Major hack of the MOULa server this evening?

[N. Sigismund]

The mods over at MOULa obviously have gone Madagascar on this (AKA "SHUT. DOWN. EVERYTHING.") but this is the GoW and hence I'd assume everyone is happy to talk about it.

So.

What happened? According to a report over at the Myst Movie website:

"Details are still fuzzy, but there was a Rand appearance in the City, Bahro flying around, random spurts of anti-gravity, peoples’ KI text being changed, and psychadelic color changes. All kinds of interesting, but unsettling craziness."

We can assume that this isn't a Cyan prank to celebrate Rand's birthday, or indeed a Cyan event at all (because they'd use DRC members, not Rand), so it seems likely that the server's been hacked. Considering that Cyan updated the game to patch the security hole after the NotABeast incident, and threatened to bring down the server if further hacks occured, this is probably a pretty bad thing.

EDIT:EDIT: Ugh, okay, let's try this again because I'm a sugar-wired idiot.

Rand, the real Rand, did go down to the cavern, and on the topic of OS did say they were putting some stuff together and that "It won't be long now" before we get something. I do agree with Tweek that not being given a date or a timescale does make me go "meh", but at least Rand is confirming something is in the works pertaining to giving us lot something, and it's not far in Cyan-time.

[Tweek]

we're trying to put some stuff together - it really shouldn't be long now!

Is like me saying to my wife "I'll mow the lawn later" and then 5 months pass and the kids are being attacked by Pokemon as they leave for school.

[N. Sigismund]

Manly Guys Doing Manly Things, I assume?

That comic is amazing.

[andylegate]

OS will happen, when it happens, if it happens. That's pretty much it on that.

On the hacking of the MOUL:a server: If it was a hack by someone, then Cyan could make good on their threat of shutting it down.

However, I will point out that the chat log does clearly show that people were actually enjoying what was happening to them.

So while I can't say I approve of someone hacking into someone's server uninvited, I do have to say that the people online that enjoyed it only shows how much people WANT something to be happening. Maybe Cyan should find someone they trust enough that can log in randomly and wiggle the joystick around every once in a while to give people a jolt, heheh.

[N. Sigismund]

I agree with you there, Andy. We don't need Cyan so long as we have the tools that the GoW has created over the years, so there's not much point waiting endlessly on them - I stopped mid-August and got on with learning Max. Turns out that by doing that I've got something that I can now be happy to put onto a MOULa server, rather than just waiting or trolling...

It is a nice boost to read that they're actually happy to say that they're working on it now, though. It's unusually optimistic for Rand.

[Tweek]

Manly Guys Doing Manly Things, I assume?

That comic is amazing.

cho?

On the hacking of the MOUL:a server: If it was a hack by someone, then Cyan could make good on their threat of shutting it down.

Doubt they would, things are bad enough as it is, closing it down would be shooting themselves in both feet. That just guarantees everything moving into the hands of the fans

[Paradox]

I would hardly call what happened a "Major hack". From the descriptions and pictures I've seen, it looks like the sort of stuff that happened almost routinely on UU shards.

[Chacal]

The servers will be seriously hacked sooner or later. The current architecture offers little protection because the client has too much authority.
The only thing that can and should be done is to run the servers from VMs and take a daily snapshot of them. Restore the snapshot after any incident.

[N. Sigismund]

@Tweek,

http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/comics/2010-04-12.jpg

Excellent comic.

[Christian Walther]

However, I will point out that the chat log does clearly show that people were actually enjoying what was happening to them.

As one of those people, let me put it this way: Yes, I did enjoy it, however that doesn’t mean that I think it was a good idea on the whole. The hangover has yet to set in. It was fun once, but I wouldn’t want to have this happen every day – that would seriously ruin my enjoyment of the game. Different looks of Ae’gura are interesting, skydiving was fun, running around on the roof of the Tokotah building was cool (much to my disappointment, nobody seemed to notice me up there ). Having involuntary emotes performed on my avatar already felt uncomfortable, and if the reports I hear about manipulated chat are accurate (that must either have happened after I left, or I must have been too far away to see it), that was clearly crossing the line. Birthday party colors for Rand were great, but I would have stopped right after that, when everybody wasn’t quite certain yet what was happening. We could really do without the backlash that carrying it as far as it was inevitably causes.

I guess it can’t hurt to be reminded every now and then of the lack of security in Plasma. (I don’t know what Cyan updated back in May, but it can’t have been a complete solution, as that would have taken much more work.) For now we’re fortunate that the hackers are more or less reasonable people who care about Uru, but once the script kiddies show up, the game could easily be ruined for everyone. One more reason to get the source out as quickly as possible so this can be fixed. Unfortunately, I fear that Cyan’s actual reaction will be the opposite.

it seems likely that the server's been hacked

As far as my limited Plasma knowledge allows me to speculate, I would say that “the server has been hacked” is a very inaccurate description of what was going on. I imagine that from the point of view of the server, nothing unexpected or unusual or forbidden was happening at all. Simply one client was sending messages that usually only a Cyantist client would send. So if anything has been hacked, it’s the client, not the server.