BAD NEWS - Freelancer hack ''trainer'' already out...

Sun Mar 02, 2003 8:45 am by VIle-8yte

Yet again some sad news... there is a freelancer trainer floating around already, I was playing on my server with several friends and a new player came in, i checked the account and it was brand new etc, etc, i offered to help him get started and the next thing i knew flying back to Manhatten was that the player had gone from lvl 1 to 38 in about 20 seconds, i questioned him and he said, he wass surprised the trainer works online... not good, he had a startracker and the best weapons even before lifting off. Not good... since there is no server side protection this will be a large nuisnance, the player has been dealth with (on my server anyways) But it does appear there is a graphical trainer floating around... so it will make hacking easy for even the standard user that doesnt wish to dig around the INI files...

Any thoughts, comments, or what we could do to stop this until proper fixes are made?

-Vile

Sun Mar 02, 2003 9:41 am by Stinger

share who it is for one so other server admins can ban him too

Sun Mar 02, 2003 2:47 pm by VIKINGTHUNDER

A "global" banlist would be pretty useful until an actual server patch is out.

Sun Mar 02, 2003 3:56 pm by S7ATiC

yeah, but uh.. people can change their ids, their ips, their names, all at a whim, etc.. so um.. yeah I guess it'll sorta work. kinda nazi tactics if ya ask me tho.
just confront DA & microsoft.

Sun Mar 02, 2003 5:24 pm by VIle-8yte

Agreed, A global ban list would be far too hard to maintain, player identifications are too dynamic and modifyable... the only way is to include server-side checking of the INI files in the next patch... so DA needs to be informed.

Sun Mar 02, 2003 5:28 pm by Stinger

So let me get this straight, since it's too hard to do anything about it now...we do nothing until the maker of the software does something about it?!?

Where's the logic in that? We didn't take that stance when it came to modding the product did we?

Sun Mar 02, 2003 5:35 pm by VIle-8yte

Thats not what i meant! =p

I am going to do everything i can to montor cheaters on my server and act accordingly, my statement above was a comment about the 'Global Ban List'. I agree with S7ATiC that keeping an upto date list of cheater names, id's, etc, etc, would be extremely difficult because (in my opinion) Players can change their names, and ID's, so once a player is banned, they can just regenerate an ID and choose a new name and reconnect until someone realizes something suspicious again.

Obviosuly we need to make precautions and find a method to filter out cheaters as a community, before DA or Microsoft do anything about it, but would a 'Global Ban List' be the most practical method?

-Vile

Sun Mar 02, 2003 6:18 pm by Stinger

Players can change their names, and ID's, so once a player is banned, they can just regenerate an ID and choose a new name

Not sure you understand what banning realy does. It's not as simple to create a new identity the server can't recognize as you described above.

That's why banning is so powerful a tool.

Sun Mar 02, 2003 6:49 pm by VIle-8yte

Okay, then just can you clarify these two things for me, it may be i am totally confused, hehe

So obviously the player name is changeable so we are looking at banning through the unique ID? which is generated randomly? upon install.

-So is the ID just a random set of letters and numbers generated by the application, or does it actually use some sort of system specs to generate the coe?

-If the ID is a random number, it must be stored somewhere, in turn changeable (well eventually someone will come out with a prog that can gen new ID's and place them in)

So if I remember correctly the server Bans through these ID's only? (correct me if im wrong)

-Vile

Sun Mar 02, 2003 6:53 pm by kalad919

Problem with a ban list is that the game uses the computer it is on and the server it is connecting to to create its id. Further more unless you follow the directions to safegaurd the identity you can uninstall and reinstall and have a new identity.

people unfortunately do have the ability to change/hide their ip addresses and so forthe. also probably half of the broadband useres have dynamic IP to boot.

Unfortunately im not much of a programmer or program slueth and i dont see a way to realy 100% enforce a global ban list. as id like to see these people 100% banned as well. and want to keep them off of my server if i get it to work. would apreciate any education on how to do this.

Sun Mar 02, 2003 8:13 pm by KungFuMonkey

Player ID is stored in the Windows Registry in plain text. Easy to change, bans not permanent :-/

Mon Mar 03, 2003 12:05 am by VIKINGTHUNDER

Well it was just a mild suggestion, but I suspect unless someone is really of malicious intent, wouldn't they learn their lesson after the first (couple) times (of course, that is assuming people have enough intelligence to consume the higher level of this game, and not just kill everything in sight despite having an unfair advantage). Though I'm not quite wary of how things would work here as they do in other areas, but users of "trainers" usually are not that "advanced," if at all, than others. Also, if there was a way to monitor statistics, such as seeing someone with a level of 38 and 2 minutes, this could be of great use.

----------------------------------------
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http://www.azuretek.net
http://www.tekwarrior.net

Edited by - VikingThunder on 03-03-2003 01:52:34

Mon Mar 03, 2003 12:26 am by Stinger

I got my eye on you monkey.

Mon Mar 03, 2003 5:11 am by westcott

Okay, I have uninstalled and reinstalled 4 times since I originally installed. I have yet for the game to change my ID number. This must mean the file in the registry remains unless removed. So, I would think it is possible to ban them if that ID is not removed from the registry and even then the game may make the same ID and put it back in the registry.

-Herschwolf

"Where am I again?"

Mon Mar 03, 2003 5:28 am by Stinger

Great feedback!

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