Video Game Security
Brett Cobbs
Matthew Boquist
ONLINE VIDEO GAMES
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controlled a majority of the computer
world for sometime now and have never
stopped growing
Gaming has always and remains a prime
drive of the personal computer market
In the past ten years it has grown as
quickly as the internet and is in hundred
of millions of peoples homes
MMORPG
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There are many types of genres for video games
but the biggest and most security sensitive is
the MMORPG (Massive Multi Online Role Playing
Game).
A massively multiplayer online role-playing game
is a genre of computer role-playing games
(CRPGs) in which a large number of players
interact with one another in a virtual world
GREATEST OF MMORPGS
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The most popular of this type of video game is
WoW (World of Warcraft)
At the current time there are around 11 million
subscribers to the game that pay a monthly fee
of $14 a month to play the game. That is a
ridiculous $154 million dollars a month that
Blizzard entertainment is making.
This concentration of money and players is a
spawning pool for hackers, cheaters, and
criminals that will do anything to take advantage
of the game and even make a living out of it.
GAME MONEY = REAL MONEY?
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In WoW and many online mmorpgs there is an in game
virtual economy that is in effect, in which players find
items, sell items and, level up characters.
Can sell their characters or items through third party
programs(A Middle Market)
IGE is the largest company in this middle market netting
$400 million per year by acting as the real-world “middle
man” for virtual goods.
Entire industries of sweatshops with hundreds of
thousands of workers in China now exist to do just this.
TYPE OF GAME EXPLOITS
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BOTTING
DUPING
AIM BOTTING
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WALL HACKING
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sometimes called "auto-aiming", is software that
assists the player in aiming at the target.
Wall hacking involves changing of wall properties in
first-person shooters.
MAP HACK
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is a cheat that enables the player to see more of the
map than the game intends them to see.
WALL HACK
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WALL HACKING
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Wall hacking involves
changing of wall
properties in firstperson shooters.
MAPHACK
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MAPHACK
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is a cheat that enables
the player to see more
of the map than the
game intends them to
see.
AIMBOT
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AIMBOTTING
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sometimes called
"auto-aiming", is
software that assists
the player in aiming at
the target.
BOTS
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A bot is a player who
runs a third party
program to control their
character.
The bot will kill monsters,
loot money, mine, or gain
levels automatically
without the player having
to be in front of the
computer.
DUPING
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Duping refers to the practice
of exploiting a bug in a video
game to illegitimately create
duplicates of unique items or
currency
Currency dupes cause inflation
and cause the item to lose
value
This can create a great
problem in the games
economy and even with real
money selling,
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Not sure if real or dupe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x50b-_feO6A&feature=related
Solving These Security Issues
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admins/moderators
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Patches
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In game playere take care of many of the problems in
the game
power to ban accounts
fix and exploits or bugs in the game
Third Party Programs
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create a secure environment for their game
Example: nProtect Game Guard
Pirating
Anyone could be a
pirate…
The act of downloading
or stealing a game
without paying for it.
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Major Security Issue
Severe loss of funding
 Future Games
 Why make any
more?
Mr. Burmester is not a pirate… as far as we know
Why pirate games?
A Known Pirate’s Response!
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“Why not just buy your games to support
the company?” - Matt
“I go to college man, that’s expensive,
and video games are all fifty to sixty
dollars. I still buy games when I know
they will be good, but most of the new
video games are not worth thirty dollars.”
– Anonymous FSU Student
Cliff Harris, owner of Positech
Games
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Harris asked why
people pirated his
games?
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Money
Strong dislike of Digital
Rights Management
locks (SecuROM)
Unknown quality
The Designers Strike Back!
 Class-action
lawsuits
 More, and
stricter
SecuROM
Honest customer suffer, pirates
laugh
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SecuROM had the
opposite effect that
companies wanted.
Man in Pennsylvania
files class action
lawsuit against EA for
installing files not
mentioned in his
installation manual or
End User License
Agreement.
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How far is too far?
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Should companies
have the right to
install unwanted,
additional software on
our machines?
Are the machines
resources not the
customer’s?
Why so hard to
remove?
SecuROM causing more people to
pirate?
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Spore, a recently
released EA Games
PC game, was not
only pirated, the
game’s SecuROM was
removed from the
pirated version, and
being downloaded
BEFORE the actual
release date.
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Over 500,000 copies
of the pirated version
of Spore had been
downloaded just days
after release.
Over $13,333,333
loss
The harsh SecuROMs are not
causing an acceptable solution.
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Honest customers
suffer
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Unwanted software.
Has been known to
cause problems with
machines.
•
Developers suffer
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Harsh feedback from
actual customers.
Game still gets pirated,
possibly more so than
it would have without
the harsh SecuROM.
• Pirates laugh!
• They just remove the harsh SecuROM and continue
to pirate the games.
• Pirating becomes more acceptable to honest users
to avoid the harsh SecuROM.
Acceptable Solution? Steam.
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Online video game
purchase/storage
device.
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Cheaper, no middle
man
Easy access
Games stored to
account, not machine
Light on SecuROM
since game is
guaranteed to be legit.
http://store.steampowered.com
/
Questions?