View Full Version : Half-Life 2 Source Code Leaked, Seriously
This is from a Half-Life 2 employee:
Ever have one of those weeks? This has just not been the best couple of days for me or for Valve.
Yes, the source code that has been posted is the HL-2 source code.
Here is what we know:
1) Starting around 9/11 of this year, someone other than me was accessing my email account. This has been determined by looking at traffic on our email server versus my travel schedule.
2) Shortly afterwards my machine started acting weird (right-clicking on executables would crash explorer). I was unable to find a virus or trojan on my machine, I reformatted my hard drive, and reinstalled.
3) For the next week, there appears to have been suspicious activity on my webmail account.
4) Around 9/19 someone made a copy of the HL-2 source tree.
5) At some point, keystroke recorders got installed on several machines at Valve. Our speculation is that these were done via a buffer overflow in Outlook's preview pane. This recorder is apparently a customized version of RemoteAnywhere created to infect Valve (at least it hasn't been seen anywhere else, and isn't detected by normal virus scanning tools).
6) Periodically for the last year we've been the subject of a variety of denial of service attacks targetted at our webservers and at Steam. We don't know if these are related or independent.
Well, this sucks.
What I'd appreciate is the assistance of the community in tracking this down. I have a special email address for people to send information to, helpvalve@valvesoftware.com. If you have information about the denial of service attacks or the infiltration of our network, please send the details. There are some pretty obvious places to start with the posts and records in IRC, so if you can point us in the right direction, that would be great.
We at Valve have always thought of ourselves as being part of a community, and I can't imagine a better group of people to help us take care of these problems than this community.
Gabe
Sucks to be Gabe.
Jonbo298
10-05-2003, 03:55 PM
Outlook seems to be part of the problem also. *gasp* I never would've thought Microsoft would be involved (somewhat).
But I've read about this somewhere. Sucks, but thankfully they have backups.
Happydude
10-05-2003, 04:47 PM
whats a source code/tree again? :unsure: i forgot
GiMpY-wAnNaBe
10-05-2003, 05:59 PM
whats a source code/tree again? :unsure: i forgot
source code = C/C++/C# code (assuming thats what thier writing it in)
now, what this means is that depending on how much code was stolen, if this code is given widely over the internet, games can be written with use of the Halflife 2 engine with no royalties going to Valve software(i believe they wrote the engine for the game), either that or all the skins can be changed, given a different title, and be sold off by anyone.....so basically windows f*cked them over :D
source code = C/C++/C# code (assuming thats what thier writing it in)
now, what this means is that depending on how much code was stolen, if this code is given widely over the internet, games can be written with use of the Halflife 2 engine with no royalties going to Valve software(i believe they wrote the engine for the game), either that or all the skins can be changed, given a different title, and be sold off by anyone.....so basically windows f*cked them over :D
yes it was C++ from what i've heard. And no, no one would use the code and sell a game off it. Its too risky. yes they could but highly doubful anyone would.
and from what i heard it wasnt 'all' and it was only code so no skins models maps. etc. no one could compile the code or anything.
Alittle more worrysome is the off chance that someone can understand it (VERY FEW who would have the code would truely understand it) and write some hacks / cheats / things of that nature for use when the game comes out.
This will most likely delay the game till 2004 as Valve will most likely rework some of the code to change some things. Its a setback, and its a shame it happened. But it has happened with other games in the past. i believe the Quake1 source code got leaked. People turn it into too big of a deal, its not THAT big.
Jason1
10-05-2003, 10:13 PM
I read about this. I cant believe a game of such high-caliber would let their source code get leaked. I really hope its not delayed til 2004, I was looking foward to some HL2 action on Christmas morning.
Yoda9864
10-06-2003, 01:02 AM
Well, it's not like they "let" it get leaked Jason. But yes, you'd think they would put a little more security around it.
I say that this is just a big excuse (generated by Valve) to delay the game.
Mushlafa
10-09-2003, 10:39 PM
Well, I forgot to update you with the freshest stuff from
Valvesoftware.
Detonator-52.13-ANON got leaked today, its the new NVidia
drivers for HL2, though i have no fancy video card to test the
driver on.
Btw., for those of you still thinking -ANON is a group, i have
to say it isnt. Its just Anonymous.
To all those saying HL2 was delayed because of the hacking
action, ill just remind you that what was leaked is what Valve
has, nothing more and nothing less, so its pretty good to
understand it wasnt finished yet.
Also I'd like to point out the E3 was one big fake by Valve.
Ever tried to kill that soldier in physicstown ? Notice the
door will still get kicked ? No scripted sequences ?
To everyone saying this is no Beta: I'd like to point out that
THIS is what you wanted Valve to release on 9/30/03, theres no
such thing as a much better release in Valves network!
To Valve: I suggest you stop lying to your customers about how
much was stolen/compromised, or I'll have to release everything
just to prove my point. And you know what you got, as I do.
- Anonymous leaker
That was posted today in an IRC channel....
theres been other stuff posted about the hacker took it to prove valve lied and never intended on releasing it on Sept 30th and thats why it was stolen.
Some rumors include the Whole game has been leaked now.
The other more official sounding one, is that the game may be delayed untill April 2004 now.
Yeah, I'd believe it's a fake. It's good publicity to release shots and video at E3, blow everyone's heads off... they gave it all awards, and it wasn't even material. Jeez. And with the prospect of Halo 2 being best of show.. well, owned.
Yoda9864
10-10-2003, 11:29 AM
Yeah, I've heard that "playable builds" of the game got leaked from the stolen code. I've even talked to someone who "has one of the playble builds" of the game. I didn't believe him for a sec that he had one.
But I thought it was official that it is delayed til April. I mean, that's totally fine by me because by april, the prices of ATI radeons will have gone down. There's no way I'm playing this game on an Nvidia card :D. Especially not my Ti4200, but not even on a good fx card. ATI's cards just blow them out of the water now.
Ace195
10-10-2003, 01:49 PM
Hmm.. I wouln't mind a playable build. But ofcourse I still want the real game. But I have to update my computer just a little bit to play it :) Like a new vid card. But you would think that a place like Valve would have hardware firewalls that are nearly inpenetrable :)
Yeah, I've heard that "playable builds" of the game got leaked from the stolen code. I've even talked to someone who "has one of the playble builds" of the game. I didn't believe him for a sec that he had one.
But I thought it was official that it is delayed til April. I mean, that's totally fine by me because by april, the prices of ATI radeons will have gone down. There's no way I'm playing this game on an Nvidia card :D. Especially not my Ti4200, but not even on a good fx card. ATI's cards just blow them out of the water now.
not sure if it was offical, might have been. havnt been keeping up on it
And in all honesty bro. it matters not which one of the newer GFX card brands one gets. ATI's are more powerful right now. but the differnece is when both are already in the 100 FPS range. you can notice nothing if either is higher above like 60 or something. Lot depends on the drivers too. each company keeps making new drivers to make it run better on certain games.
All boils down to personal preference. i might grab the ATI GFX card when they package HL2 in with it for a nice price =)
Jonbo298
10-11-2003, 07:33 AM
But you would think that a place like Valve would have hardware firewalls that are nearly inpenetrable :)
The reason the source got leaked was because of Microsoft and their hundreds of thousands of security holes in Outlook (Express). The hacker(s) exploited it easily because MS doesn't understand the meaning of security.
But part of the blame can be put on a Valve employee for opening the thing that allowed the hacker(s) access to Valve's network. So any firewall Valve has wouldn't stop the hackers because they would be able to grant themselves full access to Valve's network by telling the firewall they have that kind of access.
Ace195
10-11-2003, 12:28 PM
Jon if you worked anywhere close to microsoft you would know it's much more secure than anything eudora or even netscape provide just because of your seething hate for microsoft I'm going to go over to your house and format your harddrive to get the evil "microsoft" on there and put linux BSD on there and watch you whine like a baby because you don't under stand how to setup a firewall on it and you keep getting hacked :P
[edit]
Oh and another thing jon. The e-mail software runs on port 25 and 110 you would have to wait for the program to be open for those ports to be open. | |) | 0 7
Jonbo298
10-12-2003, 02:25 AM
Jon if you worked anywhere close to microsoft you would know it's much more secure than anything eudora or even netscape provide just because of your seething hate for microsoft I'm going to go over to your house and format your harddrive to get the evil "microsoft" on there and put linux BSD on there and watch you whine like a baby because you don't under stand how to setup a firewall on it and you keep getting hacked :P
[edit]
Oh and another thing jon. The e-mail software runs on port 25 and 110 you would have to wait for the program to be open for those ports to be open. | |) | 0 7
Outlook is not secure even with the thousands of security updates that come to it. How many viruses have resulted because its so easy to just open an attachment, then the virus scans the address book, sends itself out, and ****s your computer in the process.
And go ahead and "try" to format my HD. My processor has been shot for a good week if you can even remember. Also, you trying to think I don't know s.hit about computers. You are quite wrong. I speak FACTS, not stupid ****. "I'm gonna get a hard drive with 8 gigs of cache". That's the funniest damn thing I have ever heard, and who did it come from?;)
And by the time the person or persons opens the virus in Outlook and tells the FIREWALL that they have access, the hacker can do what he/she feels like.
So keep speaking your stuff. I must read it.
Ace195
10-12-2003, 11:05 AM
Jon for the program to open the port. which is a really facinating thing. If you watch the little corner of your screen it actually communicates with the server for about 20 to 30 seconds depending on your connection. And then it downloads your mail. Jon if you got a virus in your e-mail I'm sorry that you can't get an antivirus program like PCCillin because that scans e-mail. And just to inform you outlook defaults to block all attachments that might possibly contain a virus. "I'm gonna get a hard drive with 8 gigs of cache". That's the funniest damn thing I have ever heard, and who did it come from? That came from me as a joke at wei's party.
GiMpY-wAnNaBe
10-12-2003, 01:17 PM
i'd like 8 gigs of cache....:drool:
:offtopic:
buuuuuuuuuut, back on topic, i'm really starting to believe this is all just made by valve as an excuse to push back the release date
Ace195
10-12-2003, 08:31 PM
I agree with you gimpy, I think that the valve beta testers broke the source code on it. But back to me arguing with Jonbo.. If you really think about it. No hacker does a live hack anymore they insert trojans and then they copy the key strokes and take screen shots of the computer then they go through the screen shots and figure out passwords and everything like that. The only way that a hacker could really get into the company would be to insert the trojan. But I don't think the programmers who get paid a good sum of money neglect to scan their e-mail. I mean if you are a computer programmer you would scan your e-mail every day, You would do that to make sure something like this never happens.. So in my personal opinion I think the company leaked the source code because they didn't want to release the game until 2k4
thatmariolover
10-13-2003, 11:59 AM
I've confirmed that the HL2 beta leak is real.
Click here to see HL1 running on HL2's engine. (http://estima.ribersborg.net/hl2/)
Click Here to see homebrew HL2 pics. (http://www.what2see.com/index1.html)
CNN's news article about it. (http://money.cnn.com/2003/10/07/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm)
And I'm d/l'ing it.
It's fascinating for me to see how the game was put together (of course I'll still buy it when the time comes). At any rate, this is what the hacker said before he leaked the full version:
"To all those saying HL2 was delayed because of the hacking action, ill just remind you that what was leaked is what Valve has, nothing more and nothing less, so its pretty good to understand it wasnt finished yet. Also I'd like to point out the E3 [demo] was one big fake by Valve. Ever tried to kill that soldier in physicstown ? Notice the door will still get kicked ? No scripted sequences ?
To everyone saying this is no Beta: I'd like to point out that THIS is what you wanted Valve to release on 9/30/03, theres no such thing as a much better release in Valves network! "
To Valve: I suggest you stop lying to your customers about how much was stolen/compromised, or I'll have to release everything just to prove my point. And you know what you got, as I do."
This was stated by the hacker in an IRC channel after valve software claimed that only 1/3 of the game was stolen (a complete lie as we can see now). Valve never intended to give the game to us on 9/30. They've been meaning to push it back as far as April 2004 claiming that the game was almost done. It makes me wonder what the point of lying was. I mean, I don't care about the reason. I just want to know when the game's going to be out.
Jonbo298
10-13-2003, 02:06 PM
Jon if you got a virus in your e-mail I'm sorry that you can't get an antivirus program like PCCillin because that scans e-mail.
Let's see, I have Norton installed on my comp. So if I was to download an attachment, Norton would immediately tell me its a virus. Plus, I hate Outlook (Express) because it has way to many security holes. My main email provider for the past 5 years or so has been Yahoo. And within the past year or so, they installed a thing that scans attachments before you download them, so if I was to get a virus, I wouldn't get it.:) So don't try to say that I don't have any ways to stop my computer from getting viruses.
Jason1
10-13-2003, 02:43 PM
http://www.what2see.com/hl2/071003-e3_lab-2.jpg
Look at the ass on that baby..... :drool:
GiMpY-wAnNaBe
10-14-2003, 10:23 PM
I've confirmed that the HL2 beta leak is real.
Click here to see HL1 running on HL2's engine. (http://estima.ribersborg.net/hl2/)
Click Here to see homebrew HL2 pics. (http://www.what2see.com/index1.html)
CNN's news article about it. (http://money.cnn.com/2003/10/07/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm)
And I'm d/l'ing it.
It's fascinating for me to see how the game was put together (of course I'll still buy it when the time comes). At any rate, this is what the hacker said before he leaked the full version:
"To all those saying HL2 was delayed because of the hacking action, ill just remind you that what was leaked is what Valve has, nothing more and nothing less, so its pretty good to understand it wasnt finished yet. Also I'd like to point out the E3 [demo] was one big fake by Valve. Ever tried to kill that soldier in physicstown ? Notice the door will still get kicked ? No scripted sequences ?
To everyone saying this is no Beta: I'd like to point out that THIS is what you wanted Valve to release on 9/30/03, theres no such thing as a much better release in Valves network! "
To Valve: I suggest you stop lying to your customers about how much was stolen/compromised, or I'll have to release everything just to prove my point. And you know what you got, as I do."
This was stated by the hacker in an IRC channel after valve software claimed that only 1/3 of the game was stolen (a complete lie as we can see now). Valve never intended to give the game to us on 9/30. They've been meaning to push it back as far as April 2004 claiming that the game was almost done. It makes me wonder what the point of lying was. I mean, I don't care about the reason. I just want to know when the game's going to be out.
...i don't see any proof that says that the code was in fact stolen, lets see, the first site, half the pix don't work(the ones that would really showanything different), the second one is just a batch of screen shots, just because you haven't seen them before doesn't meant they were taken as screenshots, as for the third one, just as nothing stopped them from telling the gaming community that it was leaked, nothings stopping them from telling the same thing to CNN, i want to see whether the source code u'r getting is real, and whether it could be compiled, because a game like that is more than just source code, its a vast array of image files, sound, and much more.
thatmariolover
10-20-2003, 03:19 PM
...i don't see any proof that says that the code was in fact stolen, lets see, the first site, half the pix don't work(the ones that would really showanything different), the second one is just a batch of screen shots, just because you haven't seen them before doesn't meant they were taken as screenshots, as for the third one, just as nothing stopped them from telling the gaming community that it was leaked, nothings stopping them from telling the same thing to CNN, i want to see whether the source code u'r getting is real, and whether it could be compiled, because a game like that is more than just source code, its a vast array of image files, sound, and much more.
Right, Gimpy, the source code was the first thing that was released. It wasn't just the source that was stolen. The entire HL2 tree was copied. You don't have to believe it was stolen. I'm just telling you what was reported. I've been trying to d/l the compiled version of the game, but the IRC servers are so busy with it. I've been trying to find a torrent file, but to no avail.
thatmariolover
12-04-2003, 03:22 PM
Well, I've decided to revive this topic after actually getting ahold of the beta (more like an alpha) leak.
The Havok physics are all in place (almost everything works perfectly), most of the graphics are really impressive. However, I have one really big drawback. I have a GeForce 4 MX420, so I don't have pixel or vertex shaders. So I get either no water, or this really silly metallic looking stuff.
Even in alpha form this "game" runs at full speed on my 2.3 GHZ P4 with that MX420. All in all, very enjoyable. Although I don't condone what was done, I'm still going to take advantage of it. :D I'll still buy the full game. This really is crap in comparison.
I haven't yet converted HL1 onto the HL2 engine. Apparently the improvements are lighting, shadowing, water, and havok physics. So pretty cool. If I get that up and running I'll tell you.
Did anybody else get this?
Jonbo298
12-04-2003, 03:39 PM
I've been wanting HL2, but it won't help to have it right now since my video card is crap for gaming (Matrox G400 Millenium 32MB). But hopefully for xmas a 9600XT graces my comp.
ominub
12-04-2003, 04:25 PM
how big was the file?
i got the HL2 beta downloaded its about 1.39gigs
and that will extract to about 4 gigs
Jason1
12-04-2003, 08:25 PM
Well, I've decided to revive this topic after actually getting ahold of the beta (more like an alpha) leak.
The Havok physics are all in place (almost everything works perfectly), most of the graphics are really impressive. However, I have one really big drawback. I have a GeForce 4 MX420, so I don't have pixel or vertex shaders. So I get either no water, or this really silly metallic looking stuff.
Even in alpha form this "game" runs at full speed on my 2.3 GHZ P4 with that MX420. All in all, very enjoyable. Although I don't condone what was done, I'm still going to take advantage of it. :D I'll still buy the full game. This really is crap in comparison.
I haven't yet converted HL1 onto the HL2 engine. Apparently the improvements are lighting, shadowing, water, and havok physics. So pretty cool. If I get that up and running I'll tell you.
Did anybody else get this?
I wouldnt know where to look...I wouldnt mind giving it a try, just to see how well it perfrorms on my P4 2.66 with Radeon 9500pro. Im kinda surprised it ran that fast on your crappy graphics card. Where did you get the file from?
Blade Runner
12-04-2003, 08:54 PM
Funny this showed up again, a friend said something about it the other day...
<bl~MrBrOwN> did anyone ever get to play half-life 2?
<bl~DeFeKT> no
<bl~bliang> i played that
<bl~bliang> it sucked.. no ai
<bl~bliang> was like doom with good graphics
LMAO
What...no one else thought that was funny?
*runs off crying*
thatmariolover
12-04-2003, 10:31 PM
Download this bittorrent client (or any, but this is my fav): http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/azureus/Azureus_2.0.4.2b_setup.exe?download
Then d/l torrent search (www.torrentsearch.us).
Search for "Half Life" and you should see the Half Life 2 Beta seeded by bittorrent movies. Double click on it and the torrent file should begin transfering (like 29kb or so). When it says it's finished d/l'ing the file, click open file. It should run the torrent through Azureus automatically.
After that it's just a matter of waiting.
Edit: By the way, once you've got the RAR file, it's got a password on it. The password is "www.bittorrentmovies.de".
Canyarion
12-05-2003, 07:17 AM
Is that legal? :confused:
I'll probably get it somehow. I loved HL, although it got boring in the end...
thatmariolover
12-05-2003, 08:58 AM
Is that legal? :confused:
I'll probably get it somehow. I loved HL, although it got boring in the end...
Yes, it's completely legal to own. It's just the way that the hacker got a hold of it that was illegal. He's the only one who can be prosecuted.
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