http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/11/15/1611208.shtml

enough said

Jesus, people will scream ROOTKIT! out now whenever something even vaugly like a rootkit is released.

It really isn't a rootkit, and they've been doing this since day 1. So has pretty much any software you own.

hmm interesting...I would like to see more information on this though, before getting too scared.

more info

http://onwarden.blogspot.com/2007/11/storm-is-brewing.html

So you are going to get angry about them attempting to cover their own asses they are already being sued because there are gold farmners in the game now you want to rais a bunch of crap about them being more aggressive about finding these people and rooting them out, let me ask you something did you ever pay for your subscription with a credit card?  Lots of people do it is conveniant so blizz already knows a hell of a lot of your credit card information if they wanted to do something ignorant they would have.  You people and your conspiracy theories....get a hobby

for one u need to chill the hell out, I play WoW, and love it just as much as the next player

for two, if u read the article from the link in my second post u would have read that if they wanted to they could get alot more than just ur credit card number, and to top it all off, they could do it without a trace.

Gettin rid of  botters and gold farmers is great, more power to them, but by havin full access to my computer whenever they want is something i dont think is necessary. and besides, it could also be possible that some hacker some day could find a way to get access to my computer through that loop hole.

I'm sorry but the author didn't even bother to cite effectively, is it just a blog? Either way, I wouldn't get too excited about it the same topic has been going around what? Since '05?

I'm pretty sure this issue was laid to rest a few months after WoW's release. Blizzard doesn't force anyone to play their game. Everything they're doing is in the fine print, which players accept every time a new patch is released.

People act like SOE isn't doing the same thing with their game launcher.

Originally posted by Omega431

 it could also be possible that some hacker some day could find a way to get access to my computer through that loop hole.

Botters will always be around in games, theres no need to break  privacy and security  to protect there game.

You won't mind until the government subpoenas WoW to get everyone's computer information to make sure we aren't terrorist(or anything else).

Paranoia? I think not, since the major cell phone companies have been handing the government our phone call records. The government didn't even have to give them a subpoena!

Must of you probably don't even realize any of this, since you have your head stuck so far in the sand.

Originally posted by MarL

 

Originally posted by Omega431

 it could also be possible that some hacker some day could find a way to get access to my computer through that loop hole.

That is the important sentence ........

 

Botters will always be around in games, theres no need to break  privacy and security  to protect there game.

This is really the issue that i see.  I'm not too worried about Blizzard doing anything with it.  But if the "key" to those hashes ever got out it could be very bad.  It's already bad enough that some users have to disable their firewall just to download updates.  This strikes me as a bit rediculous.

What most of you doomsayers dont understand is that Blizzards anti cheat system "Warden" does not transmit any data from your PC to blizzard, its all done on client side, yes wardens checks your processes and window titles but if warden find something it does not copy your Harddrive to send it to blizzard.. It will not troll your PC for personal info and send it to blizzard. It simply 'Flags' you as a possible cheater where on GM's start to watch you play and gather evidence.

Now this rootkit is just a way to get around a famous WoW gold farming/leveling bot that also uses a rootkit to hide its-self.

Did you guys know microsoft has more access to your PC than WoW ever will.. omg time to use DOS I guess.

Um just curious if any of you people who are worried about this use Windows?  Hmmm...ALL of you?  Guess what, this vulnerability exists in Windows folks.  That's why you have firewalls and virus scanners people.  This isn't something new.  So unless you plan to get rid of Windows as well, I wouldn't quit WoW over it.

Originally posted by Pappy13

Um just curious if any of you people who are worried about this use Windows?  Hmmm...ALL of you?  Guess what, this vulnerability exists in Windows folks.  That's why you have firewalls and virus scanners people.  This isn't something new.  So unless you plan to get rid of Windows as well, I wouldn't quit WoW over it.

Yes, Windows has tons of vulnerabilities all on it's own.  Hell, if you want to be really safe you should be running LINUX.   I don't see how that excuses Blizzard potentially adding to the problem.  

I personally am not all that worried about it.  If I felt like playing WoW it wouldn't stop me.   I agree, quiting the game over it would be a bit of an overreaction, unless you were already on the fence.  It's really just the principle of the thing that irks me.

I fully support Blizzard's efforts to stop botters and hackers.  I just wish they would go about it on a way that is a little more transparent.  They are asking all of their users to take a pretty big leap of faith.  "Trust us, it doesn't do anything bad or that invades your privacy.  No, we won't let you see what it's doing.  No we won't let you verify the code to ensure that it hasn't been comprimised."   I get enough BS like that from my OS (as you have pointed out), I don't need extra greif from my games.  

That's all I meant by "this strikes me as a bit rediculous."  I'm certainly not saying that the sky is falling, or that I think people should be quitting WoW over it. 

Originally posted by Pappy13

Um just curious if any of you people who are worried about this use Windows?  Hmmm...ALL of you?  Guess what, this vulnerability exists in Windows folks.  That's why you have firewalls and virus scanners people.  This isn't something new.  So unless you plan to get rid of Windows as well, I wouldn't quit WoW over it.

I don't think you understand much about rootkits if you think that anti-virus software and firewalls will find it. Actually that's exactly what makes rootkits very dangerous is not only does security software not know it's there but the rootkit can take control of your own pc and Windows won't even know it's there (and therefore can't be installed). There are rootkit checkers to see if you have rootkits or not. However if you do have one on your pc the only way to get rid of it is to re-format the drive.

Viruses are much worse today. It used to be that they wanted to cause havoc on you pc. But now they are meant to be stealthy because they don't want to be found.

BTW I heard about this today on the CNET podcast. They obviously thought it was a big deal.

Blizzard tapping into people's pc via Rootkit ? Getting rid of bots is one thing but being able to access a customer's pc is going way overboard.

meh.

I have more important things to worry about. I really don't care if "the man" knows how many times i've raided molten core.

If you are worried about rootkits here are a few free rootkit scanners:

F-secure Blacklight

http://www.f-secure.com/blacklight/try_blacklight.html

AVG

free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-rootkit/us/frt/0

Sophos

sophos.com/products/free-tools/sophos-anti-rootkit.html