Admin consoles: the soft underbelly of billion dollar software operations since...<p>Seriously, though: you almost certainly have one if you run a software business. Client side SSH certificates are your friend. If you're not able to do that, because it is <i>really</i> annoying, separate it from the main app and lock it down as much as possible. (Separate authentication from the main site/app's authentication scheme. Lock down access, ideally at the network level. Strongly consider two-factor auth.)
I think that there's something kind of fascinating and romantic about the idea that an entire world and the ongoing social affairs of thousands of people can fit on a single server blade in the middle of nowhere.
apparently it's a client side hack for "WoW-plus", here's the ringleader on his own forums:<p><a href="http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/world-of-warcraft/world-of-warcraft-bots-programs/wow-memory-editing/198650-screenshot-thread-94.html#post2535108" rel="nofollow">http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/world-of-warcraft/world-of-w...</a><p>this isn't the first time Blizzard have messed up like this: they originally set the "Game Master" access level by a bit transmitted client side, and the same socket bit twiddling could be used to get into their private alpha servers...
There was a plague in WoW in 2005 - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood_incident" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood_incident</a><p>Could be a similar sort of thing, or it could be a hack.
It's interesting to comprehend the amount of lives a hack like this will positively affect.<p>How many will pick up a book, or go for a walk, now that they no longer have their go-to fix of virtual reality. How many WOW addicts will have time to think "never again" and follow through.<p>Equivalent to all the cigarettes in the world vanishing for a few hours? Possibly. And equally as effective I say.
If I remember right, there was a post on HN here a while ago about how there's a dot pattern embedded in all WoW screenshots, so they can identify who the user is even if they remove the character name from the screen.<p>If they have the account information on this, I have to wonder if they could actually sue someone (instead of just banning them) for using this hack?
Interesting hack.<p>As some of the MMORPGs have multi-million dollar economies,
they'll need to increase their PCI level compliance.<p>This reminds me of Charlie Stross's Halting State[1].<p>1: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halting_State" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halting_State</a>
> Editor's Note: Please do not link to the source of these hacks. Any nefarious links will be removed, and repeat offenders will be banned.<p>I hate this kind of crap.
Here's a video posted by one the script kiddies responsible for this: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoM_sOC7jMA&feature=player_embedded" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoM_sOC7jMA&feature=playe...</a><p>Nothing too impressive to this "hack"...
> Entire cities dead on some World of Warcraft realms<p>1. Wait -- was I just teleported into my favorite South Park episode?<p>2. I can't wait to see the civil lawsuits for psychological injury against the perpetrator of this outrage.<p>3. Don't these people do nightly backups? It's not as though WOW isn't an important cybernetic resource meriting industry best practices.
I am... very impressed. This is some pretty bad news for the current king of MMOs. I wonder if someone finally stole a GM's account or if this is a live hack. I'm more inclined to believe someone just made off with an account but hey crazier hacks have happened.
It looks like there were some videos posted from the point of view of the hackers. Doesn't Blizzard put watermarks in each of the clients? They can track it to the licenses which people bought, and probably to the people themselves, no?