Valve got hacked... Again?

Comment on the news articles here.

Valve got hacked... Again?

Postby skoften on Wed Sep 12, 2012 2:26 am

Back in 2003 the network at Valve got compromised by a German hacker called Axel "Ago" Gembe. As a longtime fan of the series, he kept track of their development on Half-Life 2 and eventually stole the entire source code. It did not take long for the code to get leaked onto the internet, available for everyone to modify, compile and play. With the help of the online community the hacker was identified and caught by luring him into the hands of the FBI with possible job offers.

4 years later Valve found themselves negotiating terms with another hacker yet again. A forum post by "MaddoxX" on the "anti-STEAM website" revealed that he had bypassed Valve's security systems and accessed a significant chunk of data, including:
- Screenshots of internal Valve web pages
- A portion of Valve's Cafe directory
- Error logs
- Credit card information of customers
- Financial information on Valve

And again with the help of the community, the nickname was found on various other websites which lead to the arrest and prosecution of a 20 year old Dutch IT student.

Now, 5 years later, we can conclude that in the time period that "MaddoxX" was actively abusing Valve's infrastructure not only creditcards and financial information were stolen.

It appears that as of August 31 2012 a Russian underground forum is discussing and linking to the source code for the Source engine (rev: 2007). After getting my hands on a sample myself I can confirm this is the actual source code with a 'Last Modified Date' from Jan 2008 (ofcourse this can be altered easily).

Image

The above screenshot show client builds for the 2007 engine:
- 2x TF2 and something called "TFC"
- Counter-strike Source
- Day of Defeat: Source
- Half-Life: Source
- Portal
- Portal - Multiplayer test
- Half-Life 2: Deathmatch

Also included are builds for servers.

The thread on the Russian underground forum in question is located here.
Which after translation brings up several suprising details. It seems that the codebase was stolen from yet another hacker called "Adamix" in another data breach. From what I hear in some chatrooms on steam he tried to sell it, got hacked, and the person(s) responsible made it public.

This can mean 2 things:
- Before MaddoxX got arrested he quickly uploaded/gave the code to someone else.
- The leak which gave MaddoxX the possibility to even get in was discovered by another party and due to their expertise came further into Valve's network.

In my opinion, the latter seems more plausible but who am I to form an opinion about this. Fact is, the source code is real and available on the internet for download. Although heavily outdated, I can see a lot of mods coming out using this as a base.

More information to come I guess.

Update #1: Valve has been made aware of the situation.

Update #2: LINK
ben5015se wrote:This engine was meant for a game development company who licensed the engine source code. That means they probably had no need to get an extra liscense for havana/ivp/vphysics so there is no code for it, just libraries. also you can get the vaudio source from the beta hl2 source code, and it should work.
Last edited by skoften on Thu Sep 13, 2012 7:23 am, edited 5 times in total.
User avatar
skoften
May Contain Skills
May Contain Skills
 
Joined: Thu Apr 09, 2009 3:30 pm
Location: Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´

Re: Valve got hacked... Again?

Postby Armageddon on Wed Sep 12, 2012 2:47 am

Download llliiinnnnkkkkkk.
User avatar
Armageddon
Forum Goer Elite™
Forum Goer Elite™
 
Joined: Sun Dec 14, 2008 5:53 am

Re: Valve got hacked... Again?

Postby Hollow on Wed Sep 12, 2012 2:50 am

Probably not a good idea to make it public, at least on lopers.
User avatar
Hollow
Ubisoft/Monothetic
 
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 12:38 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: Valve got hacked... Again?

Postby stoopdapoop on Wed Sep 12, 2012 2:57 am

links are all dead anyway.
I'm Brown
Image
User avatar
stoopdapoop
Veteran
Veteran
 
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2005 2:14 am
Location: Ann Arbor, MI

Re: Valve got hacked... Again?

Postby Jangalomph on Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:21 am

I guess valve needs to protect better.
http://www.nomoreroominhell.com
I don’t know whether I was right or wrong, I guess I’ll never know… But I made it. And I guess I should be thankful for that. - Strelok
Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
User avatar
Jangalomph
Forum Goer Elite™
Forum Goer Elite™
 
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:19 pm
Location: Sumter, SC

Re: Valve got hacked... Again?

Postby Gary on Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:22 am

Is any of the code from engine? Or only the client/server stuff we already use(just including unreleased)? Wouldn't it be cool if we could compile our own Source engine :P


I would hope Valve doesn't mind if people used some of the leaked code. For example, it would be cool if we could use Portal code in mods. Then we could make real mods for Portal.
Have a question related to modding or something I posted? Something that needs staff attention? I haven't been active lately, but feel free to PM me or message me on Steam(link below)

User avatar
Gary
Interlopers Staff
Interlopers Staff
 
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:40 am
Location: USA, FL

Re: Valve got hacked... Again?

Postby nub on Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:57 am

Is it just me, or is this sort of like karma coming to bite Valve right in the ass? They neglected the modding community for a while, and then all of the sudden (what appears to be) the 2007 source code gets leaked to the internet.
User avatar
nub
Veteran
Veteran
 
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2005 1:11 am
Location: Charlotte, NC, US

Re: Valve got hacked... Again?

Postby Hollow on Wed Sep 12, 2012 4:18 am

Well guess who intervened and spoke with skoften...:P
User avatar
Hollow
Ubisoft/Monothetic
 
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 12:38 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: Valve got hacked... Again?

Postby Armageddon on Wed Sep 12, 2012 4:50 am

Hollow wrote:Well guess who intervened and spoke with skoften...:P

What?
User avatar
Armageddon
Forum Goer Elite™
Forum Goer Elite™
 
Joined: Sun Dec 14, 2008 5:53 am

Re: Valve got hacked... Again?

Postby skoften on Wed Sep 12, 2012 4:59 am

They're aware of the situation and are figuring it out.
User avatar
skoften
May Contain Skills
May Contain Skills
 
Joined: Thu Apr 09, 2009 3:30 pm
Location: Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´

Re: Valve got hacked... Again?

Postby skoften on Wed Sep 12, 2012 5:36 am

User avatar
skoften
May Contain Skills
May Contain Skills
 
Joined: Thu Apr 09, 2009 3:30 pm
Location: Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´Ôåg¾´

Re: Valve got hacked... Again?

Postby Andrew McWatters on Wed Sep 12, 2012 5:48 am

I figured I should post it on Facepunch now before it gets posted on more places. I procrastinated and thought about contacting Valve, but they already know.
Andrew McWatters
Just Joined
Just Joined
 
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2012 5:46 am

Re: Valve got hacked... Again?

Postby Ken Chan on Wed Sep 12, 2012 7:20 am

PORTAL SOURCE CODE!!!!
*orgasm*
So want it.
User avatar
Ken Chan
Regular
Regular
 
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2012 7:16 pm
Location: Hong Kong

Re: Valve got hacked... Again?

Postby ScarT on Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:45 am

Gary wrote:Is any of the code from engine? Or only the client/server stuff we already use(just including unreleased)? Wouldn't it be cool if we could compile our own Source engine :P


I would hope Valve doesn't mind if people used some of the leaked code. For example, it would be cool if we could use Portal code in mods. Then we could make real mods for Portal.

It's the full thing except for the vphysics source code, and the source for the Miles sound codec.
This is most likely leaked from a licensee. I find it interesting that Valve spend time bringing over old code from 2003, such as the old Team Fortress 2 code, and the TFC code.

The source code for CryEngine 3 was leaked a long with it about a week ago.
User avatar
ScarT
Senior Member
Senior Member
 
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2005 7:33 pm
Location: Denmarkian Land

Re: Valve got hacked... Again?

Postby Major Banter on Wed Sep 12, 2012 9:39 am

I get the feeling this would have been a way bigger deal a few years ago.

These days, none of this code is really worth much. I mean, it's a great resource for certain sects of modders and coders, but by and large it's obsolete and the legality of its use is a big ol' question mark.

I could make use of it for Stroll, for example, but I'm pretty damn sure that wouldn't go down well with Valve. Though we'll see how they handle this, although I'm not expecting the id way of just letting the code into the wild.
ImageImageImage
Major Banter
Veteran
Veteran
 
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2008 10:52 pm
Location: UK
Next

Return to Site News

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users

cron