Is getting someone's IP address allowed?

Help and Feedback Scripting Support
#1

Hello there. If I posted this question on the wrong thread, please inform me immediately. The title describes my question. Is getting someone’s IP address allowed?

I made a script which can grab a user’s IP address using HTTP Services, but I do not know if this is allowed on Roblox. The reasons that I would want such a script could rage from getting someone’s local time zone and adding it to a game, to IP banning someone (I know that most people do not recommend having a ban system, and an IP ban system means that it must be a very serious offense, but we all know that hackers exist, and even with a great anti-exploit script, exploiters might be able to bypass it. I have also seen cases where exploiters bypass anti-exploit scripts and then create alts once they are banned to keep exploiting).

If the system is allowed on Roblox, does it require you to have some type of acknowledgement when the person joins the game so they know that their IP is in use? I looked through the Roblox ToS, but I could not find anything about it. If I did not read something well or skipped anything that mentioned this, please tell me. I also have not used this system on anyone else but myself. Thank you for reading my topic.

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#2

HTTP requests cannot be sent by scripters with HttpService on the client normally. It is possible you have discovered a vulnerability if this is true. I recommend you file a report if this is the case. Either way, this would very likely break the spirit of Roblox’s rules, even if there is no particular written rule this breaks directly.

This discussion has been had many times, but I would like to reiterate that IP bans are not particularly useful tools, since most players can easily change their IP address, and being guilty by association in cases of publicly available Internet is no fun.

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#3

No, as first off privacy wise tracking IP addresses isn’t allowed and when it comes to those under 13 that becomes more liable regarding privacy and ToS. Plus the person could just change their IP, I don’t see why you need this information. Roblox tries to provide information regarding your players, and It’d be better to do a feature request for more details on locations and ages.

This is a very broad reasoning to why it isn’t allowed, this topic has been discussed before and things around it. I highly recommend going and looking it up, and seeing what others said and what the admins have stated.

It’s a nice little feature, I’d just ask the player at the start of the game to set their own timezone. Allows them the choice for this.

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#4

Thank you for the reply. I have read many posts regarding IP ban systems and in all of them I saw a lot of admins saying that they do not like those systems. Again, thank you for the reply.

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#5

Thank you for the reply. As mentioned, I have read topics about this and I understand why IP banning is not the best. The time zone script I first saw in a game before where each player had their local time zones in the corner which you could see the time. Again, thank you for your reply.

#6

Happy to help. I recommend sending a message to the Lead Top Contributors in order to report this. There is a private Exploit Reports category that this could be submitted to.

#7

Could try the os.date on the client, as I believe it should return the correct one for them.

As Vrident said, they are willing to help you. If you really are getting their IP address you probably found a very big bug.

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#8

Thank you for the reply. I guess I see why getting another person’s IP is a problem. I also did not know that this is a bug. What happens is that the server for each player has the players IP. I know this is weird, but this is how it works. This means that when the server gets an IP, it gets the “local” player’s IP. I guess that this is a bug and should be submitted to bug report. Again, thank you for for your reply.

#9

Be sure to provide them with all the information you can, and the code you have in-game or what you do HTTP wise.

1 Like
#10

You might want to hide this post since theres a possible chance people who might stumble upon this will use it for malicious content.

2 Likes
#11

HttpService cannot be used to make requests on the client. If your script is just a server script which makes a request to https://api.ipify.org then it will only get the roblox server’s ip.

Also note that if you do that in studio it will obviously return your own IP since it uses your internet. Are you sure that isn’t the case here?

15 Likes
#12
#13

This thread seems to be going in circles, but to clear things up:

  1. There is no way to use HttpService on the client
  2. There is no way to get a client’s IP address
  3. If you truly believe you have found a way to get a client’s IP address, this is an exploit and you should report it to the Post_Approval group and we will forward it to the appropriate teams
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