Streaming fiasco: Network settings display IP number for everyone to see

My Odyssey launch stream had a very unfortunate turn of events tonight. Basically, everyone watching the stream (over a hundred people) saw my IPv4/6 address, the local address and the router address as well.

So how did this even happen? Well, like everyone else, we were trying to connect to the servers. Then someone in chat suggested trying something they'd seen on the forums and instructed me to go to network settings.

I'd never gone to the network settings before in Elite Dangerous so I was completely oblivious of what was to soon show. As soon as I opened the tab, it showed my IP and all the rest of it for everyone to see. I of course shut it as soon as I saw it and was understandably distraught. I had to unplug my router and remove the current stream ASAP.

To make this game safer for streamers, I'd suggest the UI be altered in a way so that by default, these numbers are hidden / collapsed or displayed as a row of asterix symbols and require pressing a button or a eye icon to reveal them.
 
Not gonna hold my breath for a fix on this one sadly, given the omnishambles that has characterised Odysseys launch, I expect this to be fixed some years down the line.

I really hope you dont get too much malicious activity scanning your IP.
 
Surprised you've never been in the network settings. You've played the game along time.
Port forwarding was a big thing back in the day, so I'd be surprised if most didn't know what information was on that screen.

Agree it needs to be ****** asterix'd though, with a reveal button or something.
 
Hi Kat,

Did it show your external (public) IP or just the internal one? If it was just internal there's nothing to worry about. Plus most modems/routers have to have WAN mode enabled for remote connections.
 
I really hope you dont get too much malicious activity scanning your IP.

I hope so too! I have to say I'm still devastated from this.

Surprised you've never been in the network settings. You've played the game along time.
Port forwarding was a big thing back in the day, so I'd be surprised if most didn't know what information was on that screen.

Agree it needs to be ****** asterix'd though, with a reveal button or something.

I started Elite just over a year ago, played for a couple of months and only came back with Odyssey alpha, so haven't played very much actually.

And I would have never had any reason to go into the network settings before as I never had issues like that.

What is port forwarding? I'm completely clueless.

Yeah definitely needs to be hidden by default!

I didn't know you streamed. I'll have to check you out!

Welcome on over!

Did it show your external (public) IP or just the internal one? If it was just internal there's nothing to worry about. Plus most modems/routers have to have WAN mode enabled for remote connections.

It was my external IP unfortunately. And I have no idea about the WAN mode.
 
This is only an issue if you are using a dedicated IPv4 address. If you are behind CGNAT/Dual Stack lite, attacking this IP is futile because it won't reach any end node.
 
This is only an issue if you are using a dedicated IPv4 address. If you are behind CGNAT/Dual Stack lite, attacking this IP is futile because it won't reach any end node.

I'm not sure which kind it was, but to get it changed we had to reset our router and turn it off for about half a day for it to "free up" the old one and "find" a new IP.
1.7 billion credits in that time.... nice work.

Robigo passenger mission madness!
 
I'm not sure which kind it was, but to get it changed we had to reset our router and turn it off for about half a day for it to "free up" the old one and "find" a new IP.
If you use cable and have a very low upload speed (often 20-to-1 ratio) compared to your download speed, it's likely a shared IPv4 address.

If the WAN address as shown in your router is one of the following:
  • 10.x.x.x
  • 100.64.x.x
  • 172.(16-31).x.x
  • 192.168.x.x
it's CGNAT or Dual Stack Lite and you cannot be attacked directly.

Also, CGNAT/Dual Stack Lite make port forwarding and UPnP nonfunctional because the IP address you try to forward from is of an ISP-Sided LAN layer and thus not externally reachable which can be an issue concerning instancing if there's no Elite Dangerous TURN server available. TURN is a relay that works similar to a VPN or other tunnel solutions to bridge players (like Hamachi).
 
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