Valve Needs Your Help!

[synth]

Gabe Newell from Valve Software posted on our very own forums regarding the source code leak. He confirms that it is real, and he describes some trouble he and the company have had recently with hackers. Here's a bit of what he said.

Yes, the source code that has been posted is the HL-2 source code...

...What I'd appreciate is the assistance of the community in tracking this down. I have a special email address for people to send information to, [email protected]. If you have information about the denial of service attacks or the infiltration of our network, please send the details. There are some pretty obvious places to start with the posts and records in IRC, so if you can point us in the right direction, that would be great.

So by all means, if you know anything about what Gabe described, please email them. We don't want Valve to have more problems. You can view the whole thread here.

 

[scribblehead]

Yes well most obvious thing for them to do, is to check ip logs/server logs (espcially that mail server log)

Also set up some kind of sniffer program.

They've probably gone through the above (logs and stuff)....as a last resort they contact the community.

given the circumstances, its very unfortunate that valve is experiencing hacker attacks...christ its just a game.

 

[Gtwy]

The leaker was [GSM]Grim. That is who posted it on Usenet before anyone on IRC even had it. I did some googling and with the help of Derek (TheAmazingXemo) we figured out who this is. Please see: http://www.cracksmokingmonkeys.net/members.php?m=grim for a picture of the person who either 1) hacked valve or 2) was very close to the people who did. I already emailed valve with all of the information I have.

 

[kinggi]

that panzy better start packing for another country cause his ass is ruined.

 

[Gtwy]

Sorry, made a mistake. It's [CSM]Grim! not Gsm.

I haven't recieved an email back from Valve yet, I doubt I will. Regardless of if they catch the dude who did this or not, it still happened, this is still very bad.

dhampireJames: this csm grim dude
dhampireJames: is about to get a lot of publicity
TheAmazingXemo: lol
TheAmazingXemo: he's probably sitting at home playing CS
TheAmazingXemo: and it'll be like "WON ID BANNED"
dhampireJames: lmfao

 

[Grim]

sigh. i admit to posting it to usenet. that's all i did. i did not steal the code from valve offices, i got it from the same bittorrent that is being posted on slashdot here:

http://games.slashdot.org/comments....reshold=0&mode=thread&commentsort=0&op=Change

when i posted, i used my default identity of [email protected]. (shortened to stop spam bots.) this was a mistake, my actions were my own and not those of my clanmates or the server admins.

i have since deleted the source seeing as how i cannot code worth a damn. now please. stop blaming me, and go find the real idiot that did this.

thanks.

 

[LentoMan]

Nice going Grim, are you going to remove yourself from the google cache too?

http://www.google.se/search?q=cache...onkeys.net/members.php?m=grim+&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8

 

[Plopfish]

What a terrible thing.
Please dont flame me...but...
Is it illegal to have the source code to Source on your HD?
I believe it is illegal to DL it, share it, transfer it, but to "have" it on your HD simply for educational or curosity pruposes...I am not sure.
Of course, one would have to get it from somewhere, but without proof of that transfer, I think your OK.

If anyone is familar with the law, especially that new Millenium Digital RIghts Act stuff, please give your thoughts.

I am very curious and wish to see this code, but I do not want to harm Valve in any way. I doubt they would appreciate people looking at it (but NOT sharing it), so I do not believe I will try to DL it for thier sake.

 

[Glorak]

Having anything like that in your posession without the permission of the owner is illegal.

 

[A-KO]

Plopfish: It is at illegal to maintain any copies of the source code software, you must delete it.

With that said, I hope they catch the idiot, considering the operation involved I'm sure he slipped up somewhere

 

[Plopfish]

Ok, I would delete it , if I had it. I do not have it. I will not DL it. I will open up good ole HL1 SDK and pretend that its the HL2 source ;-)

no seriously, screw it, I dont want to be apart of the problem

 

[Gtwy]

Sorry Grim for thinking that you were closer to the hacker than what you really were, but Christ what were you thinking its SOURCE CODE not a BETA VERSION. That’s lots of hard time working on that, and I know everyone else was posting it everywhere but why did you have to share it with millions+ people on news groups? The newsgroups haven't removed it and I doubt they will, they never do.

By the way everyone, at least we still have MaxPayne2 to look forward to in 13 days.

That's all I have to say.

 

[wjxflying]

Originally posted by Gtwy


By the way everyone, at least we still have MaxPayne2 to look forward to in 13 days.

That's all I have to say.

:cheers: yeah right buddy! at least we still have MP2 to play this month. that the only news make me better!

 

[DrEvil]

Originally posted by scribblehead
Yes well most obvious thing for them to do, is to check ip logs/server logs (espcially that mail server log)

Also set up some kind of sniffer program.

They've probably gone through the above (logs and stuff)....as a last resort they contact the community.

given the circumstances, its very unfortunate that valve is experiencing hacker attacks...christ its just a game.

a game worth millions of dollars and 5 years of intense efforts.

 

[Apos]

This is really awful, and I really despise the sorts of people who do this. They are no better than any other sort of theif, and deserving of no more respect. They should get jail time, without any question at all.

 

[Reiska]

Some admin should really consider checking the originating-IP of this "post by Gabe Newell" and see if it matches to previous posts by him. I think its more propable that someone just hacked his password for these forums than hacked in valve-network etc. Just a thought.

 

[nostgard]

Originally posted by scribblehead
given the circumstances, its very unfortunate that valve is experiencing hacker attacks...christ its just a game.

I think you have to remember how much money they get from licensing this very source code. Let's just take the example of id Software. For the Quake 3 engine they charge a $250,000 guarantee against 5% of the royalties of the retail product. Licenses to just 4 companies gives them a cool million. That's a ton of money potentially lost by the leak of this source code.

Then take into account the libraries that were leaked with it... if what people have said is true, the Havok library got leaked with source code and a ton of documentation, as did the lip syncing. Those companies have potentially lost money as well.

Now think about what that loss (assuming it does result in a loss) would do to all of the employees of the companies involved.

It's much more than just a game. It's these peoples' heart and soul for the past 5 years or more.

 

[Short_Fuse]

But if someone makes a game and it resembles HL2, or there are lines of code the same as HL2 source. They'd get sued for billions for rippin the engine. As far as i can see the only problem here are haxes cheats and so forth.

 

[nostgard]

Not true... people have made a lot of engines and applications that were constructed from knowledge they gained from looking at the source code of, say, the Quake 1 engine or the Quake 3 compiling tools.

They couldn't use the source directly, but they could steal the concepts in the source code and make a new engine and no one would know a damned thing.

 

[Swoop]

Yeah but think of this way.
Valve KNOWS. Their product isnt final. Thsi elliminates much of the possibilities of hacks and such for HL2. They will propbaly delay the launch, and change a shitload of code. Bad for us though,

BUT bad for valve is as Nostgard stated. The source that took 5 year to develop is out there. Everybody can get their greedy hands on it, and get "inspired".
Takes alot of evidence to haul somebody to court witout proof. See how long it took before MS had to show their source code in the courts... imagine how hard it's gonna to prove that another company used parts of their engine.. not gonna happen.

Only hope that the community actually can get this piped down, by getting the copies removed in a large degree... i mean most people who downloaded dont have any use anyways.

Cheating online wont be a problem i think. They are using Steam. It's able to be updated say 2 times a week, so that modified files wont go along. That should take care of the problem that could be with cheats.

 

[skidrow]

so if some1 has the source code, he is doing illegal stuff right.
well, just look @ some of the screenshots that are posted.
There are most of the time irc-channels on the background.

 

[Vextor]

Well, they have my regards, even if I can't be of any help. But my baseball bat is ready.

 

[H2HSnake]

I suggest the release of SDK Tools finaly! If they'd do this a month ago they'd not have problems now.Still is a good moment for releasing legal SDK tools,so people will not use illegal leaked SDK...