Blizzard Further Responds to Banning Linux Users in Diablo 3

[xyriin]

[citation][nom]wildkitten[/nom]Don't give Blizzard to much praise on account security.Just last year they crippled the effectiveness of the authenticator when they made it so if the system believes you are logging in from the usual location, it won't ask you for the authenticator. So instead of just being susceptible to man in the middle (MitM) attacks which are difficult to do, it made accounts susceptible to proxy based attacks which are a lot easier to do.Blizzard was stupid for introducing this "feature". No one asked for it, there was no outcry. If someone didn't want to use an authenticator, they merely didn't get one or disabled it. Those who wanted an authenticator want to be asked EVERY time. It was bad enough that this "feature" was even implemented in the first place, but they made it the default setting, so if you wanted to be asked every time, you had to go into Account Management and manually set it to ask every time. When D3 was released, it reverted it again to not asking for an authenticator every time and once again you had to go in and change it.So Blizzard actually introduced a security risk themselves needlessly.[/citation]
Except that they provided an option to force authenticator on every login as you mentioned and added two additional security measures for all Battle.net accounts that you can use. So yeah, they INCREASED account security. Just like any security system you need to monitor and use it as the user. So please, less whining and more thinking before typing. It still stands that Battle.net accounts have more security features than everything else you use including your bank, home, computer, and email. Of those four and your Battle.net account which would cause the most financial harm to you? So not only does Battle.net have the highest security of all those it also has the best security to loss ratio by an even larger margin.

 

[DryCreamer]

I just don't like the fact that the software constantly scans my computer to see what other apps are running. I don't know how that will play out in the long run

Dry

 

[awood28211]

I remember an exploit in Unreal Tournament that used Linux. While not quite the same it did allow players to cheat. What one did was record their PC game to a network Linux share... A recorded game could be viewed back in real-time and "explored" as a spectator. So what peeps were doing was recording the game and running UT up on another box and playing back the file... Linux was allowing them to read from the file at the same time the other machine was writing which wasn't allowed under Windows. Therefore the 2nd machine could look at the current game as a spectator with only a second or 2 of delay... This allowed the player or a cohort to use the other pc and look for hiding spots, snipers, or even post a view above yourself to see when others were approaching.

One might say why not just load up another client and attach to the same game as a spectator... Well, not all servers allowed spectators and spectating the live server could be detected if both were coming from the same IP address...

The Linux method allowed an undetectable way to put eyes in the sky on multi-player giving a huge unfair advantage.

I'm not sure how using Linux would allow you to cheat in Diablo but methinks someone is always looking for ways around the system.

 

[stromm]

[citation][nom]wildkitten[/nom]When D3 was released, it reverted it again to not asking for an authenticator every time and once again you had to go in and change it.So Blizzard actually introduced a security risk themselves needlessly.[/citation]

Must not be true for everyone. I didn't have this happen to my account at all. My Authenticator has been active since I got got it activated more than 3 years ago.

 

[eddieroolz]

Now its a war of trust, with each side urging people to believe them.

 

[wildkitten]

[citation][nom]xyriin[/nom]Except that they provided an option to force authenticator on every login as you mentioned and added two additional security measures for all Battle.net accounts that you can use. So yeah, they INCREASED account security. Just like any security system you need to monitor and use it as the user. So please, less whining and more thinking before typing. It still stands that Battle.net accounts have more security features than everything else you use including your bank, home, computer, and email. Of those four and your Battle.net account which would cause the most financial harm to you? So not only does Battle.net have the highest security of all those it also has the best security to loss ratio by an even larger margin.[/citation]

Please link one forum thread where an authenticator user asked for the authenticator not be used every time. The fact is, NO ONE asked for that "feature". It doesn't matter if they added in an option to ask for it every time, it was senseless and needless work to create this "feature" in the first place. It was also unconsciousionable that they made it not ask by default.

Do you remember all those rash of hacks when Diablo 3 was released even happening to people with authenticators? Blizzard denied it happened, but it seemed it was proxy based attack, in other words, the hackers were spoofing someones IP address tricking Blizzard's login servers, which is much easier for criminals to do than the MiTM attacks.

And no, Battle.net does NOT have more security than my bank or even my computer or email. For one thing, you can not make that claim without knowing what security there is server side, and I doubt any company run by Bobby Kotick who does not care one bit for the customer, or the employee, is going to go out of their way to have the best security. For another thing, I know on my side my bank web site is a LOT more secure just through what I can access, as is my computer and email which I am responsible for.

 

[wildkitten]

[citation][nom]stromm[/nom]Must not be true for everyone. I didn't have this happen to my account at all. My Authenticator has been active since I got got it activated more than 3 years ago.[/citation]
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/3657425931#1

From Daxxari...
"We appreciate that our players make use of their authenticators, and to help make them more convenient, we’ve introduced the authenticator by-pass. Those of you that have World of Warcraft accounts may already be familiar with how it works: when you log into a Blizzard game from the same location, you won’t always be prompted for an authentication code until you attempt to log in from a different location.

The authenticator bypass is active for StarCraft II, and is enabled by default. Those of you who wish to disable this feature can do so by opting out of the bypass on your Battle.net account management page. If you opt out of the by-pass, you will be prompted by Battle.net for an authentication code each time you log in."

If you look, you can see it the same for ALL Blizzard games that require battle.net login. The fact is, NO ONE asked for that "convenience". Those who got it wanted the additional security.

 

[WitchDoctor]

I had an actual patch to play D3 in I686 the day it was released. Not a Wine (Windows Emulator) but an actual patch. Blizzard took it upon themselves to to patch my patch which took me all of 6 hours to write. I could have easily patched it again and made it a trojan and crashed every one of their POS Linden servers if I wanted to seek revenge. I hate Blizzard Entertainment and see them as being no different than Google, Microsquash, and Apple. Those 3 are all part of NSA and where funded by the Rockefeller Foundation through the Pentagon. They have more back doors and surveillance software built into the operating systems than you could ever imagine unlike Linux. You use any of those compaines products understand they can watch you through your webcam at anytime because its a 2 way street. I use Linux Mandriva in KDE and there arent 5 people on Earth that can hack me. I am an open source engineer that specializes in internet security and I make a living killing hackers.

 

[f-14]

[citation][nom]Tomfreak[/nom]Why does Blizzard/D3 get special news treatment from tom much more than other games?[/citation]
because Toms has a few writers that are communists leaning.
god forbid somebody patents something, the wrath of a few at Toms hardware staff will be upon them with claims of impeding innovation and free everything for all, yet claim hacking and piracy are evil.

i've played all 3 of the diablo games, D3 sucks the worst by far after a week or two of it you're bored.
it's definetely not as fun as the first 2.
an important but small part of that i blame on no LAN play and no pvp
too much WOW was incorporated, but generally speaking it feels too much like all activision games, very console/arcade style weak and limited and controlled.