There a way to spy on people's browsers in Discord?

Gaming
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And i say “spy” lightly. I’m asking because a group i play with on Discord thought it was funny when i was browsing in Firefox. Someone said i was using Firefox jokingly and laughed. I asked “how did you know” then another person said “no, don’t tell him”. It’s not serious at all. I’m just curious. Clearly there’s some kind of tool, or perhaps a bot of some kind that tells you which browser someone’s using?

They are a very immature group for their age, though… I remember back in 2002 when i played BF1942 me and my clan had a little sig that would appear at the bottom of the page in our forum that would display your IP address, saying “Scared yet, noob?!” Cute…

How can someone know which browser i’m using in Discord?

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Hm… interesting… can’t find anything that the discord API would expose the user-agent of any user… There wouldn’t be any reason for it either…

Doesn’t make a lot of difference which browser is used anyway. The only thing that does make a difference is Push-to-Talk (because you can’t use it - yet - in a browser).

Makes me curious though…

/edit
I haven’t looked at it much, but there might be a way to get the user agent from the WebRTC api…

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Well it’s gotta be something EASY to do. We’re talking about someone who’s not technically inclined. Basically knows nothing about their own system. Kiddies. It’s gotta be some kind of bot or some type of non-official add-on to a Discord server.

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Depending on what program you’re using, sometimes non-games will appear under the username in the channel list.

IE normally when gaming it would display what game you’re playing. However, I’ve seen it display sldworks, the process ID for Solidworks CAD.

I’d assume this is similar, and something on the machine is telling Discord that you’re playing a “game.”

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That doesn’t work in the browser as far as I know, only in the actual desktop app.

image

I’m currently playing FFXIV and it shows if I run the Desktop app.

But even then it would need to be exposed somewhere :confused: There are no addons to the server itself, all bot you can use are authorized through the owners account and use the Discord API… can’t find anything :confused:
The WebRTC thing was the only thing I could think about but I can’t find anything that the user agent is exposed there either.

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Did you use discord itself in firefox or was the desktop app running while you were browsing?

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If you ask me it’s not possible and they had a good guess. If you don’t believe me open discord with another browser and ask them again do they know your browser. If they answer in the style of - “well I don’t feel like it” they probably have realized that they were viewing only their own version of the browser because all the massages are encrypted and go first through their servers.

There are other possibilities for them to know but it is most probably not from discord.

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I would say it was a lucky guess.
Or Discord decided to display Firefox for a moment like it sometimes does with wallpaper engine.

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Well i’m using the actual Discord app. I never use through the browser.

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In that case @k3g is likely correct. Discord displays whichever game you are playing in the user list. Thing is, it often detects non-games as games. You probably watched a video or something else that caused firefox to go fullscreen and discord reported you as “playing firefox”.

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To prevent exposing open programs on accident there is the option to disable this, so nothing will appear below your name at all times.

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Oh well I misunderstood that then :slight_smile:

The Discord app doesn’t expose any user-agent (if at all it would be Chrome or Chromium because it’s Chromium underneath), so it was either showing in your currently playing game for a while or it was a lucky guess.

The currently playing status bugs out sometimes and it won’t update for some people some times, even for yourself, but others can see it. It happens all the time.

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its just the auto game detection thing, happens with my friends all the time, mine will always say “playing FL studio” and “Chrome”

You can just disable it in the setttings

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Hunches are all I have, doesn’t make them invalid, just makes them… ideas. Lol.

BOTS
I’m pretty sure the Bots have API keys, some are leaky, and if given admin permissions and the ability to control bans - can see some things.

DISCORD INVITE LINKS
People were setting up websites of different discord categories trying to attract new discord users to using their site then clicking through the invite. I was surprised when I was greeted by a person claiming to have made the site and worked on a bit of javascript which was his motivation for the project.

LEAKY API BUSINESS… LIKE THE BOTS
If the bots can be granted priveleges higher than a standard user due to their API calls then it is guaranteed there are bots that are just “state actors” (just kdding), or “fake bots” that are set up by someone.

I don’t know… All ideas here. Haven’t had a good sleep yet, this post could be completely garbage. Can’t tell. xD

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That’s what I thought but the discord API doesn’t expose the user-agent. Even if they are server admin they still can’t see that if it’s not exposed.

Even if that were the case it wouldn’t explain the current browser, only the one used during the invite and that’s not necessarily the same.

Anyone can make a bot, the API is public.

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Certain functions like managing bans is IP based, possibly the bot API is exposed to that - as some bots have abilities to ban/kick?
I’m not sure if they’re treated as standard users or if they have ability to see some things the average user can’t. :slight_smile:

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my guess is either a shady link or more likely a screenshot.

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Well they /just/ implemented the screen cap interface so theres probably an open hole for it lol. You can disable it in your client though. Or just use the web client.

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