NationStates Jolt Archive

Two items here pertaining to The North Pacific and Feeder Regions in general that should be interest to the Mods:

Item 1:

I don't know how he did it, but the UN Delegate of "The North Pacific" has somehow prevented certain nations residing within the region from posting on the HQ board. How is this being done and is it a legitimate action on his part or is it a violation of game mechanics via some kind of hack or script?


Item 2:

As I understand it, from what I have read, the Mods have permitted each nation (excluding puppets of those nations, naturally) to post one link per day to a forum not specifically santioned by a Regional UN Delegate in the HQ board header?

Is it legitimate and not a thart of game mechanics for the UN Delegate to prohibit posts containing words longer than a certain number of letters under the guise of 'preventing spam' but with the absolute intent of preventing access to that forum?

Is such a function available to UN Delegates preventing specific nations *residing* within their regions from posting on the HQ board - these nations have not been ejected from the region?

Is the UN Delegate of a region given a specific feature in regional control to censor the length of words posted?

I created a nation to test my theory and it has proven that some kind of filter preventing certain nations withing a region from posting on the HQ of the region in which they are residents.

What's going on with this?


Best regards,

Sounds like a script to me... I've been a delegate and a founder in the past... I dont recall either ability

EDIT:it is possible that the feeder deletegates get some special privelidges (sp?) that other founders/delegates dont have... but I certainly dont think THIS particular power would be included there

Sounds like a script to me... I've been a delegate and a founder in the past... I dont recall either ability
One of my puppets is a founder. I checked, I cannot seem to see such an ability either.

rom..what happens? what is it you see? some error message? or just your post not showing up? or disappearing?

could just be a bug, i have had posts of mine disappear sometimes too...or something fishy is going on...

Sounds like a script to me... I've been a delegate and a founder in the past... I dont recall either ability

EDIT:it is possible that the feeder deletegates get some special privelidges (sp?) that other founders/delegates dont have... but I certainly dont think THIS particular power would be included there

If this particular power is there, it's there suddenly as it never existed before.

Oh, it involves some kind of script of sorts. Whether it resides on the NS server or is somehow being inserted somewhere else, it appears to be a script. I'll have to see if I can find anything in my browser caches that point to this.

There certainly appears to be additional goodies being downloaded from this particular Region that are not present in other regions, feeder or not. My firewall and AV software is occasionally registering and displaying 'hostile script' warnings and 'tojan access' attempts in relation to The North Pacific region when I access it. I sent copies of the suspected malicious code to Norton and Network Associates. The nasty code appears to be hidden in a jpg image under certain conditions. There are nasties on the internet that use jpgs to hide malicious code. If I set up a 'sandbox' that catches even suspected potentially malicious codes, the page won't load completely.

I mean it could be a glitch but not likely as the UN Delegate posted a message in the HQ header that he has limited the length of words to prevent "spam", by which, ov course, means anything he personally doesn't want anyone to be able to read (other forums). If that isn't thwarting game mechanics (as I can post long links on other feeder region HQ boards without problems or complaints) I don't know what is.

Regards,

(pardon the double post, I fogot to add this in)

rom..what happens? what is it you see? some error message? or just your post not showing up? or disappearing?

could just be a bug, i have had posts of mine disappear sometimes too...or something fishy is going on...


Well, it just became even more fishy. The notice about preventing long words has been removed from the HQ header and suddenly the nations in question that couldn't post can suddenly post again.

My conclusion is that the UN Delegate of The North Pacific noticed that I complained in the Mod forum and has gone in and changed the script once again in hopes that they didn't get caught for it.

Either way, I can't see the Mods going in and removing an illegal script and not going after the person who executed it.

At any rate, I will email one of the Mods as per a security issue on the NationStates server and what appears to have happened.

Regards,

Well, it just became even more fishy. The notice about preventing long words has been removed from the HQ header and suddenly the nations in question that couldn't post can suddenly post again.

Hence why the Getting help is always prefered... it is splattered all over the people's sig.s around here...

Oh, I've seen lots of that. The thing that I am worried about in the actual game of NationStates is that someone has figured out how to insert malicious code into their posts.

And the fact that the person who did this yanked the code within a few minutes of the lodging of this complaint indicates that they are banking on the Mods not being able to retrieve the logs that would indicate illegal alteration of the page/scripts.

Nope, Mr Horse says he doesn't like this one bit.

http://toychest.diamondcomics.com/toys/04_04/R_S%20Mr.%20Horse.jpg

While the in-character Pixiedance (Moldavi) may be a hellacious dictator (:P), I sincerely doubt the person behind the nation would take any such illegal actions in this game.

As CG said, could it be a bug? This has happened to me in my region in the past. I assure you I wouldn't script against myself. ;)

There is a maximum word length in posts, this is to prevent page-breaking spam. It will apply to all words that are longer than this limit, including URLs. If there's something you absolutely must link to, you can use http://************/ to condense it.

[edit]

If you try to post a word longer than is allowed, this message will appear just above the UN rankings: To prevent format-breaking spam, you cannot post a message conta ining an extremely long word. Please insert a space or two into your long word and try again.

While the in-character Pixiedance (Moldavi) may be a hellacious dictator (:P), I sincerely doubt the person behind the nation would take any such illegal actions in this game.

As CG said, could it be a bug? This has happened to me in my region in the past. I assure you I wouldn't script against myself. ;)


It was no bug. The notice explaining it was right on the regional HQ page. As soon as I lodged this complaint, the notice and restriction was removed and access restored.


Myrth:
There is a maximum word length in posts, this is to prevent page-breaking spam. It will apply to all words that are longer than this limit, including URLs. If there's something you absolutely must link to, you can use http://************/ to condense it.

Withing 10 minutes of me posting this complaint here, the restriction suddenly was removed, access to posting permitted again and the notice describing the posting limitations was removed from the HQ page.

This limitation was not in effect for any other region, feeder or not.

Since this code/script suddenly appeared and then disappeared, and the UN Delegate has no options for this on his regional control page (a point that can be easily verified by asking other UN Regional Delegates) then it just makes me wonder who would have changed the script. I can't see the Mods doing this to just one region and then undoing it a little while later. So, the only logical conclusion is that someone hacked the server or otherwise inserted this script/code. They them removed it in hopes of not being discovered.

Either way, the security people for the server need to take a look at this.

Again, there were never any restrictions in posting short links to other forums. before. Then there was today, until I started this thread, and then suddenly I can post links and words 100 characters long.

No glitch, not standing restriction. The only question is who did this? I know why they did it and by doing it they are showing utter contempt for game mechanics and rules.

Nevertheless, malicious script and trojan activity was caught by my AV software and hardware firewall. The alteration of the page and is subsequent return to normal are documented.

If the Mods were not responsible for this for some reason, then the person fiddling around should be identified very quickly because you don't know what they are going to do next.

Take my word for it, have your server security person take a very, very close look at it. You won't be disappointed.

Regards,

At the moment we see no evidence that any scripts have been used or any advantage has been taken of this server.

The delegate is free to set (practically) any rules that they desire and enforce them.

Including preventing certain nations who reside in the region from posting on the HQ at all?

If this was a legitimate action by the UN Delegate then why was it changed back and the notice deleted and restricted posting privileges suddenly restored?

You might also want to note that "Pixiedance" hasn't been logged in for at least 14 hours at this time. So, if the UN Delegate didn't alter and then change back these changes, then who did? And why?

A lot of people noticed what happened and they also noticed that "Pixiedance" was not active at the time the changes were made. Doesn't that sound the least bit funny to you?

I know that if someone even logs into their nation it changes the "Last Government Action" indicator whether or not they solve 'dilemas', send TGs or anything else.

If you guys didn't change the script for a couple of hours, then you've got a really nasty hacker out there who is pulling a good one on everybody.

Regards,

Withing 10 minutes of me posting this complaint here, the restriction suddenly was removed, access to posting permitted again and the notice describing the posting limitations was removed from the HQ page.

The message only appears when you try to post a message containing more than the allowed characters. Try it - if you try and post something like "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" you'll get the message. When you refresh it will be gone. It works this way in any region.

Here (www.satanstephen.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/spamblock.jpg) is a screenshot of it in the USSR. Is that the message you saw?

No, that's not the message that I saw.

And take a look at the length of the string of characters I just posted on the HQ board at The North Pacific.

Regards,

And take a look at the length of the string of characters I just posted on the HQ board at The North Pacific.

Regards,

The character limit is 75. The string you posted was 60.
If you get it again, take a screenshot.

I just logged onto the HQ page, the message appeared and then suddenly disappeared along with my ability to post on the HQ board.

Someone's screwing around with you, me and everyone else.

And the color to the message was black, not red on the TNP board. It's isn't my browser either.

I find this extremely interesting.

Regards,

The character limit is 75. The string you posted was 60.
If you get it again, take a screenshot.

I'll certainly give it a try. I'll get back to you in a few as I have to go out and feed my horses before they revolt against me out of hunger! ;)

Regards,

I have to agree with Myrth.

Normally, we don't consider screenshots to be evidence, but I, personally, have no idea what you're talking about, so I, for one, need to see a screenshot.

Let's clear up a few things:
No nation has the power to bar any other nation from posting in the Civil Headquarters board. No exceptions. No exceptions. No exceptions.
A nation can be ejected from the region in response to that nation posting in the Civil Headquarters board, but that's it.
Each unique player is permitted under NationStates rules to post once per day a link to a different offsite forum than the forum sanctioned by the the Delegate. The Delegate is permitted under NationStates rules to eject any nation attempting to do this.
There is a server-imposed limit on how long words can be. No nation can circumvent this limit. The server bars all nations from attempting to post long words. We're talking about really long words, here, longer than words which sound really quite atrocious like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Long URLs can get caught in this.

--The Modified Democratic States of Cogitation

While the in-character Pixiedance (Moldavi) may be a hellacious dictator (:P), I sincerely doubt the person behind the nation would take any such illegal actions in this game.

As do I. Because scripts leave trails, and if a script was in play, the NS moderation team would see it. I think this a last ditch effort to try to get Pixiedance into trouble for something for being in opposition to players in TNP. Why do I think that? It's simple. URLs can be posted there, and I've seen the S2 URL in question posted there. It's acceptable length. I highly doubt Moldavi is going to do anything to jeopardize the position he is in.

OK, here's the results. It will post the forum url http://s2.invisionfree.com/The_North_Pacific/

if I do so under my main nations Romanoffia II.

It will not post and a spam trap message comes up if I use my puppet nation.

I will now try to post using my puppet nation after I pop in and out of the region.

OK, took me two tries to post and it wouldn't let me post the URL in question. I also got a message from Norton AV that a hostile script was blocked and my firewall logged a portscan. This time I also I kept getting a refused connection message this time, but only when I try to post the URL in question. My firewall settings are OK and nothing's changed and a virus scan turned up a suspicious script of unknown nature.

What I think is that I've got some kind of virus on my system that has somehow latched onto a particular URL. I'll know more about it when Norton gets back to me with their findings on what I sent them.

But it's not a glitch.


Regards,

OK, here's the results. It will post the forum url http://s2.invisionfree.com/The_North_Pacific/
I just posted the URL in question without the least bit of trouble. Since you could too as Romanoffia II, I can only assume the problem is on your end. Good luck sorting it, and check out some of the spyware tools like Ad-aware and SpyBot. I'm sure helpful readers have other suggestions if those don't work.

This is no longer a moderation question. iMove to Technical.

Thanks, Frisb. Had a programmer here investigate it. We figured out what happened, how it was done, who did it and what measure to take to prevent it from happening again.

No security issues with NS server, and the answer was beyond the juridiction of Game Mods.

Thanks,