Are Valve Games (Half-Life) a major security risk....

[whatsupdoc]

Are Valve Games a major security risk....

Those of you who run firewalls which make a distinction between when your computer acts as a client or a server may notice that to play Half-Life or CounterStrike online, that those games will try to gain Server rights in order to act as a Server even if you are just a regular client who has no intention of hosting a game. If you do not grant the game server rights then the game's Server browser malfunctions and slows to a crawl and only a couple of servers will be shown in the server browser, and sometimes none at all. If you try to connect to those servers, to play a game, you get a Server Verification Failed message.

Most of the online games I play do not ask for server rights and function perfectly. I think some games that use certain cheat protections may ask for server rights. If your firewall does not make a distinction between Client and Server then you will not get any warning and therefore is it possible that Valve has turned your computer into a server without your knowledge, and does this not present a potential security risk?

I brought this up at the Steampowered forums and the thread was there for a couple days, ignored by Valve, until someone else confirmed that indeed Half-Life and CounterStrike will not function properly without server rights and that this might indeed present a security risk, and then mysteriously the thread was deleted along with all the replies in it, and I was banned .

I would like to know, why Valve games require server rights...

 

[luketabor]

evidently they need to send info.

 

[Mr.Wotsit]

Yes, Valve produce a game that allows the FBI or whatever your local intelligence agency is to access all information on your PC as well as opening the door for hackers and anybody who wants your credit card details.

It also causes poverty in the third world.

 

[Ikerous]

Yes, Valve produce a game that allows the FBI or whatever your local intelligence agency is to access all information on your PC as well as opening the door for hackers and anybody who wants your credit card details.

It also causes poverty in the third world.

Don't forget it gives you gonorrea and other assorted STDs

 

[Sid Burn]

Dammit... never knew anything about this before.

 

[DevgruSeal]

It'd be cool if VALVe and the FBI were working together, so that somehow they can track America's Most Wanted through CS..Maybe?

Anyways, I don't think a big company like VALVe is going to hack and cause problems for your computer. If you feel paranoid about the security issues on CS, maybe you should not play them...

 

[Gray Fox]

In the steampowered thread did you curse or use profanity against other people, if you did then that is the reason you might have been banned and your thread deleted, in any case did you try to search for the thread by going through your profile, cause this sounds really wierd.
BTW can you post a link to your profile so we can see for ourselfes if what your post looked like if there are any.( this is for me very interesting cause I got banned after just 3 posts, and I didn't use any curses or profanity, and didn't spam or so, so this might be a mistake or something else wierd)

 

[whatsupdoc]

Yes, Valve produce a game that allows the FBI or whatever your local intelligence agency is to access all information on your PC as well as opening the door for hackers and anybody who wants your credit card details.

It also causes poverty in the third world.

All multiplayer games need to send info, yet most do not try to gain server rights. Once your client PC establishes a connection with a server on the other side then both computers are free to exchange information in both directions.

Turnining your computer into a server without your knowledge, (which looks like it might be happening here) on the other hand, can leave your PC open to exploits . Don't worry about the FBI, since your local teenage hacker could exploit that vulnerability. . Plus why would Valve delete the thread, as soon as someonelse confirmed that this might indeed be a security risk.

Of course a multimillion dollar company like Valve could not possibly design a system with a weakness that would allow a hacker to steal information or attack other computers. If that were the case, we would probably be hearing horror stories about Valve getting their game and Source code stolen months before they intended to release it.

 

[whatsupdoc]

In the steampowered thread did you curse or use profanity against other people, if you did then that is the reason you might have been banned and your thread deleted, in any case did you try to search for the thread by going through your profile, cause this sounds really wierd.
BTW can you post a link to your profile so we can see for ourselfes if what your post looked like if there are any.( this is for me very interesting cause I got banned after just 3 posts, and I didn't use any curses or profanity, and didn't spam or so, so this might be a mistake or something else wierd)

You can do a search on my forum name over there.

Because I posted about this issue, Valve (or Steam moderators) were looking for a reason to ban me. They ignored the thread UNTIL someone confirmed that this might actually be a risk. Then they used an obvious joke(which referred to the 2003 Stolen Source Code incident) which I made in another thread someonelse started about security concerns, to ban me. They did not delete that thread and they did not delete my thread until someone pointed out there may be a security risk after doing some messing around with his firewall and denying the game server rights.

The thread was there for about a week and they only saw fit to delete it once somebody else explained that there may indeed be a risk. I can assure you that there was absolutely nothing in the thread that I started that would warrant deleting the thread and the replies people made. I can almost understand them finding the Joke I made in another thread, upsetting but that thread is still there because it does not address the exploit directly but since I posted a link from that thread to the one I started, I guess Valve got a little scared. They could have just banned me, but instead found it necessary to go and delete a thread that brings up a security concern they would rather not have people know about. All we want to know is why the game needs Server rights - for cheat protection or is it just an oversight?