[Nel] open source MMORPG and hacks/cheats question (probably off topic)

Sun, 16 Dec 2001 22:20:56 +1100

I have nothing to do with the nevrax team but I know the answer to this. 
+To put it simply, there is not security in obscurity. The protection 
+isn't in the alogrithm, its in the "secret" that is shared. This axiom 
+has been proved time and again, just look at the troubles windows has 
+with its codebase... The lack of published source code ain't helping them.
+
+I am not sure what security model nel will adopt but there are many to 
+choose from and none suffer from the openness of the protocol. You could 
+sign the client binaries with a public/private key pair. This stops 
+trivial hacks. You would also run a secure game server which does bounds 
+checking on the input, this stops obvious hacking. You can also encrypt 
+the client->server data stream. Fundamentally you are in trouble because 
+the client is a generalised computing machine which the user has 
+complete control over, if they have the machine code they can crack it, 
+but you can make it damn hard. You can also make any hack shortlived by 
+having dynamic binaries. The open source nature of nel only makes it 
+more secure as any flaws or bugs in the implementation will be spotted 
+and solved, rather than being exploited (many eyes make bugs shallow).
+
+:)
+
+
+
+
+Alexander Denisov wrote:
+
+> Hi to everybody, I think this is my first time posting on the mailing list.
+> 
+> I was thinking lately about GPL/open source discussion, and one question
+> still bothers me: hacks and cheats in MMORPG.
+> 
+> I have seen a couple of times when hacks/cheats ruined great games
+> (and I do believe that Nevrax is doing a very good game), since online
+> gameplay is very sensitive to such things.
+> 
+> By publishing source code of the game, isn't it like giving a "green light"
+> to hackers? Are there any ways
+> somehow to prevent (or at least try to prevent) hacks and cheats, even if
+> hacker
+> knows the source code? Can the game company keep the network part of their
+> game in secret
+> (though I don't see how, since its clearly using NeL in this case).
+> 
+> I appologise if my question is completely unrelated to NeL and Nevrax game,
+> since all the details are kept in secret, but I think that this is very
+> important question.
+> 
+> By the way, thanks for the great engine! (though I'm still trying to compile
+> it)
+> 
+> Alex
+> 
+> _______________________________________________
+> Nel mailing list
+> Nel@nevrax.org
+> http://www.nevrax.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/nel
+> 
+
+
+-- 
+Alfred Reynolds
+alfred@mazuma.net.au
+
+
+