Ship Simulator

English forum => Ship Simulator Extremes => Topic started by: Jake_Savage on July 13, 2013, 19:24:04

Title: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Jake_Savage on July 13, 2013, 19:24:04

Hello All

I am just writign to inform you of a hacker in SSE. He plays multiplayer and he copies your name but in caps for example:

JamesWright.

He would use
jameswright
JAMESWRIGHT
jAMEswWRIGht

anything

if this happens please stop him from hacking you by re entering channel with a harder name like
uyfrcmg4mg4cvh4h6

(only temporaily whilst we wait for mods to deal with him)

I hope you can sort this idiot out as he doesnt want to play the game he just wants to cause trouble

Stay Cool :thumbs:

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: GeoP17 on July 13, 2013, 20:06:28

Jake,
What kind of troubles can this person cause?

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: The Ferry King on July 13, 2013, 22:16:17

Better idea, deal with it. From the nearly 3 years of playing SSE i have gone through situations worse than that. From what i know there is absolutely nothing the administrators will do unless its an emergency like actually 'hacking' your computer or threatening you with something, not for copying your name. There is an option where you should be able to ignore this 'hacker'. If that doesn't work make sure everyone agrees with you about the so called 'hacker' being annoyed and you could all vote to kick this player out.
But i would personally recommend you to ignore people like that. They will eventually get bored of their actions and give up.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Jake_Savage on July 13, 2013, 22:19:21

No the problem is he controlled my ship and if we tryed kicking the vote went out to both of us. So we would both be kicked.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: GeoP17 on July 14, 2013, 08:32:00

So....,The problem he/she causes can be only with our accounts or with our computers? ??? ??? ???

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Jake_Savage on July 14, 2013, 09:24:31

I don't understand that comment but basically he would copy your name as close as possible then whatever happens to you happens to him. He can steer your ship and if you vote to get him kicked it would kick you both.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: GeoP17 on July 14, 2013, 09:39:37

Will he/she cause problem only to the game or in my computer too?

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Mr Robville on July 14, 2013, 12:56:43

Can you try doing a right click on his account name? It should show his forum name I believe.
Also, please provide visible evidence of the person in question like using screenshots.
You can send these screenshots to me personally.

Quote from: Jake_Savage on July 13, 2013, 22:19:21

No the problem is he controlled my ship and if we tryed kicking the vote went out to both of us. So we would both be kicked.

I wonder how he could manage to controll your ship. The only way possible is when his SSE installation is registered using your license key. These keys are unique and private upon purchase. So you either posted your key somewhere public, or somebody else knows your key and is playing a prank on you.

Truly hacking in SSE should not be possible. It requires a certain programming knowledge. I assume true hackers got something better to do than hacking SSE's servers.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Jake_Savage on July 14, 2013, 14:34:59

What should I capture in the screenshots as he has just done it again but ichabged my name.

He isn't registered in the forum as it says (N/A)

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Jake_Savage on July 14, 2013, 14:38:50

Just found out he accessed my files as all of my ship design files are missing now :(:(:(:(

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: GeoP17 on July 14, 2013, 14:43:22

According to your last comment Jake he/she gets both in our game and our computer...right?

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Jake_Savage on July 14, 2013, 15:14:40

They can do yes but whether they do or not for you I dont know.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: GeoP17 on July 14, 2013, 15:29:47

and how can i stop him? :-\

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Jake_Savage on July 14, 2013, 15:38:04

There is no way as our only hope is VSTEP and its highly unlikely they will do anything.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: GeoP17 on July 14, 2013, 19:20:22

Anyway, I just want to say to all multiplayer players that if someone with my name start belching them :thumbdown: it's not me...it's someone else.

I also want to please him (the hacker) to stop whatever he does, because if the VSTEP or the forum admins catch him, he will be in troubles.

Jake if you have heard something about this matter, inform us.

George

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: The Ferry King on July 14, 2013, 20:18:39

no sure about this, seems like an external hacker, you sure all your SSE files have been deleted, have you checked for it everywhere ie type into search bar and stuff?

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: wiqvist on July 14, 2013, 20:40:04

Quote from: Jake_Savage on July 14, 2013, 14:38:50

Just found out he accessed my files as all of my ship design files are missing now :(:(:(:(

This sound a bit strange in my ears, how can you be sure that it is this person who have done that?

A hacker get access to your computer, and he do not steel any of your programs or password to banks and mail accounts, but he steel your drawings of ships. What should he do with a childs drawings of ships?

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Jake_Savage on July 14, 2013, 22:09:38

I don't store any passwords on my PC and don't click remember me for a trying so I know they are safe. Loads of other files that aren't as important went missing but I was really pleased with my progress on my latest project so that's what first came to my attention. No passwords gone cos I don't keep them.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: boatsimrocks25 on July 15, 2013, 03:23:39

I actually had this moron guy that Jake_Savage was talking about and joined my server and was ramming other player's ships and abusing the name bug in multiplayer.

If my MP name is Coast and he joins with COAST, I CAN'T Kick Him because the game treats his name as mine Coast. So if people vote kick him, I end up getting KICKED from MY Own Server that I created.

This is a serious thing that needs to be addressed. One fix I can think of thats easy to do is REMOVE the ability to use a custom name and replace it with your forums name.
Btw the forums name bug is now broken in the official servers and the created servers.

I know who it is doing it, but i'm not going to name shame him, but i'm sure we all know who it is and the moderators and admins do to.

He got so bad I just IP banned him from joining my server with a IP blocker I got.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Jake_Savage on July 15, 2013, 07:04:23

Can you PM me his name then we can get it sorted?

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: GeoP17 on July 15, 2013, 07:24:23

boatsimrocks25: ...One fix I can think of thats easy to do is REMOVE the ability to use a custom name and replace it with your forums name...

So boatsimrocks25 do you mean that we can avoid him by getting in the servers with our profile names?
ex. my profile name is GeoP17...sould i get into the servers as GeoP17...?

Also, boatsimrocks25 please PM me his name.

Finaly i want to know if that person can get into our computers only from the game.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Mr Robville on July 15, 2013, 11:53:43

Quote from: GeoP17 on July 15, 2013, 07:24:23

Finaly i want to know if that person can get into our computers only from the game.

Impossible.

Quote from: Jake_Savage on July 14, 2013, 14:38:50

Just found out he accessed my files as all of my ship design files are missing now :(:(:(:(

If thats the case you'll have to worry about a lot more than just SSE-MP.
People cannot hack into other computers just by playing ShipSim's multiplayer. If you are certain someone else removed your content, then he has access to your computer, which includes, but is not limited to ShipSim Extremes.
In such case, there is nothing VSTEP can do about it as this problem isn't SSE related. I would advice you to take your computer to a computer Expert or someone who knows how to track the executable that the hacker is using to gain access to your PC.


Regarding the MP abuser, I will report this issue and ask if VSTEP can provide me the MP logs.
On which server did this happen?
And to make sure, which user names did he use?

Quote from: boatsimrocks25 on July 15, 2013, 03:23:39

He got so bad I just IP banned him from joining my server with a IP blocker I got.

Can you send me this IP address through PM? It can help tracking him down.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: GeoP17 on July 15, 2013, 14:16:50

So Mr Robville do you mean that he/she only hacks the game and not our computers?
 

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Jake_Savage on July 15, 2013, 15:27:13

Ill take it to an expert.

He copied my username Jake_Savage but a few others aswell.

This happened in the Ferry DLC server in Dover. I don't know the number.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: boatsimrocks25 on July 15, 2013, 18:07:01

"So boatsimrocks25 do you mean that we can avoid him by getting in the servers with our profile names?
ex. my profile name is GeoP17...should i get into the servers as GeoP17...?"
^Sort of, it seems this..lets call him--Multiplayer abuser-- has no profile name when on official servers it just shows N/A.
He would need a forums account to be able to access multiplayer which in return would not allow him to play online and would also make it simple for the admin's/moderators to ban him because people will be able to report his profile name that will show in the list of people on the server instead of the custom names that you can make in-game.
Then there would not be anymore name copy glitching which the Multiplayer abuser seems to love to do a lot.

"Also, boatsimrocks25 please PM me his name."--Not going to do that. Just let Vstep and the admin's/mods handle this.

"This happened in the Ferry DLC server in Dover. I don't know the number."--Vstep official server 1 [Ferry DLC] at Dover.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Kevinmcg_ships on July 15, 2013, 20:51:38

Quote from: Jake_Savage on July 14, 2013, 14:38:50

Just found out he accessed my files as all of my ship design files are missing now :(:(:(:(

Probably a silly question but do you have a firewall installed on your PC?

Also if I was you, I would change all passwords. Not just this shipsim forum, but other forums/websites (i.e. Facebook) just to be on safe side.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Jake_Savage on July 15, 2013, 21:17:43

I've changed important ones like email and my website etc.

Ill probably change all the ones I remember over time anyway.

Thanks for the advice anyway ;)

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Mr Robville on July 15, 2013, 23:57:58

Thanks to the provided IP address by BSR25, I have found one associating forum account which has SSE registered.
Before we jump to conclusions, I will try to seek contact with him. In the mean time if anyone else still notices this person on the MP servers, don't hesitate to report it here.

You'll all be updated on the situation.

Quote from: GeoP17 on July 15, 2013, 14:16:50

So Mr Robville do you mean that he/she only hacks the game and not our computers?

Not SSE at least. The only way to 'hack' someone is when someone has the license key from the person he's hacking. This way they can connect their game with the wrong license key. But to my knowledge, if two people are online using the same key, the second person should automatically be kicked before entering. Besides, only one profile can register each key. As long as people keep their license keys to themselves, they should be fine.
Only if some master Einstein-programmer knows how to alter ShipSim's data, there's a very, very small chance you could hack it. But again, why would one put so much effort in hacking SSE's MP servers?

Of course keep in mind, anyone could enter any alias at the moment. It wouldn't surprise me if 20 different 'Mr Robville''s sailed the MP seas. Impersonating is not hacking, even though it's very annoying.

I'm pretty sure that the MP abuse stands aside to the missing files from Jake's computer. There is simply no way possible to access one's local files through ShipSim.

@ Jake, you are speaking of missing ship design files. I assume you are not speaking about the ShipSim vessels right? If your 3D projects are missing, are you certain you haven't accidentally deleted or moved these files?
As hackers are usually only after credentials, I cannot imagine one would be specifically after your project files.
How could one know you are working on that, and how would he know you saved those files over there and that they mean anything to you?

In the past at a very young age I once believed my computer got hacked. Some random files seemed to have dissapeared, and the PC became slower and slower, eventually not a single program could be opened. It turned out that the problem was my harddisk, which was simply too old and dying. I didn't even had internet at the time.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Jake_Savage on July 16, 2013, 07:22:06

Thanks Rob

Quote

@ Jake, you are speaking of missing ship design files. I assume you are not speaking about the ShipSim vessels right? If your 3D projects are missing, are you certain you haven't accidentally deleted or moved these files?

Most of my files have gone but all my GCSE stuff is on my tablet and exernalhard drive/ so I can retrieve them.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: GeoP17 on July 16, 2013, 10:52:59

Quote from: Mr Robville on July 15, 2013, 23:57:58

The only way to 'hack' someone is when someone has the license key from the person he's hacking. This way they can connect their game with the wrong license key. But to my knowledge, if two people are online using the same key, the second person should automatically be kicked before entering. Besides, only one profile can register each key. As long as people keep their license keys to themselves, they should be fine.
Only if some master Einstein-programmer knows how to alter ShipSim's data, there's a very, very small chance you could hack it.

so Mr Robville if the hacker hasn't got my key, cannot hack the game or my computer?

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Mr Robville on July 16, 2013, 14:45:56

With or without a key, nobody can hack another person's computer just with his license key. you are perfectly safe.

The term thief would apply better if one would be using someone else's key as it isn't really hacking.
If someone else has your key, they can login on MP pretending to be you. And of course, all consequences for his actions end up at the wrong person. That's the worst and only thing that can happen.

Keep your key to yourself, and no one can use your account.  ;)

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: GeoP17 on July 16, 2013, 14:58:46

Quote from: Mr Robville on July 16, 2013, 14:45:56

With or without a key, nobody can hack another person's computer just with his license key. you are perfectly safe.

Ok, but how did he/she get in Jake's computer? ???

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: danny on July 16, 2013, 16:46:10

Quote from: GeoP17 on July 16, 2013, 14:58:46

Ok, but how did he/she get in Jake's computer? ???

He didn't. My best guess is that Jake accidentally deleted the files without realising it...

@ Mr_R - whilst its not possible to actually "log in" to multiplayer as another person without the key (as you said), it is possible to impersonate another user (which is what I think Jake is trying to say). I assume that because of the way the SSE multiplayer client & server handle ID's and users, you can trick the server into giving you another persons ship (myself, Stormforce and Eviss had an issue with this some time ago).

If I was sailing under the name of "Danny", and someone with the exact same name (bar capitalisation) joins - in this case "DannY", they would get both my ship, and the ship they had chosen to spawn with. I would then be kicked back to the lobby whilst the impersonator can merrily sail around with both ships, freely changing between the two. If a kickvote is initiated (and is successful) both myself AND the imposter would be kicked - as the game can't tell the difference between myself and the idiot.
Mad_fred knows more, as I've explained the situation to him in the past - and after some effort we caught the user...

Hope that helps, and sorry for sticking my oar in! (at least I'm not being stubborn this time ;D)

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: laganviking on July 16, 2013, 16:56:00

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8534/8874950918_79a21d8f21_b.jpg) :doh:

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Lopender on July 16, 2013, 17:49:43

A picture is worth a thousand words, probably none of them allowed on this forum

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Mad_Fred on July 16, 2013, 20:42:42

Hi everyone,

As Danny also has indicated, this has indeed happened before, unfortunately. Your computer is not being hacked. In fact, nothing is. It is just a very immature exploit of a multiplayer 'bug'.

This person uses the same name (capitalization doesn't matter) as another player. And due to an mp bug, this messes up the controls. What happens, is that the other player, is given control of the ship, because the game thinks this is in fact the same person. (I'm not sure on the exact details, my guess is it assumes that the player was timed out or disconnected and has come in again after that.)

So the game just gives the ship control to this (new) player that is doing nothing more than being a troll and ruining other people's fun. Hacking, it's not.

Twice now I've banned some accounts and all the relevant IP addresses and such after he/she/they was/were caught, but alas this person, or persons, problaby just think(s) it is worth buying another game copy for after a ban.

So all we can do is ban accounts after the fact, and until this opportunity for them is taken away by a fix of this bug, which isn't so much a bug as an unfortunate feature that sadly backfires, we cannot stop such persons from making a new account with a new license key to go on the servers again.

It's a shame that people get a kick out of this. But you need not worry, your pc is not being hacked and they indeed cannot get access to your pc simply by renaming themselves on a game server. That kinda intrusion would require very specific skills, and people with those skills don't waste time to merely be trolling on some game server.


Regards,
Fred

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Kevinmcg_ships on July 16, 2013, 22:24:31

Quote from: Mad_Fred on July 16, 2013, 20:42:42

This person uses the same name (capitalization doesn't matter) as another player. And due to an mp bug, this messes up the controls. What happens, is that the other player, is given control of the ship, because the game thinks this is in fact the same person.

Would it be possible for Vstep to issue a fix which will make letters case-sensitive for MP servers?

For example the MP server recognises "Danny" as the correct person. If someone tries to use "DannY" in an attempt to impersonate "Danny", then that would be rejected.

Some websites require you to use case-sensitive letters as an user name, and even my Windows log-in name and password are case-sensitive. If I type in a single letter or password which was in upper or lower case by mistake, then Windows will not let me log in.

What do you think? Would this be something that Vstep will be able to do without using up a lot of time and resources?

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Mad_Fred on July 16, 2013, 22:56:20

It might not be as easy as it sounds but anything is possible..

However, whether it will get priority, I cannot answer that.
I would like to think this would be something they'd look into at least, and if it's not too costly, fix.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Mr Robville on July 17, 2013, 12:47:02

(http://i44.tinypic.com/2i0t5ba.jpg)

After my email to our suspected annoyance, his forum account conveniently dissapeared, and two other accounts were registered.
Too bad for him I saved his license key and other information. So I'm pleased to announce he has received a full ban on all items and I blocked his license key.
Also since I have sent him the email, I already blocked his key. There were no reports of MP abuse in the meantime.

Special thanks to boatsimrocks25 for providing his IP address.

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Jake_Savage on July 17, 2013, 14:59:53

Thanks to everyone especially Mr R and BoatSim!!!

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: lakon on July 17, 2013, 22:20:24

Yes, Congratulations! on your good work and new found interest in fixing bugs.
 :evil:

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: boatsimrocks25 on July 18, 2013, 00:01:44

Quote from: lakon on July 17, 2013, 22:20:24

Yes, Congratulations! on your good work and new found interest in fixing bugs.
 :evil:

Well this seems odd, Lakon just joined the forums yesterday and picked this topic to say something on?

NP guys! :)
I am so glad that we finally got the guy who's been ramming and breaking all the rules for a very long time.

Mr. Robville, i'm not sure if maybe vstep temporarily removed the official server forums name when (right-clicking) on another player to fix it in the next patch because its showing as N/A right now?

Hopefully the Jumbo Javelin has stairs or the teleport function back in, and the Cartagena Delight(speed yacht) has her helm camera viewpoint raised. I feel like a little kid struggling to see over the gauges. :)

BSR25--(my new nickname)

Title: Re: HACKER (READ PLEASE EVERYONE)
Post by: Mr Robville on July 18, 2013, 09:52:18

Bye Markus, or Lakon.

(http://www.beechwood.slough.sch.uk/images/waving.png)

-Edit-
As this issue is kinda-solved (we know he will return somehow eventually), I will lock this topic.

@BSR25,
I can't say any detail about the patch notes yet unfortunately.