Battlefield 3 hackers ban innocent players

[PITN]

UPDATE!

DO NOT PLAY BF3 and JOIN A PUNKBUSTER ENABLED SERVER UNTIL THEY FIX THE SECURITY EXPLOIT.

Apparently hackers are spoofing player GUIDS. Best way to avoid it is to not play on a PB enabled server which of course logs GUIDS.


Read the article here.

Battlefield 3 hackers use exploit to ban innocent players
Tom Senior at 05:26pm January 25 2012

Like every competitive shooter, Battlefield 3 has a problem with hackers and cheats who use exploits and aimbots to boost their stats. Recently the problem seems to have become more serious. The unofficial BF3 blog mentions an instance in which one of DICE?s own moderators was uncovered as a hacker. Now a group of hackers are advertising an exploit that allows them to get innocent players banned.

The author of this Reddit post got in touch yesterday with links to hacker forum discussions revealing exploits that would trick Punkbuster into ejecting honest players. A number of threads on the Battlelog forums have been started by players claiming to have been banned from Battlefield 3 games without cause. There are plenty of reports of servers and leaderboards dominated by bots racking up hundreds of kills.

DICE have recently said that they?re ramping up anti-cheat measures and have been issuing bans en-mass to cheaters they?ve been catching, but among Battlefield 3 players there?s increasing skepticism over the levels of security offered by anti-cheat program, Punkbuster.

Battlefield 3 community manager crash7800 responded to the Reddit post saying ?we?re absolutely looking into this issue.? They?re currently looking into the hackers? claims to establish how much of what they say is true. ?We definitely know that something isn?t right and we?re working to fix it ASAP.? DICE?s most recent Battlelog post recognizes that some players have been having problems dropping from Punkbuster servers. Their advice to affected players is to ?join servers that are not running PunkBuster.?

If you encounter a cheater in Battlefield 3, DICE recommend reporting them through Battlelog. To do this, you can ?enter the profile page of the person you suspect and click the triangle in the top right corner of his name.? This will lead to a report screen where the devs encourage players to ?enter as much detail as possible, describing what specifically makes you believe this player has used unfair methods, and preferably include a link to the Battle Report for the match in question.?

We?ve contacted DICE for comment on the hackers? claims and more detail on their plans to counter cheaters. It?s not just hackers that Battlefield 3 fans have to contend with. Many players, including ourselves, have constant difficulty getting into games. Once in, disconnections are a regular annoyance. I wrote about why Battlefield 3 deserved our Online Game of the Year award. I still think the game underneath the connection problems and cheating scandals is world class, but with so many problems three months after release, player patience will understandably be wearing thin.

[PITN]

UPDATE!

DO NOT PLAY BF3 and JOIN A PUNKBUSTER ENABLED SERVER UNTIL THEY FIX THE SECURITY EXPLOIT.

Apperently hackers are spoofing player GUIDS. Best way to avoid it is to not play on a PB enabled server which of course logs GUIDS.

Read the article here.

Hackers Attack Punkbuster At The Expense of Battlefield 3 Players

David Veselka

January 24, 2012

Errors of PC players being kicked from playing Battlefield 3 by Punkbuster are currently being looked into, but it turns out that there could me more to the situation than meets the eye.

?Game disconnected: you were kicked by Punkbuster errors are being looked into right now.? Stated Community Manager, Daniel Matros recently. He added that it ?looks like it has something to do with Kaspersky, Avira and Norton AV.? For those who don?t know, Punkbuster is an anti-cheat system used for the PC platform to help keep hackers and cheaters from doing what they do. Speaking of which, Matros also mentioned that a ?new PB version [is] out today. If you haven?t updated, it?s worth doing so as well.? At least it might help.

Interestingly, and most unfortunately, the problem seems to go much deeper than these surface issues, however. Looking at the Battlelog profiles of those claiming to have been unrightfully banned by PB, you?ll notice that they are, indeed, clean and do not use hacks or are not cheating. The real problem is that it looks like the ban itself could be a hacking attempt. According to these forums, a group of hackers have found a ?security hole? in the PB system and are now trying to bring it to the attention of those in charge of security by banning players on the Battlelog. So far, they claim to have already banned over 150 Battlefield 3 players.

Upon discovering his account has been unrightfully banned, one user explains his situation on the Battlelog forums and warns others: ?My account name has TWO GUID?s, which is impossible. I also run two servers that stream to GGC, and the MD5 tool hack that is linked to my account was caught from the UK and Austria with IP?s that do not match mine. Someone out there is using some sort of GUID scanner and using it for cheats/hacks.?

This is obviously a lose-lose situation and it is truly unfortunate that it had to come to this. While flaws in the system should be brought to the attention of those in charge, doing so at the expense of innocent gamers is certainly not the right way to do it. Let?s hope that the situation can be resolved quickly and those who have been banned unjustly will receive their accounts back. Have you been affected by this? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

[=VG= LittleTortiaBoy]

what about for the console? should us console players be afraid as well?

[=VG= BLuDKLoT]

why is that posted twice?

[PITN]

Two different articles just the warning was posted twice from second article to the first.

Consoles are not affected.

[suomikeizari]

Fking hackers!! i just bought ''back to karkand''...