Chat Roulette Hacks

Well for all of you who are dumb enough to think that you’re anonymous when you connect to a service like Chatroulette, here’s some pretty funny proof showing you just how wrong you really are. It’s a recently launched website called Chatroulettemaps.com that’s using google maps to plot out everyone it connects to displaying both their IP & Hostname as well as a screenshot of the video feed.

This is similar to a site that came out shortly after Chatroulette first started to become popular called ChatrouletteCockMap.com. It was Elie Zananiri’s response to the constant occurrence of connecting to someone whose only interest was sharing their genitalia with the world. The cool thing about this site was anyone could add a perpetrator to the map simply by using a little UDP sniffer application that he created that would send the other persons IP off to his site whenever activated. This new site takes the concept in a much more ‘PG-13′ path. While it doesn’t let users add their own set of encounters, it does do a good job of portraying both sides of what Chatroulette has to offer. For some it’s just a fun experiment in social media while for others it’s just another excuse to toy with a stranger. That’s where the screenshots come in handy.

Because this transmits video directly from one user to another it would almost seem like it’d be common sense to everyone that whoever you were connecting to could be able to collect some amount of data due to the lack of proxy + use of UDP…hilariously though that’s not the case. Using any simple sniffer you can pull the IP address from anyone that you connect to on the site. Now if you’re asking yourself what can possibly be exposed from knowing the other person’s IP, then you probably shouldn’t be on the internet without supervision. For starters your IP address is easily geolocated, giving up a pretty accurate location for where you’re located at. In some cases that IP address can end up telling a whole lot more than just the city you’re connecting from. An example (which you’ll have to find for yourself on the site) is one unlucky solider who was caught in a snapshot masturbating along with an IP address and hostname that not only divulges what base he’s stationed at, but also what building and room number he was connecting from. Whooops.

The owner of the site doesn’t seem to be using any sort of crazy automated script or anything as it’s been up for a while but still only has around 2,000 users plotted on the map. If you want to prevent others from seeing your information while using chatroulette your best bet would be to get a cheap VPN account and connect using that (you can find one’s for less than $5/month). It will mask your location to any connecting parties, leaving you free from any chance of your twisted pranks showing up pointing directly to your house for all to see.