--[Can I get caught and will I?]-
First of all, it depends on what you are going to do or already did.
When you are going to take over a channel for example, if you are doing it without hiding your identity first (See previous chapter) you can get caught but nothing will probably happen to you. You might receive a DoS attack that can terminate your IRC session or lag you like hell. If you are using a bouncer for example, you won't get caught for this. But if you "click" someone and he logs the packets he can e-mail your ISP with your IP and they might kill your account.
If you are killing someone with a netsplit (See next chapter) you won't get caught and nothing will happens to you since you haven't done anything illegal.
Also, it is good to know as much as possible about your target. If you see some one that is named 'Ass^Hole' for example, you have no good reason to go packet him or flood him. He might have access to an OC3 or a DS-3 line (Extremely fast connections to the Internet) and he might also detect your attacks and start flooding you in return. Trust me, you don't want this to happen. One day my T3 line got ping flooded from an OC3 line and it stopped working for about 30 minutes. Just for your information, OC3 can transfer up to 255Mbit and a T3 can transfer up to 9Mbit (I think). If such a line will flood your computer you don't stand a chance.
--[What are netsplits and how can they hellp me?]--
Large IRC networks consist of various servers. A NetSplit occurs when a link between one of the servers and the others gets broken because of lag or other reasons. All users that were connected to this channel will be separated from the others as long as the netsplit occurs.
Therefore, lots of channels become empty, and get closed. When you will join a channel that became empty, or you left only 1 user in the channel and you will cycle it, there is a chance that you will obtain the channel operator status (OP, @).
On a NetJoin (When the server relink to the entire network again) you might still have the channel operator status. On new servers, you won't get the operator status when the network is in a spilt mode, but if you could find an old server or network you just might get lucky. Breaking a connection between 2 servers by yourself is very difficult. You need to pick 2 servers that are already lagged and start ping-flooding the target server from a fast connection.
Once a netjoin occurs, it is recommended to have a war script (we'll get to those) that will DeOP everyone on the channel so other OPs won't be able to DeOP you.
NetSplits can also let you disconnect a user from the IRC. Let's say you want to disconnect a user named 'Lamer'. When a netsplit occurs, there are two different possibilities:
1) The target user ('Lamer', in our case) was on the server that did the netsplit and has left the IRC network, but will return once a netjoin occurs (shouldn't take a lot of time).
2) The user is still on the network and has nothing to do with the netsplit.
If number 1 occurs then all you need to do is connect to the network using his nickname and wait for the netjoin. When the servers will re-link they will see that there are 2 users with the same nickname. Such thing cannot possibly happen, so one user must be killed. The user that was NOT on the network, (which means he was on the splitted server) will probably get killed. If option 2 occurs then all you can do is to put a clone (open another IRC sesssion), connect to the splitted server and change your nick to his nick. When the servers will rejoin there is a small chance that he will get killed, so cross your fingers. :)
Now, for the 1,000,000$ question: how do I detect a netsplit? You can detect a netsplit if the user(s) quit message is "Server1 Server2". For example:
Lamar has quit IRC (irc.magic.com irc.freei.net)
| |_Server2
|_Server1
This message tells you that there is a split between irc.magic.com and irc.freei.net
The second server (Server2) is the server that left the net.
--[Channel Takeovers]-
Channel takeovers are used to take a channel from a user, and prevent him from reentering the channel or gaining operator status in the channel. The first thing you need to do is to get ops. Here are 4 ways to get ops:
1. Via a NetSplit. (might take a lot of time)
2. Asking one of the ops to let you be an op (Who knows? You might get lucky).
3. Running a bot on your computer or on a shell account and telling the other ops that it is online 24 hours a day, and ask them to op it. They might do it, then tell the bot to op you.
4. You can always lure the other ops into giving you op by telling them that you will advertise their channel and bring them users and you might earn the ops status.
You can do nothing without the OP status. Here is what you do after you got an op and you want to close they're channels:
1. First, mass de-op all the users so they won't kick or ban you. There are a lot of scripts out there that will do this for you.
2. Then place a ban on *!*@*
3. Mass-Kick the channel (also with a script)
4. After this set the following modes: +smilk 1 1 (you type /mode #Channel +smilk 1 1)
5. You took over the channel! :)
There is a problem with this, when you will leave the channel he will get empty and then closed. The only solution for this is placing a 24/7 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) bot in the channel. If channel services are available on this network (Like in DALnet), you can register the channel if no one else have done this already.
If you took over a registered channel, you will have a problem keeping it because Channel Services can give the channel back to its legal owner with no problem.
How to completely ruin a channel
--------------------------------
Here are some possible ways to completely ruin a channel:
1) Turning the channel into an invite-only channel, so only people who were invited (to invite people, type /invite nick) can join.
2) Making the channel password-protected.
3) Making sure that you are the only OP in the channel and then turning the channel into moderated mode and then mass-devoicing everyone. In moderated mode, only voiced users (people with a little + in the beginning of their nick. To voice people, do /mode #channel +v nick or -v to devoice) can talk. That way, users will be able to see who is on the channel (note: you can see who's on a channel without joining it by typing /names #channel), but they won't be able to chat, and they will have to listen to you... :)
--[Some expansion about RAW sessions]-
>
Too lazy to read RFC ?
Well, this is the "SUMMARY" of rfc1459 (IRC Protocol). Hopefully after reading this you'll have better understanding of how the protocol work (hey... don't just use it... try to understand how it work). Yeah... this is also how some people spoof their IP by telneting from some restricted shell account with no IRC client access.
[Connecting to the IRC daemon]
Telnet/netcat (yep... we're gonna use a raw socket) to the IRC port (6667/6668..etc) of the IRC server.
eg <:> telnet irc.dal.net 6667
Send your nick & username to be recognized after u got connected using the user command in this form "user <username> <hostname> <servername> <realname>".
eg <:> user nobody localhost localhost :I'm nobody
nick nobody
-------------------------[!! NOTE !!]-------------------------
At any time if your receive anything like this
ping :1234567 <-- The sequence number change all the time
or
ping :192.0.0.1 <-- Some IP address
You must send back the number with a pong
eg <:> pong :1234567
or
pong :192.0.0.1
If you don't pong back, you'll be disconnected with a ping timeout error.
----------------------[!! END OF NOTE !!]---------------------
[Exploring some basic commands]
Ok, after the nick & user commands you can start chatting now. Type join #channel (Without the /) to join #channel.
(Yea... most commands you use in your BitchX or mIRC client can also be
used here too...just don't include the /
eg: part #channel
quit :I'm out
etc... )
To send your message to a channel, use the privmsg command.
eg <:> privmsg #channel : Hi guys...Sup? (Dont forget the ":" if you are going to send more then one word)
This will send "Hi guys...Sup?" to #channel
To send a private message to a user:
eg <:> privmsg nickname : HI ya
This will send "HI ya" to nickname.
To set a mode on a channel you simply type mode #channel mode.
For example, MODE #Channel +b 192.114.*.* will ban everyone that they're IP begin with 192.114.