some of the features i have added to this plugin though make for a more dynamic system with the options available. Rather than just "if (!CMPSTR(p->name,"Dark_Nexus"))"

 

just recently did i decide to port things over to build 45 and add some new features.

[»Maverick]

very nice...

I forgot about that biller down problem, is a good thing SSC renames players to ^Playername when it is down (on other occasions its as annoying as !@#$%^&* though)

 

What's Merc if I may ask? Seen it a couple times but never could figure out what it was (for) ?

[Dark Nexus]

MERC refers too all the zones under Ground Warfare, it's more of a team label though.

[»D1st0rt]

Samurai was a pimp zone, it was part of my daily routine two summers ago