Spyware?

[Fabricated]

A bit reactionary, but interesting.

http://www.rootkit.com/blog.php?newsid=358

[Shockeye]

You can read what I posted earlier here. If this is the same person who wrote what I posted, then he was a dev on the Wow!Sharp project.

[Sairon]

It doesn't botter me the slightest, this is the only way to get an edge vs 3rd party software. Blizzard would be extremly stupid to do unauthorized loging of credit card numbers etc and risk their brand and their subscribing customers. I think it's a good thing.

[Miasma]

If everything gets boiled down into a hash before it is compared I don't see the problem, even if that hash is sent to blizzard for comparison.  The article isn't clear on where the comparison is being done, but it seems to happen on the client.  So I don't think even the hash is sent back to blizzard.

The hash means it's not sending any readable information, it gets turned into a small code:


I don't consider something spyware if it never sends out any information, and that information has been turned into gibberish anyways.

[Eldron]

So the guys making programs to "hack" wow complains about blizzard making a program that stop's them ?? or have i gotten something wrong?

How can anyone take that serious ?

[Tale]

All it would take is for this to get picked up by mainstream media, and Blizzard would have a major PR problem on its hands, potentially also legal problems. The facts won't get in the way of a good story. [edit] I seem to remember a beat-up about the EverQuest version (which was withdrawn soon after).

[Driakos]

A bit reactionary, but interesting.

http://www.rootkit.com/blog.php?newsid=358

Different people are posting this article all over the WoW forums.  Usually from the perspective of "is it spyware?.. Discuss".  I think it is all anti-Warden client propeganda.  At the moment getting the warden client changed(removed), is easier than coding, and continually updating client hack programs.  Long live Warden.

[Fabricated]

I'd rather they keep using it myself, as long as it stops botters. I'd also like it if they actively and aggressively hunted down gold farmers and banned them. They have the money to do it.

[Righ]

O RLY?

[Ironwood]

Please, don't start that shit.  It's all over the boards and it makes my head hurt.

[OcellotJenkins]

[Miasma]

I'd rather they keep using it myself, as long as it stops botters. I'd also like it if they actively and aggressively hunted down gold farmers and banned them. They have the money to do it.

I re-subbed a few days ago and was stunned when I got spammed in game with a /tell about a gold selling website.  It even gave me three price packages.  They must have a program that creates level one characters, sends out a bunch of spams in the target level range, and then deletes the same level one character to do it again.  I'm thinking the percentage of the playerbase selling/buying gold is radically higher in WoW than any other mmo.

[Tale]

I'd rather they keep using it myself, as long as it stops botters. I'd also like it if they actively and aggressively hunted down gold farmers and banned them. They have the money to do it.

I re-subbed a few days ago and was stunned when I got spammed in game with a /tell about a gold selling website.  It even gave me three price packages.  They must have a program that creates level one characters, sends out a bunch of spams in the target level range, and then deletes the same level one character to do it again.  I'm thinking the percentage of the playerbase selling/buying gold is radically higher in WoW than any other mmo.

I received one of those gold-selling tells a couple of weeks ago, as did my guild leader. We both submitted tickets about it. We got GM responses saying they were investigating with action in mind, and the next day we both had in-game emails thanking us for reporting the spammer and encouraging us to do it again.

I also reported a guy who spammed a gold-for-US$ website address in Ironforge "for information and help with WoW" and added his character to my friends list when he logged off. A GM responded saying they were taking action. The character has never been online again, but it still exists (I know this because I can add/remove it from my friends list). This suggests the account was locked. Obviously this doesn't really affect the farmer because they can afford to sacrifice accounts for the sake of advertising, and probably make far more than they lose in the process, but I'm sure Blizzard could do something based on IP addresses as well.

[Ironwood]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4385050.stm


The Warden.

The Governor.

And, soon, The Piledriver.

Something as sad as this made BBC.

Sigh.

[Merusk]

I particularly like that the BBC holds-up Greg Hoglund as some kind of sleuthing hero and ignore the fact he was disassembling the program to build a better cheat.

[Morfiend]

From the first link:

You can't blame Blizz for trying, as well as any other company, but this practice will have to stop if we have any hope of privacy. Agree w/ botting or game cheaters or not, this is a much larger issue called 'privacy' and Blizz has no right to be opening my excel or PGP programs, for whatever reason.

I agree with that. I think Blizzard has the right to try and stop cheating as it effects their revinue. But I really dont want their program sniffing all my other stuff. I just dont like the idea that any one is allowed to sniff all my programs and such.

[Lt.Dan]

This is such a funny issue.  I'd be pissed of if Microsoft did it, I'm pissed off at copy protection schemes that won't run software x when software y is installed, but quite honestly if Blizzard wants to scan my open processes I don't care.  Screw those cheating bastards.

[TheWalrus]

Anything that pisses off no good lying cheats, is a good thing in my opinion.

[Alkiera]

From the first link:

You can't blame Blizz for trying, as well as any other company, but this practice will have to stop if we have any hope of privacy. Agree w/ botting or game cheaters or not, this is a much larger issue called 'privacy' and Blizz has no right to be opening my excel or PGP programs, for whatever reason.

I agree with that. I think Blizzard has the right to try and stop cheating as it effects their revinue. But I really dont want their program sniffing all my other stuff. I just dont like the idea that any one is allowed to sniff all my programs and such.

These people sound like WoW is gonna sift their hardrive and open up all their email and Quicken/Money to find out about their finances and stuff.  It just looks at the window titles of open, running applications, and hashes them to compare to hashes of known bad software.  Why would you be running much beyond maybe a webbrowser and/or voicechat in the background while playing a full-screen interactive game, anyway?  If you're at work, and worried about apps you have open for your employer... maybe you shoulda thought of that before installing a game on your work PC.  The functions they use to do that have normal, legitimate uses, namely for programs to get a hold of others they work with for communication, etc.  Can do similar things to determine if software you're incompatible with is running, or to look for other copies of yourself running.  It's useful.

Alkiera

[Ironwood]

IT'S THE THIN END OF THE WEDGE.  THAT'S EXACTLY HOW HITLER GOT INTO POWER.  TODAY IT'S CACHING YOUR OPEN WINDOWS, TOMORROW WE GAS MINORITIES.


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No, I don't get the fuss either....

[Tragny]

SuperPopTart told me I should stop lurking and start posting, so here goes. The Register has an article at http://www.theregister.com/2005/11/04/secfocus_wow_bot/ about how the Sony BMG copy protection program that they've been following over the past few days reportedly allows code to hide from The Warden.

[Shockeye]

SuperPopTart told me I should stop lurking and start posting, so here goes. The Register has an article at http://www.theregister.com/2005/11/04/secfocus_wow_bot/ about how the Sony BMG copy protection program that they've been following over the past few days reportedly allows code to hide from The Warden.

We've covered it already.

[Tragny]

Ack. I apologize for my 'tardery, then. Guess I'll go back to lurking. >_>

[Cheddar]

Ack. I apologize for my 'tardery, then. Guess I'll go back to lurking. >_>

Tragny is the awesome.  Go post in stupid news or something, its time to lose your virginity around here!

[SuperPopTart]

Hi Tragny!!!

[Paelos]

We scare the noobs don't we.

[Furiously]

Ack. I apologize for my 'tardery, then. Guess I'll go back to lurking. >_>

Tragny is the awesome.  Go post in stupid news or something, its time to lose your virginity around here!

I hear Schild is gentle.

[Hoax]

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/26402/

Any time I can pimp a techsploitation article, even though this one isn't that great..

[TheWalrus]

Anyone who references the fourth amendment while talking about a video game goes on my /ignore list. IRL.

[Signe]

Anyone who references the fourth amendment while talking about a video game goes on my /ignore list. IRL.

You like it when they watch you, don't you?  You pervy man, you.

[TheWalrus]

Only when I play naked.

[Venkman]

As an update, Blizzard released patch 1.8.3 today. It basically is just about the new Blizzard Launcher:

Read about it here

Some fun stuff to chew on:

Q: What is the purpose of the Blizzard Launcher?
A: The Blizzard Launcher serves many purposes. Some of which are:
(List item #): Uphold the Terms of Use by warning players who have cheat programs installed on the computers on which they’re playing World of Warcraft that the cheat programs are there

Q: Why does The Blizzard Launcher say I am using a 3rd party cheat program?
A: Blizzard Entertainment is attempting to keep the World of Warcraft game service fair and free from players who use “cheats” or “hacks.” To further battle cheating in World of Warcraft, you will be notified if you are running a program that is deemed by Blizzard Entertainment to be a 3rd -party cheat program that violates the Terms of Use agreement. We have found that players do not always realize that a cheat program has been installed on the computer on which they’re playing, especially in the case of Internet gaming cafés and single-computer households. The Blizzard Launcher’s virus/cheat scan does not transmit any information to Blizzard. The main purpose of this scan is to notify you if you have something installed on the computer you’re using that may put your account information or your access to World of Warcraft at risk.

An interesting one here:

Q: How can I bypass the Blizzard Launcher?
A: Because the Blizzard Launcher was designed to provide quick access to World of Warcraft and to important World of Warcraft-related information, as well as to help protect you from harmful programs that might have been installed on your computer without your knowledge (or on the computer on which you’re playing World of Warcraft), we strongly recommend that you use the Blizzard Launcher as your starting point for the game. However, if you prefer to bypass the Blizzard Launcher and do without the benefits it provides, you can run World of Warcraft by double-clicking the WoW.exe file located in your World of Warcraft installation folder (generally C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft).

What's interesting?

• I wonder how much gets installed that isn't bypassed by the direct-launch?
  
• Every time we have to patch, the Launcher gets launched anyway. Will it be scanning while patching?

[Alkiera]

What's interesting?

• I wonder how much gets installed that isn't bypassed by the direct-launch?
  
• Every time we have to patch, the Launcher gets launched anyway. Will it be scanning while patching?

From what I'd read before, I thought the Warden was run by the WoW.exe(game client) process itself, not during patching.  it sounds like this launcher also does it, and just warns you.  If you run the game, it'll report you to Blizzard.

Of course, if the launcher warns you without reporting you, it's a great way to tell if the cheat you're using has been detected yet.

Alkiera