Valve's Steam Server Bugs Could've Let Hackers Hijack Online Games

guest · Dec 10, 2020

Valve's Steam Server Bugs Could've Let Hackers Hijack Online Games
December 10, 2020
https://thehackernews.com/2020/12/valves-steam-server-bugs-couldve-let.html

Critical flaws in a core networking library powering Valve's online gaming functionality could have allowed malicious actors to remotely crash games and even take control over affected 3rd-party game servers.

"An attacker could remotely crash an opponent's game client to force a win or even perform a 'nuclear rage quit' and crash the Valve game server to end the game completely," Check Point Research's Eyal Itkin noted in an analysis published today.
"Potentially even more damaging, attackers could remotely take over third-party developer game servers to execute arbitrary code."
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The four flaws (CVE-2020-6016 through CVE-2020-6019) were uncovered in Valve's Game Networking Sockets (GNS) or Steam Sockets library, an open-sourced networking library that provides a "basic transport layer for games," enabling a mix of UDP and TCP features with support for encryption, greater reliability, and peer-to-peer (P2P) communications.

"With millions of people currently playing online games, even the slightest security issue can be a serious concern for gaming companies and gamers' privacy. Through the vulnerabilities we found, an attacker could have taken over hundreds of thousands of gamer computers every day, with the victims being completely blind to it."
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Check Point said that gamers playing Valve's games through Steam are already protected by the fix, although gamers of third-party games should ensure their game clients received an update in recent months to mitigate the risk associated with the flaw.
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Check Point Research: Game On – Finding vulnerabilities in Valve’s “Steam Sockets”

Important: We encourage all gamers of 3rd party games (non-Valve games) to check that their game clients received an update after September 4th 2020, as this is the date in which the library was patched by Valve.
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guest · Dec 10, 2020

mood said: ↑

Check Point Research: Game On – Finding vulnerabilities in Valve’s “Steam Sockets”
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Game over? Vulnerabilities on Valve’s Steam put hundreds of thousands gamers at risk
December 10, 2020
https://blog.checkpoint.com/2020/12...eam-put-hundreds-of-thousands-gamers-at-risk/

The video game industry grows every year, hitting new benchmarks as it reaches more people. The Game Generation, created by the Entertainment Software Association, claims that “a third of the world plays video games regularly.” In today’s reality, video games present a fun escape into galaxies of fantasy, sports and action, providing children and adults with hours and even days of virtual adventures.

As a result of the circumstances brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak, people are spending more time in their homes. With the world distancing physically and socially, its unsurprising that gaming usage has increased by 75 percent.
Gaming platforms are affected by security vulnerabilities in more ways than one.
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With a meteoric rise in exposure, it is no surprise that popular gaming has attracted the attention of threat actors. Through this research, we examined a major networking library that underlies a sizable chunk of online gaming – Valve’s Game Networking Sockets (GNS). Valve’s GNS, also known as “Steam Sockets”, is the core networking library used in a wide variety of games — including Valve’s own titles (CS:GO, Dota2, Team Fortress 2, and more) and several third-party titles (Bungie’s Destiny 2).

For technical details of the research, please visit: research.checkpoint.com
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Valve's Steam Server Bugs Could've Let Hackers Hijack Online Games

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