Half Life 2 Source Code & Engine Stolen

Djinn Raffo · 10-03-2003, 03:33 PM

Check this out. Somebody hacked Valve and then stole the engine and Source Code for HL2.

Valve Software

It's at their forums, here's what Valve's Managing Director had to say about it:
''''''''''''''''''
Gabe Newell
Managing Director
Valve Software

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, helpvalve@valvesoftware.com. 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
__________________
Gabe Newell

Xen · 10-03-2003, 03:44 PM

Isn`t something similar happend to Doom III? [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img]

Thoran · 10-03-2003, 03:51 PM

WOW... that is a HUGE FUBAR. You'd think a game company that's been fighting people hacking their games for online advantage for years would be more careful. As a programmer I'd love to get a look at their code [img]smile.gif[/img] , but I feel for the HL2 team, I think I'd be crying if I was in their shoes.

In the long run I don't think it hurts them too much (it's far enough pre-release that I'm sure the game executable will be quite different), although they'll need to keep their eyes peeled for other companies stealing their code and using it in their own games. I expect they'll change some key code segments to make the loose code unusable by hackers trying to cheat at online games.

Link · 10-03-2003, 04:12 PM

That's bad and pathetic at the same time..

A great game like HL2 got raped like that, by some idiot who wanted the source code. How pathetic can you be? Is it the kick of hacking into someone else's computer, or because you want the source code that much? Be original, and write your own source code!

10-03-2003, 04:19 PM

Karma. What goes around, comes around. They'll get theirs.

Link · 10-03-2003, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by GForce:
Karma. What goes around, comes around. They'll get theirs.

Unfortunately, that doesn't happen all the time...

I do hope they get caught, and judging from Gabe Newell's post he has summoned the entire Half-Life scene to aid him in his quest, so maybe they *will* succeed...

Xen · 10-03-2003, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Link:

quote:
Originally posted by GForce:
Karma. What goes around, comes around. They'll get theirs.

Unfortunately, that doesn't happen all the time... I do hope they get caught, and judging from Gabe Newell's post he has summoned the entire Half-Life scene to aid him in his quest, so maybe they *will* succeed... [/QUOTE]I pretty much agree with you Link! But I think that the chances are pretty much equal to zero in this case...

You never know!

GO HALF LIFE SOCIETY!!! [img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img] :

10-03-2003, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Link:

quote:
Originally posted by GForce:
Karma. What goes around, comes around. They'll get theirs.

Unfortunately, that doesn't happen all the time... I do hope they get caught, and judging from Gabe Newell's post he has summoned the entire Half-Life scene to aid him in his quest, so maybe they *will* succeed... [/QUOTE]Well, because I have a non-stream perspective, I actually meant: if not in this life then another. The universe IMO never forgets and neither does your soul. It will feel everything that it has done and done to others. Thus, THEY WILL get theirs.

Dreamer128 · 10-03-2003, 04:50 PM

They've been working on this for years. The graphical engine and the A.I are revolutionary. What do you think the code is worth?

Link · 10-03-2003, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dreamer128:
They've been working on this for years. The graphical engine and the A.I are revolutionary. What do you think the code is worth?

I'd say 50.000 dollars. But I could be wrong though

All in all this is just really awful...

Did you guys screenshots, movies? Awsome stuff!!

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10-03-2003, 03:33 PM	#1
Djinn Raffo Ra Join Date: March 11, 2001 Location: Ant Hill Age: 49 Posts: 2,397	Check this out. Somebody hacked Valve and then stole the engine and Source Code for HL2. Valve Software It's at their forums, here's what Valve's Managing Director had to say about it: '''''''''''''''''' Gabe Newell Managing Director Valve Software 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, helpvalve@valvesoftware.com. 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 __________________ Gabe Newell

10-03-2003, 03:44 PM	#2
Xen Symbol of Moradin Join Date: June 5, 2002 Location: Slovenia,Ljubljana Age: 36 Posts: 8,554	Isn`t something similar happend to Doom III? [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img]

10-03-2003, 03:51 PM	#3
Thoran Galvatron Join Date: January 10, 2002 Location: Upstate NY Age: 56 Posts: 2,109	WOW... that is a HUGE FUBAR. You'd think a game company that's been fighting people hacking their games for online advantage for years would be more careful. As a programmer I'd love to get a look at their code [img]smile.gif[/img] , but I feel for the HL2 team, I think I'd be crying if I was in their shoes. In the long run I don't think it hurts them too much (it's far enough pre-release that I'm sure the game executable will be quite different), although they'll need to keep their eyes peeled for other companies stealing their code and using it in their own games. I expect they'll change some key code segments to make the loose code unusable by hackers trying to cheat at online games.

10-03-2003, 04:12 PM	#4
Link Jack Burton Join Date: May 15, 2001 Location: The Netherlands Age: 39 Posts: 5,888	That's bad and pathetic at the same time.. A great game like HL2 got raped like that, by some idiot who wanted the source code. How pathetic can you be? Is it the kick of hacking into someone else's computer, or because you want the source code that much? Be original, and write your own source code!

10-03-2003, 04:19 PM	#5
GForce Guest Posts: n/a	Karma. What goes around, comes around. They'll get theirs.

10-03-2003, 04:50 PM	#9
Dreamer128 Dracolisk Join Date: March 21, 2001 Location: Europe Age: 39 Posts: 6,136	They've been working on this for years. The graphical engine and the A.I are revolutionary. What do you think the code is worth?

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