Exploiting Online Games

Abstract: 

This talk (based on a book of the same title co-authored by Greg Hoglund) frankly describes controversial security issues surrounding MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft. This no-holds-barred approach is fully loaded with code examples, debuggers, bots, and hacks, of interest whether you are a gamer, a game developer, a software security person, or an interested bystander. I will cover:

  • Why online games are a harbinger of software security issues to come
  • How millions of gamers have created billion-dollar virtual economies
  • How game companies invade your privacy
  • Why some gamers cheat
  • Techniques for breaking online game security
  • How to build a bot to play a game for you
  • Methods for total conversion and advanced mods
Ultimately, this talk is mostly about security problems associated with advanced massively distributed software. With hundreds of thousands of interacting users, today's online games are a bellwether of modern software yet to come. The kinds of attack and defense techniques I describe are tomorrow's security techniques on display today.

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BibTeX
@conference {268614,
author = {Gary McGraw},
title = {Exploiting Online Games},
year = {2007},
address = {Santa Clara, CA},
publisher = {USENIX Association},
month = jun
}
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