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Well...now we know why HL2 was delayed...
A2597
Fanboy
in Zocalo v2.0
Valve was hacked, the source code to HL2, ALL of it, was copied.
heres the info from Gabe himself:
[url]http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=215311[/url]
[quote]Ever have one of those weeks? This has just not been the best couple of days for me or for Valve.
Yes, the source code that has been posted is the HL-2 source code.
Here is what we know:
1) Starting around 9/11 of this year, someone other than me was accessing my email account. This has been determined by looking at traffic on our email server versus my travel schedule.
2) Shortly afterwards my machine started acting weird (right-clicking on executables would crash explorer). I was unable to find a virus or trojan on my machine, I reformatted my hard drive, and reinstalled.
3) For the next week, there appears to have been suspicious activity on my webmail account.
4) Around 9/19 someone made a copy of the HL-2 source tree.
5) At some point, keystroke recorders got installed on several machines at Valve. Our speculation is that these were done via a buffer overflow in Outlook's preview pane. This recorder is apparently a customized version of RemoteAnywhere created to infect Valve (at least it hasn't been seen anywhere else, and isn't detected by normal virus scanning tools).
6) Periodically for the last year we've been the subject of a variety of denial of service attacks targetted at our webservers and at Steam. We don't know if these are related or independent.
Well, this sucks.
What I'd appreciate is the assistance of the community in tracking this down. I have a special email address for people to send information to, [email]helpvalve@valvesoftware.com[/email]. If you have information about the denial of service attacks or the infiltration of our network, please send the details. There are some pretty obvious places to start with the posts and records in IRC, so if you can point us in the right direction, that would be great.
We at Valve have always thought of ourselves as being part of a community, and I can't imagine a better group of people to help us take care of these problems than this community.
Gabe
[/quote]
This of course means that if the current code was released in game form, MASSIVE numbers of MP hacks would be available, the CDKey algorithms need to be changed, etc etc...talk about a massive headach...
so in the end, it was some moron hackers that delayed HL2...sheesh.
heres the info from Gabe himself:
[url]http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=215311[/url]
[quote]Ever have one of those weeks? This has just not been the best couple of days for me or for Valve.
Yes, the source code that has been posted is the HL-2 source code.
Here is what we know:
1) Starting around 9/11 of this year, someone other than me was accessing my email account. This has been determined by looking at traffic on our email server versus my travel schedule.
2) Shortly afterwards my machine started acting weird (right-clicking on executables would crash explorer). I was unable to find a virus or trojan on my machine, I reformatted my hard drive, and reinstalled.
3) For the next week, there appears to have been suspicious activity on my webmail account.
4) Around 9/19 someone made a copy of the HL-2 source tree.
5) At some point, keystroke recorders got installed on several machines at Valve. Our speculation is that these were done via a buffer overflow in Outlook's preview pane. This recorder is apparently a customized version of RemoteAnywhere created to infect Valve (at least it hasn't been seen anywhere else, and isn't detected by normal virus scanning tools).
6) Periodically for the last year we've been the subject of a variety of denial of service attacks targetted at our webservers and at Steam. We don't know if these are related or independent.
Well, this sucks.
What I'd appreciate is the assistance of the community in tracking this down. I have a special email address for people to send information to, [email]helpvalve@valvesoftware.com[/email]. If you have information about the denial of service attacks or the infiltration of our network, please send the details. There are some pretty obvious places to start with the posts and records in IRC, so if you can point us in the right direction, that would be great.
We at Valve have always thought of ourselves as being part of a community, and I can't imagine a better group of people to help us take care of these problems than this community.
Gabe
[/quote]
This of course means that if the current code was released in game form, MASSIVE numbers of MP hacks would be available, the CDKey algorithms need to be changed, etc etc...talk about a massive headach...
so in the end, it was some moron hackers that delayed HL2...sheesh.
Comments
I like outlook, but that preview plane goes bye bye the moment I start the program....
cheaters are a major issue, and I'd hate to see what they could do with the source code in hand...
[quote]-----Original Message-----
From: Chad Donahue [mailto:dona8833@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2003 6:12 PM
To: [email]gaben@valvesoftware.com[/email]
Subject: Leak Query
Now that the leak information is out in the open, was this the reason for the delay?[/quote]
Gabe's reply:
[quote]No.[/quote]
I'll buy my copy, but when that is I don't know yet...
~$50 is a lot for something I don't "NEED", when I've just gone part time at work again...
:(
usually its available before it hits stores.
like JK2, two weeks prior to available in stores, HaloPC, JK3...all were available before it hit stores.
[B]HW2 is only now available, thats damn impressive actually...
usually its available before it hits stores.
like JK2, two weeks prior to available in stores, HaloPC, JK3...all were available before it hit stores. [/B][/QUOTE]
I've got a Beta, I got it from a friend, who got it from a friend, and this guy had Halo a week or two before it came out. He's probably working on HL2 right now... I would get it, but this is HL2... I want a legit copy.
[B]I've got a Beta, I got it from a friend, who got it from a friend, and this guy had Halo a week or two before it came out. He's probably working on HL2 right now... I would get it, but this is HL2... I want a legit copy. [/B][/QUOTE]
Personally, if I considered a game worth playing in any way at all, I wouldn't want anything other than a legit copy.
[B]HW2 is only now available, thats damn impressive actually...[/B][/QUOTE]
It's actually been available for quite a few weeks, as far as I know.
[B]Personally, if I considered a game worth playing in any way at all, I wouldn't want anything other than a legit copy. [/B][/QUOTE]
My thoughts exactly. I have the Halo beta because Halo multiplayer is fun as hell to LAN (which is pretty much all the Beta is good for), and if/when I get some illegal HL2 goodness, I'll probably be doing the same thing.
[B]Perhaps you misunderstood... [/B][/QUOTE]
No, I understand. I've only got the Beta cuz I'm an impatient bastard, and we needed something fun to LAN. Illegal copies of games are often missing files, packed with viruses and spyware, and besides, who doesn't want the pretty HL2 box art to display in their PC room? :)
[B]Now articles are floating around that the leak has delayed hl2 to April. At the moment you need look no further than the front page of yahoo. [URL=http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20031007/tc_afp/france_computer_software]Clicky[/URL] [/B][/QUOTE]
I saw that... at least we have enough games to tide us over till then.