World of Warcraft Rumored to Include Spyware?

FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
edited October 2005 in Science & Tech
There is a lot of buzz around the web about a blog entry on rootkit.com that describes a possible spyware program called The Warden that is included with Blizzard's MMORPG blockbuster World of Warcraft.

According to the blog post The Warden dumps all the DLL's using a ToolHelp API call. It reads information from every DLL loaded in the 'world of warcraft' executable process space. No big deal.

The warden then uses the GetWindowTextA function to read the window text in the titlebar of every window. These are windows that are not in the WoW process, but any program running on your computer. Now a Big Deal.
I watched the warden sniff down the email addresses of people I was communicating with on MSN, the URL of several websites that I had open at the time, and the names of all my running programs, including those that were minimized or in the toolbar. These strings can easily contain social security numbers or credit card numbers, for example, if I have Microsoft Excel or Quickbooks open w/ my personal finances at the time.
Source: rootkit.com

Comments

  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited October 2005
    Proof?? I dont see any at all. And to find this out he had to reverse engineer tha program, and I think thats illegal.
  • TankTank
    edited October 2005
    my brother has WoW on this comp, so this deffinetly interests me. specialy because strange things have been going on since its been on my comp.
  • RiversCuomoRiversCuomo Missouri New
    edited October 2005
    It uses a program to search your computer for hacks that can be used with world of warcraft. Nothing more.

    Can anyone back me up on this?
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited October 2005
    That may be it's purpose, but it's still an invasion of privacy.

    If they just wanted to sniff out hacks, they could just use a punkbuster-esk system.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited October 2005
    Tank wrote:
    my brother has WoW on this comp, so this deffinetly interests me. specialy because strange things have been going on since its been on my comp.


    I really wouldn't think WoW would have anything to do with it. First of all, this isn't some two-bit company we're talking about here. This is Blizzard, and while I may not agree with the way they allegidly use "spyware" to sniff out hacks, I highly doubt it's something that will screw with your system. At most it may find something on your system it thinks is a hack and will terminate the ability to open WoW and not screw up other programs. Anything esle would be coincidental and if it did screw up other programs then Blizzard will have more to deal with than they'd be willing to otherwise.
  • Private_SnoballPrivate_Snoball Dover AFB, DE, USA
    edited October 2005
    First of all, this is used to check for running processes, and that is all. It lets a GM, if they have a reason, to search the processes running for XXXXX.exe, where XXXXX is a hack program. Not only that, it is not an invasion of privacy because you installed the software on your own computer, and in the EULA you agree that you are accepting the software as is, and if you have had the game since release you have agreed to allow this program to run 16 times at least.

    Anyone who complains should read the EULA, I did and I remember something about it, I'll post the quote from it when I get home where my PC is with wow on it.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited October 2005
    I didn't say it wasn't legal... I don't even have the game, so I don't care, but just because something is legal, doesn't make it right.
  • GobblesGobbles Ventura California
    edited October 2005
    Private_Snoball wrote:
    First of all, this is used to check for running processes, and that is all. It lets a GM, if they have a reason, to search the processes running for XXXXX.exe, where XXXXX is a hack program. Not only that, it is not an invasion of privacy because you installed the software on your own computer, and in the EULA you agree that you are accepting the software as is, and if you have had the game since release you have agreed to allow this program to run 16 times at least.

    Anyone who complains should read the EULA, I did and I remember something about it, I'll post the quote from it when I get home where my PC is with wow on it.

    EULA agreements dont really protect the software company from liable. Invasion of privacy is invasion of privacy. To truely cover themselves, blizzard needs to make the warden program so it can be disabled or removed with out effecting game play. Its also not just searching running processes. Its getting dll dumps, and information from open windows unrelated to the game. A scan of the system is a scan of the system. This may come back to haunt Blizzard.

    I personally dont own or play World of Weenies, so...
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2005
    hmm... didnt think it was quite coming to this yet..

    guess the time is here when games are taken that seriously?? I just play them for fun. and i dont want anything scanning my comp while im having fun. and technically it is spyware if its scanning your system when you did not tell it to.
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