Real Time Messaging Protocol

Question

Hello,

I currently play an online Adobe Flash based game and have a question about security. The game is using Real Time Messaging Protocol to handle sending chat messages between players that are gathered in the same room on the game. It was brought to my attention by another player who was using Wireshark to see what his computer was sending back and forth, and it appears that the game is sending everyone's IP address in the clear to all the players in a room every time they said something. The game, and it's players, have been attacked by hackers before so I'm wondering how concerned should we be as players? Is there any other way the game could handle messaging between players that doesn't expose our IP addresses? Is there a setting to turn on encryption for this protocol? I hope I explained this well enough for someone to give me some help.

Thanks in advance

I think possibly they are using rtmfp not rtmp.

jeromiec83223024 · Accepted Answer

It is technically possible to implement a game that allows participants to interact anonymously. That generally requires a server to which all clients connect, and that coordinates traffic between the clients. That's generally expensive. It's also a design decision that needs to be made and implemented by the game's developer.

You could use a anonymizing proxy service to hide your real IP, but that's going to increase latency for your gameplay. There are lots of reasonably priced services that will do that for you.

Simply encrypting the traffic isn't going to help hide your IP. Think about it like mailing a letter. I *could* encrypt the address on the letter I send you, but writing a bunch of garbage on an envelope won't get it to your house. It's the same deal with network traffic. At some point, things have to know where to go.

It might be worth your time, and/or lower your blood pressure to better understand the various vectors by which machines get compromised in the first place. Hiding your IP probably isn't the most useful technique. Keeping your OS/Browser/Plug-Ins patched is probably a better place to start, and using a quality set of anti-virus/anti-malware tools might also be worth your time.

smallworlds007 · Answer

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