(Edit: Applies to bedrock servers, but differently) Restore pre–b1.8 extreme distance parity to prevent players from abusing a chunkban exploit

[CatPrinceHQ2]

Problem Description

I previously reported that older versions (pre-b1.8) were incorrectly inheriting a modern world border despite those versions not having one. Because of this, players on the server could abuse a chunkban exploit against other players.

In response, a patch was implemented which changed world border handling as follows:
Versions before 1.7 now receive a border at exactly 30,000,000
Versions 1.7+ have the usual world border as per modern Minecraft behavior at 29,999,984.
This resolved consistency issues for many later legacy versions. However, it does not fully address the original server security problem because the border logic is still applied to all versions before 1.7.

In b1.7.3 and earlier, the concept of a world border did not exist at all. Movement beyond 30 million blocks was historically allowed, and real pre-b1.8 clients expect effectively infinite terrain. Applying a hard border to these versions breaks parity and introduces a serious issue:

Players using ViaFabricPlus on pre-b1.8 servers can be permanently chunkbanned if their position is saved beyond the enforced 30M barrier. On login, the player cannot move or recover because they are immediately teleported back to the nearest in-bounds coordinate, which causes them to be kicked for moving too quickly. The only fixes are:

1. wiping the player’s data, or
2. manually NBT-editing their coordinates to bring them within bounds.

This makes it possible for other players to intentionally chunkban someone, turning this into a server security / griefing vector rather than just a gameplay inconsistency.

Solution Description

For versions before b1.8, the correct parity behavior would be to:
Disable the world border and invisible barrier entirely for all versions preceding b1.8.
This would restore historical behavior, eliminate the chunkban exploit, and keep ViaFabricPlus aligned with version-accurate parity rather than approximation.

Alternatives

At minimum, push the barrier back to 32,000,000 for all versions preceding b1.8.

There is no practical way for a under normal gameplay for a usual pre-b1.8 player to achieve a distance farther than this as blocks stop being solid beyond this point due to floating point precision limits. A flyhacking player could still teleport someone out that far, and it would not be fully patching the vulnerability, but still would be a step in the right direction.

Additional Info

[Barvalg]

[CatPrinceHQ2]

This affects ALL bedrock servers! Bedrock has no distance limit like Java does either.