OT: SPYWARE/TROJAN and Off Topic!

Norfleet · #1 April 7th, 2004, 05:24 PM

Is there an official statement on this matter, or only guilty silence?

tinkthank · #2 April 7th, 2004, 05:34 PM

Small question here, since I really dont understand what all of this means: How can a game make your computer call "home", and what does that mean? I mean, will it make my modem dial something and then transfer information even if I dont want that to be?

Anglachel · #3 April 7th, 2004, 05:36 PM

Would the nature of this spyware be a tracking cookie? Kind of illiterate on spyware. If not then the ad-aware spyware remover I just ran only found tracking cookies and I removed them. There were seven of them.

Norfleet · #4 April 7th, 2004, 05:41 PM

No, tracking cookies are not the only thing: The program appears to call home (according to Gandalf, that's an Illwinter server), on a nonstandard port, and sends unknown data. Normal Spyware/Adware removal programs won't detect this behavior, since it occurs inside of a normal (and new) program.

Basically, this little added feature has the ability to do all of that, and your spyware checkers will not be able to detect it right now, and probably never, because it's unlikely that this will be added to their detection profiles.

However, I have no idea why this program would suddenly phone home in a change not mentioned in the patch update, so I can only assume that it is no good. Otherwise, they would have told us about it.

Nephelim · #5 April 7th, 2004, 05:42 PM

And the behaviour if it is unable to phone home is...?

not everyone has an always-on connection.. And some of us like to black-hole route things that try to phone home.

Norfleet · #6 April 7th, 2004, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Nephelim:
And the behaviour if it is unable to phone home is...?

not everyone has an always-on connection.. And some of us like to black-hole route things that try to phone home.

Like me, yes.

I black-hole anything that tries to use the Internet without permission as a general rule.

The behavior that occurs when unable to phone home is, as far as I can tell, absolutely nothing.

What I don't know is what the behavior for being ABLE to phone home is, given that I will not allow such a thing! If anyone can tell me what THAT is, I'd be curious.

Gandalf Parker · #7 April 7th, 2004, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Norfleet:
No, tracking cookies are not the only thing: The program appears to call home (according to Gandalf, that's an Illwinter server), on a nonstandard port, and sends unknown data. Normal Spyware/Adware removal programs won't detect this behavior, since it occurs inside of a normal (and new) program.

Not all programs that contact the home site are automatically considered spyware so you dont even know if it will EVER be included in the spyware-killer programs list. Nor do you know what data is being sent. So saying "with all of the information about your computer" as you did in another post is abit inflammatory. If its only the CD registration key then its not that uncommon.

Quote:

However, I have no idea why this program would suddenly phone home in a change not mentioned in the patch update, so I can only assume that it is no good. Otherwise, they would have told us about it.

???? Since when have they ever told us the measures used in pirate protection. And who ever has for that matter.

If its information gathering such as getting a feel for what mods and maps are popular then Id expect them to have made it voluntary but if its pirate protection then I wouldnt expect it be to voluntary.