CHEATING

[anon]

I did not try to hack the game. I never searched for it, I just sort of stumbled upon it. "I never wanted to hack another players' account" (Hobbit) as well. And this particular bug does not give me full control over players' accounts.

Penguin and Queen, I am very sorry for posting those battle reports in the forums. They just seemed kinda suspicious, and my curiosity got the better of me. Peace/Wiz, you're right, if I thought that these battle reports belonged to cheaters, I should have emailed them to the admins of SpaceTrace rather than making them public. Again, Penguin and Queen, I am truly sorry for making blind accusations. I hope you will accept my apology.

admin, although I don't know how the game is programmed, I am a computer programmer myself. I know how things are generally done, and what shortcuts we lazy slackers (just kidding) tend to take. I am sorry to say that you have not fixed the bug. I don't want to post the bug in the forums, so maybe we can arrange a meeting in the IRC room where I could tell you. I know of a quick fix that might help.

By the way, what was the nature of the other bug that you just fixed? I think that the two might be related, as both do not give full control over players' accounts.

-Anonymous

[ This Message was edited by: anon on 2002-05-19 19:16 ]

[Frederik]

Apology accepted

[Frederik]

BTW:

Why didnt you posted the BR where I engaged 500 destroyers with 4500 fighters?

[anon]

Frederik, I didn't post that one for two reasons. First, I didn't see that one. Second, that battle report makes sense. The 500 destroyers can only kill 500 fighters, while the 4500 fighters can kill 450 destroyers, right?

-Anonymous

[anon]

OK, I have another battle report where I think cheating has occurred. But rather than making the mistake of accusing people by posting it in the forums, I'll just post the headers, and you can tell me what you think about it.

yours: 48 ships
class 3:
46 cruisers (100/100)
class 4:
2 motherships (0/1000)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
enemy: 21 ships
class 1:
6 fighters (1/1)
class 4:
15 motherships (0/1000)
buildings:
1 research center (0/3500)
1 shipyard (0/3500)

[Frederik]

Why is he attacking with 2 motherships?

The BR doesnt seem unusual to me. The defender is likely someone that didnt understood the game, just builded some ships (the bigger, the better) and then stopped playing. The attacker must have noted that the defender stopped playing, sended a ds-probe (6,0,0,17) and build an apropriate fleet to take out those motherships.

This technique is know as 'recycling' or 'farming'. Maybe it can be prevented by halving the score optained when fighting someone that has been offline for over 2 days?

PS anon: I gained much more points fighting the destroyers then I did against the motherships.

PPS : Are you still viewing other players BR's?

[admin]

ah you found another bug?

i am curious, if you like to tell me, send me a message in the game (administrator of spacetrace)

[anon]

admin, I did not find another bug. The bug that I found has not been fixed yet; this is the same one. What was the nature of the other bug that you fixed? I think that the two might be related, as both do not give full control over players' accounts.

We should arrange a meeting to take place in the IRC room. I will tell you the details then.

[admin]

let's meet today at 16:00 GMT in irc then, or sand a message in the game, if it is too late in your timezone (or pm me here)

[admin]

hehe, i fixed another security gap.
i guess it was this one, that you used, because it was easier to find

[anon]

admin

Congratulations! You fixed the bug! How did you find it?

-Anonymous

[Bilerator]

I had some wonderful conversation with Hermes about that all.

I would like to talk to you, too, Admin, because I really would like how you solved that problem of modifying variables like the "sessuser" variable ..

Let's have a new IRC hour, the last one was some ages ago

[Guest]

n00bs

[Bilerator]

Hmm, thx for your part in this discussion, "anonymous"

[Hobbit]

I think every admin makes some mistakes!
So no prob if noone wants to "hack" the game!!!

I'm really angry on you, anon!
Learn how to fight and you can talk to me again!!!

Bye

Hobbit

[peace of love]

@hobbit:

maybe anon and anonymous are two different persons ?

[anon]

Peace, you're right, anon (me) and Anonymous are two different people. Anonymous is a generic account that everyone can use; it is the default account if you are not logged in.

Hobbit, I don't see why you are mad at me. I found the bug, and took some hasty actions. I apologized for them, and submitted the bug to admin, one of the programmers of SpaceTrace. What else do you want from me, Hobbit?

-Anon[ymous]

[ This Message was edited by: anon on 2002-05-22 00:20 ]

[admin]

@hobbit: don't worry about the sessuser variable, it is not that important, so leave this kind of problems to us

@anon: i was only sitting at a lake, and suddenly i knew how you could get into that security gap.

now there is no manipulation possible anymore.

[anon]

admin, there never was "[any] manipulation possible". All that the security hole let one do was view battle reports, not move fleets or anything. I applaud you for finding the exploit, and then promptly fixing it.

-Anon

[Hobbit]

Could you actually tell me, how you've found the bug in the game.
I'm angry because I think you were searchin for it!
So please if you found it by chance it would be another thing... ... and I would apologize for what I said!

Bye

Hobbit