Hey what's up? Was wondering if there is a way to spy on an IRC connection in the same way you can spy on a BBS node?

Any advice or steering me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks :)

- SBDSTech

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þ Synchronet þ SBDS - bbs.sbdata.net

On Wed, 11 Mar 2026 03:58:11 -0700
"sbdstech" (VERT/SBDSTECH) <VERT/SBDSTECH!sbdstech@endofthelinebbs.com>
wrote:

Hey what's up? Was wondering if there is a way to spy on an IRC
connection in the same way you can spy on a BBS node?

Any advice or steering me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks :)

- SBDSTech

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­ Synchronet ­ SBDS - bbs.sbdata.net

The best you can do, really, is run your ircd in debug mode so that it
logs everything that is send to and from your server. This will include
logging any passwords used for services or keys used to lock a channel
in clear text so be aware of that.
--
End Of The Line BBS - Plano, TX
telnet endofthelinebbs.com 23
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Re: Re: Spy on IRC connections?
By: nelgin to sbdstech on Wed Mar 11 2026 10:15 am

Hey what's up? Was wondering if there is a way to spy on an IRC connection
in the same way you can spy on a BBS node?

The best you can do, really, is run your ircd in debug mode so that it logs everything that is send to and from your server. This will include logging any passwords used for services or keys used to lock a channel in clear text so be aware of that.

If the ircd server is small enough, you could use tcpdump, or even ngrep to view the network traffic via packet sniffing, since it's unencrypted.

...He who dies with the most toys, wins!

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Re: Re: Spy on IRC connections?
By: DaiTengu to nelgin on Wed Mar 11 2026 15:02:47

If the ircd server is small enough, you could use tcpdump, or even ngrep to view the network traffic via packet sniffing, since it's unencrypted.

You could but the debug log will do all that without you having to decode the packets and put them together to make sense of the message.

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þ Synchronet þ End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com

On 11 Mar 2026, sbdstech said the following...

Hey what's up? Was wondering if there is a way to spy on an IRC connection in the same way you can spy on a BBS node?

Any advice or steering me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks :)

are you in California?

California: Under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), it is illegal to record any communication without the consent of all parties involved.

irc chat would probably fall under the ECPA too?

while you'd probably be fine peeking at where users are getting stuck on a menu or watching how they crash a bbs door to leave a node stuck, i'd advise against trying to log chats.

now that i'm thinking about it, it's probably not legal to read your user's email anymore either.. a lot has changed and an "assume i read everything" banner on a BBS is NOT something that would fly.

why do you want to view their chats anyway? are you a creep?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi

Cool .. thanks I'll try that ... only reason I'm asking is cause I opened that port to my server and there's around 10 connections to the IRC port and they've been connected for over 24 hours so I was just curious even tho I'm sure it's just bots like most of the random traffic that comes thru.. anyways thanks again..

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þ Synchronet þ SBDS - bbs.sbdata.net

Re: Re: Spy on IRC connections?
By: sbdstech to nelgin on Wed Mar 11 2026 12:54:34

Cool .. thanks I'll try that ... only reason I'm asking is cause I opened that port to my server and there's around 10 connections to the IRC port and they've been connected for over 24 hours so I was just curious even tho I'm sure it's just bots like most of the random traffic that comes thru.. anyways thanks again..

People tend to idle on irc a lot.

I'm not sure if it'll do it when not in debug mode but check your irc logs for PRIVMSG and you'll any messages that come from or to your server.

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þ Synchronet þ End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com

>California: Under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), it is illegal to record
>any communication without the consent of all parties involved.

>now that i'm thinking about it, it's probably not legal to read your user's email
>anymore either.. a lot has changed and an "assume i read everything" banner
>is NOT something that would fly.

This is a good thing for any of the BBS community to be aware of if they are in California, but there is a bit of an open question on that one:

For a violation to occur under Section 631(a), the communication must typically be intercepted while "in transit". Accessing an email after it has been received may fall outside CIPA's scope.

While I am no lawyer, my suspicion would be that question is more about whether you still need the remote party's consent to read the message if you have consent of the local user. It seems very clear that you cannot read a user's email without at least THEIR consent.

I fully agree that simply having a notice about email being visible likely wouldn't pass any muster.

A not small part of me wonders how much of that legislation is meant to protect "Elites" rather than the average Joe.
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|| Canectic || Undermine Redux - Calgary, AB

On 11 Mar 2026, sbdstech said the following...

are you in California?

California: Under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), it is illegal to record any communication without the consent of all parties involved.

irc chat would probably fall under the ECPA too?

while you'd probably be fine peeking at where users are getting stuck on a menu or watching how they crash a bbs door to leave a node stuck, i'd advise against trying to log chats.

now that i'm thinking about it, it's probably not legal to read your user's email anymore either.. a lot has changed and an "assume i read everything" banner on a BBS is NOT something that would fly.

why do you want to view their chats anyway? are you a creep?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi

Well putting the log level to debug got the desired result ... and no I'm not a creep but I had about 12 connections to the IRC server that were connected for over 24 hours so I just wanted to see if it was just bots as i assumed it was ... and it was ..

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þ Synchronet þ SBDS - bbs.sbdata.net

Re: Re: Spy on IRC connections?
By: sbdstech to nelgin on Wed Mar 11 2026 12:54 pm

Cool .. thanks I'll try that ... only reason I'm asking is cause
I opened that port to my server and there's around 10 connections
to the IRC port and they've been connected for over 24 hours so I
was just curious even tho I'm sure it's just bots like most of the
random traffic that comes thru.. anyways thanks again..

run it on a non standard port.
and only run it using ssl.


if you have bots connected for THAT long they are doing something
bad.


--
"Before using Wildcat....This Company did not have a convenient way of
looking after some of the richest clients in the world...Now we do!"

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Re: Re: Spy on IRC connections?
By: nelgin to sbdstech on Wed Mar 11 2026 07:15 pm

Re: Re: Spy on IRC connections?
By: sbdstech to nelgin on Wed Mar 11 2026 12:54:34

Cool .. thanks I'll try that ... only reason I'm asking is cause
I opened that port to my server and there's around 10 connections
to the IRC port and they've been connected for over 24 hours so I
was just curious even tho I'm sure it's just bots like most of the
random traffic that comes thru.. anyways thanks again..

People tend to idle on irc a lot.

I'm not sure if it'll do it when not in debug mode but check your
irc logs for PRIVMSG and you'll any messages that come from or to
your server.

sounds like a safe irc server to use.


--
"Before using Wildcat....This Company did not have a convenient way of
looking after some of the richest clients in the world...Now we do!"
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