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Half Life 2 Source Code Leaked
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Thu Oct 02, 2003 12:02 PM
from the i-hate-when-that-happens dept.
from the i-hate-when-that-happens dept.
Pyroman[FO] writes "Gamers with Jobs is reporting that the Half Life 2 source code is floating around the net right now. It looks to be about a month old. There's no official word from Valve on the source code leak yet. Unfortunately those who want to use it to cheat already have it, we need to get the word to legitimate customers to educate them about the situation." Update: 10/02 21:51 GMT by S : Valve's Gabe Newell has an official statement, via ShackNews/HalfLife2.net, indicating "infiltration of our network" and appealing for information on the culprits.
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IT: The Trap Set By the FBI For Half Life 2 Hacker 637 comments
eldavojohn writes "You might remember the tiny news that Half Life 2 source code was leaked in 2003 ... it is the 6th most visited Slashdot story with over one kilocomment. Well, did anything happen to the source of the leak, the German hacker Axel 'Ago' Gembe? Wired is reporting he was offered a job interview so that Valve could get him into the US and bag him for charges. It's not the first time the FBI tried this trick: 'The same Seattle FBI office had successfully used an identical gambit in 2001, when they created a fake startup company called Invita, and lured two known Russian hackers to the US for a job interview, where they were arrested.'"
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Pascal (Score:5, Funny)
...and in other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:...and in other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:...and in other news... (Score:5, Funny)
"Whadda gonna do huh? Revoke out Unix license!"
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Thanks ATI! (Score:5, Funny)
It wasn't 'leaked'... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It wasn't 'leaked'... (Score:5, Funny)
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You know you're on Slashdot when... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:You know you're on Slashdot when... (Score:5, Funny)
I'm currently taking bets on the surprise release of Duke Nukem Forever.. (Which surprisingly, looks like Half Life 2)
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IP? (Score:5, Funny)
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That's the net for you... (Score:5, Funny)
Full text of linked article (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/modules.php?
Half-Life 2 Source Code Leaked, Seriously
Posted by: Pyroman[FO] on Thursday, October 02, 2003 - 11:02 AM EST
So I know what you're thinking. "Yeah right Pyro, it's really just more suprise gay porn" but its the real deal. The source code for Valve's Half-Life 2 has been leaked to the net. An anonymous GWJ reader has verified this is real.
I can confirm that this is indeed no fake
There's still no official word from Valve and I haven't seen any other sites pick it up. There isn't any word on who leaked it either and from what I have heard the source doesn't give it away. Hopefully when this gets out in the open Valve can work with its partners to figure out who did this. Let's also hope it doesn't delay Half-Life 2 any further.
One things for sure, this can't be ignored. Those in the know already have it and they're probably working on their first cheat right now. Legitimate customers are the ones who need to know about this as they are the ones that will get their machine potentially broken into when they go online. You can't warez with month old source code, all it's good for is exploiting others in multiplayer and allowing crackers to make better cracks. Customers need to know that there are cheaters out there right now with the full Half Life 2 source code, if this is true.
Steam? (Score:5, Insightful)
Those who want to steal will, those who are honest will pay anyway. Why piss off your entire userbase with DRM?
More info (Score:5, Informative)
There are also a few threads on steam [steampowered.com], PlanetHalfLife [forumplanet.com], and arstechnica [infopop.net].
Oh no. (Score:5, Funny)
Code control technology (Score:5, Insightful)
But how?
At my company, we control access to code using good 'ol fashioned groups, but that leaves a relatively large number of people with access to everything. Maybe you could enhance that security with encryption of the codebase (you can decrypt the parts you need to change and that's it), but that doesn't seem like a great solution, either. Or maybe somehow watermark the code to each person in a way not easy to detect -- maybe dynamically change their variable names so they're individual-specific...
Anyhow, interesting problem. There's always air-gap, searched-by-security on the way out solutions, but given that my keychain holds more data than my first (or second, or third) hard drive, I'm not sure how effective even a police-state style could be against a determined thief....
Re:Code control technology (Score:5, Insightful)
If security is really important, #1 rule is to make sure you trust the people who have the important data. Someone did this intentionally, either someone at Valve, or one of their partners. That person should probably not have been hired in the first place. OTOH, I don't know how one would go about security checks for this kind of thing. It's not as easy as govt ones (where what they want to know is 1) are you a spy/subversive/etc and 2) how easy can you be blackmailed by someone who is - between those two it covers 99% of the cases where one would wish to leak stuff). This seems like it was done - well, actually, I really don't understand why anyone would do this, except maybe to really fuck their employer.
Maybe you could enhance that security with encryption of the codebase (you can decrypt the parts you need to change and that's it)
Except that you still need to compile it, so unless you put special decryption stuff in the compiler (or in a preprocessor to it), etc, etc, etc it's not going to do you a whole lot of good.
Or maybe somehow watermark the code to each person in a way not easy to detect -- maybe dynamically change their variable names so they're individual-specific...
Would sure as hell make understanding things hard, though. 'Sure, to do such-and-such just increment a4362h' 'What? Do you mean z2314j?' I don't think this would fly.
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Xbox Version (Score:5, Insightful)
Just a thought.
What?? (Score:5, Funny)
How sad. oh wait.. you're shuning sharers today? Nevermind then
Just watch... (Score:5, Funny)
No wait, this could be good (Score:5, Insightful)
Not to mention, all of the free debugging, and reviews too. Heck, how many mods will be available when HL2 gets released because developers have access to the new API. Maybe it wasn't leaked, maybe it really was freed...
License (Score:5, Interesting)
Sales of the engine may be hurt, or it may be helped. Certain companies may wind up "doing the wrong thing" and incorporating Valve code into their own, but no major player would be caught dead doing such a thing. I expect that snippets of that code may find its way into the wild due to overtasked programmers trying to make their game the best it can be, but such snippets wouldn't have equalled a sale, they simply mean fiercer competition. And with the increased visibility, companies can now know the quality of the code that their 500 grand will be buying. True, being released into the wild may reduce the perception of value, but with the availability of the code this may still lead to increased sales.
Modders are a different story. Without economic interests compelling them to buy a license, they might begin releasing compiled binaries of their work to the community without requiring a half-life 2 license, which would cripple Valve's sales numbers. But on the other hand with access to source, modders could create more extensive and more active modifications, creating original features instead of mere graphical facelifts. If these code modders require the original game to be playable, it could lead to a real renissance in modding and a tremendous boost in sales for Valve.
I can see how this may possibly turn out to be somewhat damaging to Valve, but I can't see how this is one of the four horsemen of their apocolypse. The head of the man who intentionally leaked the code should roll (if it truly was intentional), but it is way too soon to declare this the end of the company. Under closer analysis, it may even be a boon.
Gamers with Jobs.com? (Score:5, Funny)
IT COMPILES (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.devils-children.com/hl2_1.jpg [devils-children.com]
It's being picked apart in #HL2-Source on irc.quakenet.org at the moment. Fun fun.
Maybe the leak is the cause of the delay ! (Score:5, Insightful)
So lets just say thanks to whom ever leaked the code and we can all blame them for the delay of the release date !
I hope they also know that NDA's are a big part of the game industry today so that either means your loosing your job, your company, or you getting sued.
Each file contains a date, what was modified and when for the most part depending on what code managemnt tool they use
Here is some sample code (Score:5, Funny)
If ATI Pays++
- then ATI_Card_Peformance++
else if NVIDIA Pays++- then NVIDA_Card_Perferomance++
else- BSOD
{Not Quite Dead - Release Party (Score:5, Funny)
Surprisingly enough we were able to complete the game engine and the game within 2 weeks, which goes to show why Stolensoft makes the best games.
Contains GPL'd code ... (Score:5, Interesting)
files in these directories contain such code for example
It would take someone a little more clued up than I to verify that this code is actually used in a binary release.
Someone should take a closer look.
Re:One Word: (Score:5, Interesting)
Thread here [halflife2.net].
Be interesting to see what the verdict of the Slashdot code gurus is.
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Re:One Word: (Score:5, Informative)
Now however, I have come to the conclusion that this IS an SDK, and not the full source of their engine.
Err, I take that back. Its the engine. Just found the occlusion system and the node management.
I feel for Valve about now. This sucks.
I'm deleting the source just out of respect.
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Re:One Word: (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:"use it to cheat?" (Score:5, Insightful)
The most damage is the loss of company secrets (Source engine techniques, anyone?) and the potential damage to engine licensing opportunities, I think.
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Re:"use it to cheat?" (Score:5, Insightful)
Valve will not lose any licenses due to the code being available. Nobody is going to not license the engine because they can get the source. You'd get your ass sued to oblivion to commit largescale copyright infringement on a major retail product. The first thing anyone asks when you're working on a game is "what engine are you using?". You can't hide your engine - knowledable people can easily tell what engine it is by running it.
The real risk is cheating, which could very well have a real impact on sales (why buy HL2 to play the new CS when the new CS has at least as many cheats as the old one?). Plus if cheating is rampant, it could scare away licensees.
So they could lose real sales and licensees, but only because of cheating, not because they don't need to pay for the source because they can get it for free
Jon (Slothy)
Programmer, S2 Games
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Re:"use it to avoid licensing?" (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:"use it to cheat?" (Score:5, Insightful)
Not with games, especially first-person shooters. It's a problem of distributing the workload with limited server resources and limited bandwidth / high latency between nodes. To make the game playable, the clients have to know things and be trusted to do calculations that from a security standpoint they should not.
This really is unfortunate. It means you really can't stop cheating with this sort of game. It's especially easy when the source code is available, though it's still possible otherwise.
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Re:"use it to cheat?" (Score:5, Insightful)
The CDKey and Steam authentication systems are also supposedly included, so any security control they had before goes out the window, you can't trust the CD Keys or Steam anymore. Not that they were perfect before, but this is going from "wait a bit while the crackers figure out this new authentication system, then it's changed in a patch, repeat" to "here it is on a silver platter, before it's released"
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Not always a problem (Score:5, Informative)
For instance, in Starsiege:Tribes, since the rendering engine has been successfully hacked, people have been able to write some clever and EXTREMELY extensive cheats -- you can customize the visibility of the terrain, of individual objects (like buildings -- make them partially transparent to see people around corners), remove fog from maps, have pointers to the person with the flag, and most infamously, change the model for the flag into a twenty-story-tall red and green stick figure with a gigantic smiley face. This cheat is known as 'Happy Flag', and it makes it pretty much impossible to confuse the enemy team as to the location of your flag.
Now, in any other game, with the graphics engine compromised to that extent, the game would be over. It would be trivial to write auto-aim functionality that centers your view on a particular model type and fires the weapon.
But thanks both to the use of actual projectiles instead of instant (or 'hitscan') weapons, as well as a server-client model that DOES NOT TRUST CLIENT EVENTS (which you might think would make the game much more apparently laggy, but which in reality makes the game much less stuttery and much smoother for those on slower connctions; you just have to predict your shots more. But, since you have to do that anyways by design . .
The stability of this system is such that even with one of the most rabid fanbases in gaming, the only cheats available are primarily informational in nature. A cheater can see mines better, can know where the flag is, can see people clearly that would be mostly obscured by fog otherwise.
But this gives him very little actual advantage. The only hitscan weapon in the game is not a one-hit kill even on the lightest armor, and it needs to recharge, and the method used in both Tribes 1 and the Torque engine of the server not trusting the player for jack shit is actually EASIER on the server, since it processes client actions essentially as it receives them. Moreover, thanks to 'skiing' and the jetpacks and the visibility of laser rifle attacks, any advantage is quickly whittled down to a simple nuisance.
Now, at the other end of the spectrum is Red Faction.
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Re:Open Source now? (Score:5, Interesting)
The only problem is if the code contains third-party stuff like sound modules, physics engines etc.
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Re:Open Source now? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, because afterall, there's absolutely no way to share binary files amongst a large group of people semi-anonymously around the Internet now is there? ;-)
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Linux port (Score:5, Funny)
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No it wouldn't (Score:5, Insightful)
It would definitely legally implicate anyone who had it (for copyright violation), but it wouldn't "contaminate" anyone who later wrote code of their own. Despite what some proprietary developers think and others fear, as long as no actual copying occurs it is perfectly okay for novelists to read other people's books, for singers to listen to other people's songs, and even for programmers to read other people's source code.
Parent
Re:Why... ? (Score:5, Insightful)
People need to know that they're buying a product that could leave them vulnerable, or at the very least isn't going to be a fair multiplayer experience online. They also need to know what's going on so that when Valve says "delayed till 2004" everybody knows what's up.
It's not like you can warez with this, it's none of the levels, art or sound. I'ts only useful for crackers and cheaters, customers need to know what's going to so that they don't get screwed by people using the source code to comprimise the game.
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Re:Look on the bright side (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Look on the bright side (Score:5, Informative)
It's pretty complete, and weighs in at 100 megs unpacked, for this to be _not_ the source, I'd have to say it's a pretty damn good hoax.
There is also the complete source to worldcraft in there.
Most interesting thing though, is the presence of a linux/, *gets his hopes up*
Parent
Re:Hopefully this includes Steam... (Score:5, Insightful)
I have stacks of games all bought legit. I fucking hate it however when games I bought with good money then limit me while those who download them get the better deal.
Do a test once between a normal game and a game with a no-cd patch applied. It will boot faster and often run faster as well. Games that access the cd are slow as apart from the floppy the cd is the slowest part in your computer. If the game is copied instead to the HD and played completly from their it will run faster.
Having to enter registration keys is all very nice and not so much of a hassle except why aren't they printed on the fucking cd's.
I am fed up with being treated like a criminal. You apparently love it. Well go right ahead but don't insult others who object to it.
Just because you are to stupid to see the problems with online activation crap doesn't mean the rest of us are as blind as you or as willing to be insulted.
Parent
Re:Hopefully this includes Steam... (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree with most of your rant. I forked over my cash for your game, why do I need to just through more hoops to play? Gosh, you know, I really love shuffling disks in and out of CD drive when I decide to switch games solely to satisfy some copyprotection system. Add to that that my CD driver works fine but hums like jet engine if any CD is in at all, so I have to remove the disk when I finish to cut down on the noise. And while I'm playing I need to stupid disk in the drive (solely for copy protection), so I just get to enjoy the hum while I play.)
Or at the very least, don't make the entire CD black! Leave a light colored area so I can use a Sharpie to write the registration key on the CD. No, I'm not going to keep your stupid jewel case. I own a lot of games, so I keep them in a CD binder to save space. The only thing a gamer is certain to keep is the CD itself, that's where the registration key belongs.
Parent
Re:Hopefully this includes Steam... (Score:5, Insightful)
Ys, it would indeed affect me.
First of all, Steam requires a live internet connection to play. Not just to register, or to activate, but every time you want to play. Goodbye gaming during that boring 10-hour flight, eh?
Second, Steam not only makes possible, but forces, whatever patches Valve has decided to make, on the users. you simply don't have the option of saying "gee, y'know, it runs fine right now, and I don't want the new uberfun zone, so I'll skip this update". Nope. They release a patch, you get it next time you connect.
Third, related to #2, you have no way to keep playing if Valve gets bored. Yeah, the servers will probably stay up for a year or two, to avoid lawsuits, but personally, I still play games well over a decade old. What odds do you lay on the Steam servers staing up for over a decade? Not very good, I'd wager.
Fourth, have you read about the typical user experience with connecting to a Steam server? It makes AOL-in-the-mid-90s look easy to connect to by comparison. Valve already has money-in-pocket by the time users try to connect, so has very little motivation to guarantee the capacity to let everyone get on. And, as history has shown, doesn't give a damn.
And finally, some people just don't like having companies treat them like criminals, or having minor annoyances pop up every time they want to play a game they legitimately buy. Whether as minor as a "no-CD" crack (which often makes the game far more responsive in general, since it doesn't wait for the CD to spin up every now and then), or as major as disabling Steam, when people buy games, they want to play those games, not jump through hoops to prove they really paid for it.
So there's got to be some other motive behind your words... something more to the tune of "Someone please make a crack so I don't have to buy the game."
Not really, no. If the above explanation doesn't do it for you, I guess nothing will. So enjoy all the BS, and if someday we meet on a plane, I'll share my bought-but-cracked copy with you, as you gaze forlornly at the screen when your uncracked copy presents the highly accusatory "cannot connect with server, ya damn pirate" screen. Perhaps then you'll "get it", why things like Steam count as "bad" even if you legally own a copy of the game.
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Re:Thanks Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
Really security through obscurity is so obsolete it ain't even a good joke anymore.
This is out. It has happened. Though but it is hardly a big deal. It is not like the game itself has been leaked.
So what could this all mean.
None of this will be stopped by not talking about it. And frankly I think you have shown youreselve to be extremly naive to believe that hushing this up is even going to work or have any effect.
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Re:Screenshots (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Screenshots (Score:5, Informative)
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