Warcraft game maker in spying row

**Maggy** · 31-10-2005, 13:54

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4385050.stm

Quote:

The watchdog program, called The Warden by Blizzard, has been known about among players for some time.

It makes sure that players are not using cheat software which can, for example, automatically play the game and build up a character's qualities.

However, knowledge of it crossed to the mainstream thanks to software engineer Greg Hoglund who disassembled the code of The Warden and watched it in action to get a better idea of what it did.

He found that it performed a quick analysis on other programs running on a PC to see if their characteristics match known cheating programs.

But Mr Hoglund found that The Warden also scans the text in the title bars of any Window for any other program.

Writing in his blog about what he found Mr Hoglund said: "I watched The Warden sniff down the e-mail addresses of people I was communicating with on MSN, the URL of several websites that I had open at the time, and the names of all my running programs."

Mr Hoglund noted that the text strings in title bars could easily contain credit card details or social security numbers.

Digital rights group The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) branded The Warden "spyware" and said its use constituted "a massive invasion of privacy".

The EFF said that it was not acceptable simply to take Blizzard's word that it did nothing with the information it gathered. It added that the Blizzard could get away with using The Warden because information about it was buried in licence agreements that few people read.

Seems a little worrying.Anyone else bothered?And as my son is buying WOW and will therefore be playing it on MY pc should I be concerned?

Richard M · 31-10-2005, 13:59

I'm not bothered, all I have open is a WoW website called Thottbot when playing, or maybe WinAMP.

punky · 31-10-2005, 14:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Incognitas

Seems a little worrying.Anyone else bothered?And as my son is buying WOW and will therefore be playing it on MY pc should I be concerned?

Not really. The 'gathered' information isn't duplicated/re-transmitted or anything. If it did, then it would be a real security risk.

Interesting that Hoglund came out so publically and said this. Dissassembly of code is is in breach of the license, and so therefore illegal, regardless of what you do with it.

patrickp · 31-10-2005, 19:22

If the application is returning data to Blizzard, and is gathering other information, how do you know this is not also returned to Blizzard? Just because they say so?

And, for that matter, if the information is not being returned, why is the app looking for it?

Sounds to me like judicious use of a bargepole might be indicated...

punky · 31-10-2005, 19:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by patrickp

If the application is returning data to Blizzard,

It is? I got the impression it didn't re-transmit any data back, only analysed it locally.

**Maggy** · 31-10-2005, 22:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by punky

It is? I got the impression it didn't re-transmit any data back, only analysed it locally.

Quote:

The EFF said that it was not acceptable simply to take Blizzard's word that it did nothing with the information it gathered.

bmxbandit · 31-10-2005, 23:38

Quote:

Mr Hoglund noted that the text strings in title bars could easily contain credit card details or social security numbers.

could, but i seriously doubt anyone would write a script to output this. ok, it is an invason of privacy in principle, but i see nothing to be wary of.

Graham M · 01-11-2005, 15:30

If a site puts Credit Card info in title bar, etc. then theyre rather silly anyway

punky · 01-11-2005, 18:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Incognitas

Quote:

The EFF said that it was not acceptable simply to take Blizzard's word that it did nothing with the information it gathered.

It does say a couple of times though, that the application gathers the data, not Blizzard. It never actually says if it transmits the data back to Blizzard HQ, which is a pretty important if. Its not clear to me wether the data is analysed locally, or on a Blizzard-owned server. I find it a bit fishy, if the data was transmitted back, Hoglund would have made a huge song and dance about that particular point. Remember the furore with Lexmark?

Just not jumping to conclusions, that's all. Were the data is analysed makes a big difference.

downquark1 · 01-11-2005, 20:35

Getting clear information on this is hard since blizzard delete any threads about it on the forum, but as I understand it the information is not transmitted. Merely compared to already known hacking apps.

I think the bbc journalist has realised that Warcraft attracts a lot of hits to bbc news and is desperate to report about it.

punky · 01-11-2005, 20:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by downquark1

Getting clear information on this is hard since blizzard delete any threads about it on the forum, but as I understand it the information is not transmitted. Merely compared to already known hacking apps.

Hmmmmmmm... What have they got to hide I wonder.... What's with all the 1984-style moderation?