Requests for comment/Safe operation in Vietnamese Wikipedia may be in danger

The following request for comments is closed. No activity, never generated much attention since the issue is more about the local community. Also policy requirements were not met. --Mykola 02:30, 1 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Proposal

Hi everybody. I am a member of the Vietnamese Wikipedia project. Today, I have just witnessed a horrible event, which made me extremely confused on vi.wiki. A member named Dong Minh wrote on his user page contents that seriously affects the reputation of the Wikimedia foundation in general and all the members at Vietnamese Wikipedia in particular. This action caused confusion and affected the safe operation of the project. Below is the dangerous text of Dong Minh (you can see diff version in here):

Lời nhắn cho các thành viên bị cấm chỉ vô hạn từ 2020 trở về trước
Các bạn cứ tag liên lạc với tôi từ tài khoản bị cấm trên dự án khác, tôi sẽ tìm hiểu để tin tưởng và hướng dẫn các bạn các cách vượt cấm dãy IP vô cùng đơn giản. Đây là món quà nho nhỏ giành cho Ngài Alphama. Đ Ô N G - M I N H nói với tôi 05:03, ngày 13 tháng 1 năm 2021 (UTC) Tôi sẽ hỗ trợ những thành phần bất hảo trên wiki hoạt động không còn hạn chế nữa. Đ Ô N G - M I N H nói với tôi 05:30, ngày 13 tháng 1 năm 2021 (UTC)

Translate:

Messages for banned members indefinitely from 2020 or earlier
You can ping me by the account that is banned on another project, I will learn to trust and guide you how to bypass the IP range, which is very simple. This is a small gift for Sir Alphama. D O N G - M I N H tell me 05:03, January 13, 2021 (UTC) I will support wiki's rogue users to be no longer limited activity. D O N G - M I N H tell me 05:30, January 13, 2021 (UTC)

If what he said is true, which he knows how to bypass blocked IP ranges to sabotage or help someone sabotage Wikipedia, then this is a huge, dangerous problem that could affect the survival and development of my project. His action fell into situations of threatening disclosure of confidential information and It need to be stopped immediately. I expect the stewards to quickly intervene and contact the administrators of Vietnamese Wikipedia. Because I was worried that the matter might be delayed due to the great dedication to the project of the member mentioned above, so I decided to bring the issue here to find a suitable solution from the stewards. Thanks! Nguyenhai314 (talk) 14:10, 13 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

Am I reading this correctly, they are asking for people who are indef blocked in other projects can be seeking them for help to evade block? This is clearly unacceptable. However, since their userpage say they are retired, is this just a rage quit statement or really a threat. Does the local community have any discussion about this? Camouflaged Mirage (talk) 14:32, 13 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Yes. He asked for people who blocked on vi.wiki go to other projects seeking him for help to bypass the blocked IP. He said he know how to do that. That's really serious problem. Nguyenhai314 (talk) 14:35, 13 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, I see. If it is just a viwp issue, I suggest you start a discussion locally on viwp, not here. If the person is doing crosswiki issues, then here will be suitable. I suggest close as invalid this RFC as it can be locally handled. Camouflaged Mirage (talk) 14:38, 13 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Realizing the severity of the problem, I decided to bring it here for the meta to discuss. Because if he really knows how to bypass the blocked IP ranges, it is no longer a problem for vi.wiki alone, but it could be a vulnerability for hackers to exploit and sabotage en.wiki as well as other projects in the Wikimedia foundation. Nguyenhai314 (talk) 14:41, 13 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
So, what you want us, the meta community to do? Camouflaged Mirage (talk) 14:44, 13 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
In order to prevent the danger the user could make, I propose a global block with a expiration determined by the community. Nguyenhai314 (talk) 14:50, 13 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Blocks may be evaded in a variety number of ways, obviously - and there are countless cases (that is why we need CheckUser). I think it is enough to blank or delete the user page unless the user does further edits, then the user may be blocked (with email access revoked).--GZWDer (talk) 14:48, 13 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I think this can be dealt with by viwp? Camouflaged Mirage (talk) 14:50, 13 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I don't see them saying every wiki, so keen to let viwp handle? Camouflaged Mirage (talk) 14:51, 13 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Camouflaged Mirage and Nguyenhai314:, in all honesty, block evading can be easily done by changing IP addresses. SHB2000 (talk | contibs | en.wikivoyage | en.wikipedia) 00:01, 30 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

If you have some security issue, suggest email Trust and Safety at cawikimedia.org. Thanks. Camouflaged Mirage (talk) 14:49, 13 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I note also per policy, they didn't notify the community. I will close this as invalid if this isn't met. I will also keen to close as non-actionable as global community as it's a local issue with local impact, or should be deferred to T&S. Camouflaged Mirage (talk) 15:20, 14 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]