As I’m sure you’re all aware by now, old
code from 2017 for Team Fortress 2 and Global
Offensive has been leaked. This is like a
dev-build, which means that with it, if you
know what you’re doing you can look behind
the scenes and really see how the game works.
The worry is that people could use this knowledge
to more easily develop cheats and exploits
for the game, and those that are made could
be more effective.
The reason I’ve waited a few days before
making this video is because there’s a huge
amount of confusion and misinformation about
it going around. Speculation always runs wild
with these sorts of things and I would hate
to add to that. Also, since the announced
leak, Valve has responded on both the CS:GO
and Team Fortress 2 twitter accounts. And
it makes sense to see what Valve has to say
about the leak before planning the next step.
The important thing is, they don’t think
it’s a risk to people who are playing the
game, but they advise you stick to official
servers and say they’ll continue to investigate
the situation. In other words, they seem to
have confidence that the systems they have
in place will be enough to stay on top of
any problems which will arise from this.
This is reassuring, because one of the rumours
spread about this leak was that it could enable
RCE exploits- that being, remote code executions,
where cheaters on the same server as you could
do things to your computer, which would obviously
be a HUGE security risk.
But for now, this is just a rumour. Rumours
are easy to make and difficult to disprove,
so until there is evidence that RCEs are a
thing, I’m not going to take this any further.
A leak like this is not good. But try not
to blow it out of all proportion either.
Some people are saying not to play the game
just in case, if you choose to do that it’s
up to you, but I won’t be stopping. The
implications of this leak are fuzzy to say
the least. I don’t think anyone knows for
sure how far-reaching this will be. Valve
are in the best position to know, being the
only people who have access to both the leaked
code AND the current game files. It’s them
against the cheaters.
If you don’t know how a game works, you
make a cheat by reverse-engineering it. Imagine
the game’s defenses as being like a lock
for a door. Not knowing how it works exactly
is like trying to pick a lock. This leak is
like being given a key. But the key’s a
few years old and rather worn, and you still
don’t know what’s waiting for you on the
other side of the door. There could be new
game updates, VAC updates and so on. And now
Valve know about this leaked key, they can
work on changing the lock enough to make it
ineffective again.
It’s not like cheat makers were unable to
exploit the game before this leak. It’s
just that having access to the code makes
it easier and lowers the barrier of entry.
Chances are, it could lead to more cheats
for a few months, but exactly how long this
goes on for and how bad it is depends on how
quickly Valve get on top of things and how
quickly they patch the underlying game. The
potential of this leak will diminish as time
goes on.
And it’s worth remembering that this leaked
code has been around for years. So far it
sounds like it remained within a small group,
but if one of them was willing to leak it,
who’s to say they hadn’t passed it on
to cheat makers already? The builds that were
leaked were strictly client-side, meaning
that cheaters won’t magically gain access
to the Valve servers or anything like that.
They won’t be able to spawn infinite dragon
lores, or to teleport straight to Gabe’s
office at Valve Headquarters. That being said,
it will certainly help them to find new exploits.
But at least now the leak has been made public,
Valve know the threat and can take steps to
minimise the impact it could have on the game.
And those who exploit this code might even
end up helping Valve directly. Valve offers
financial rewards for discovered exploits.
Some have made good money from this system.
All Valve needs to do is to make it more lucrative
to reveal the exploits to them than to sell
them to others, and it takes away one of the
main reasons for cheats to be a problem in
the first place.
If I was Valve, I’d see this as a great
opportunity to start porting more chunks of
the game over to Source 2. It could be an
opportunity to render old exploits incompatible,
as well as opening the way to new and exciting
features and updates.
And some good has come out of this leak as
well. Thebiggestwhiffer claims to have discovered
what makes bots go rogue, shedding light on
one of CS:GO’s greatest mysteries.
And, while a few years old, it will give the
community plenty of filenames and unreleased
content to speculate about. Not that it matters
for Team Fortress 2, since they’ll probably
never get it. Poor Team Fortress 2.
