Warning from Battleye - Massive CD key theft with cheat downloads!

[PELHAM 10]

WARNING: Massive cd-key theft going on [ 29.08.2012 • 17:00 ]

As already mentioned in the previous news post, there is currently a massive ongoing effort by certain entities to steal people's cd-keys to then sell them for a profit. Private hack forums are full of posts of these fraudsters trying to sell heaps of cd-keys for a cheap price. We are talking about hundreds of cd-keys here, so this is not a small issue at all. The game developers confirmed that this is a huge problem right now.

Their process of stealing cd-keys is quite simple: They advertise a supposedly undetected hack on sites like YouTube and the moment you download and run it (it will probably report that the hack failed to load) your cd-key is already stolen. In many cases your actual cd-key in registry is overwritten with a banned one, so you will automatically receive a global ban message on join (see below). This is done to prevent you from using your cd-key again, so the fraudsters can sell them claiming that they are valid and not in use. Note that this can be fixed (temporarily) by deleting the cd-key from the registry and reinstalling your game. While your original cd-key is not banned due to this, it might very well end up being soon when your cd-key is being used by a cheater that purchased it. This causes many players to think they were innocently banned when in fact their cd-key was stolen and used for cheating. At the very least you will often receive a "CD key in use" message when trying to connect to servers.

If you think this is false propaganda to cover up supposed false global bans I advise you to do some research on this yourself. You can easily verify this by searching for "free DayZ hack" on YouTube. You will see lots of results and almost all of them are scams. Most of them are actually quite popular and have thousands of views. When downloading them and opening the .exe file in e.g. Notepad (warning: do not actually run the .exe!), you can find cd-key related strings such as "SOFTWARE\Bohemia Interactive Studio\ArmA 2 OA" (the registry location of the cd-key) inside.

In short, heed the following: DO NOT EVER RUN ANY HACKS OR OTHER SUSPICIOUS SOFTWARE! If you end up being banned due to your cd-key being stolen there is nothing we can do for you.

http://www.battleye.com/

Posted for reference in case people have not seen the warnings and are tempted to download this rubbish.

[sorophx 25]

"innocently banned" :D the irony. they attempt to download a hack, I wouldn't call that innocent, I call that poetic justice

[Guest]

^^ my thoughts exactly when I just read this.

So all those complainers are simply cheaters or at least try to cheat (but pitfully fail at even that). Good, this cheating issue resolves itself.

If you ask me they should even add an auto "format all my HD's please" command to that free cheat.

[dmarkwick 261]

The problem with this sort of story is that, however true and serious it is, it will obscure other genuine innocent problems. People's opinions can be "sticky" in issues like these.

Edited September 1, 2012 by DMarkwick

[NeuroFunker 11]

hehe, i was laughing my ass off, reading this. Thats actually and "anticheat cheat" or "anti hack-hack" lool, if you wanna play fair - enjoy the game. If not, then say good buy to ur cd key. ;)

[bars91 956]

Yo dawg! I heard you like hacking. So we put a hack in ur hack, so we can hack while you hack! :rolleyes:

[Iroquois Pliskin 0]

Shweet Justice. You fvcked up? You want to try your trolling attempt online again? BUY another copy of ArmA II! Remember, cheaters, support your favourite trolling platform.

Regards,

---------- Post added at 14:48 ---------- Previous post was at 14:43 ----------

g_VtIkF8pDY

[Tonci87 163]

So they can´t play MP anymore because they tried to hack? Sounds OK to me :)

[onlyrazor 11]

So they can´t play MP anymore because they tried to hack? Sounds OK to me :)

Indeed. This sounds like the perfect anti-cheat system: Flood the internet with hundreds of these fake hacks, and then ban whomever tries to run it.

[PELHAM 10]

Yep poetic justice! Every time I play on public servers these days something fishy is going on, keep killing people and finding they have weapons not available in the map and thermal imaging gear, spawned items such as artillery & AC130's and others things I will not mention.

[das attorney 858]

Yes this is good - apart from the guy harvesting the CD keys and selling them for $$$$

Whoever is writing the injector part of the hack is making big $ too. As far as I'm aware, they sell them to people and the injector only has a limited lifespan (so script kiddies come back for more downloads).

[OrLoK 20]

Hello there

DMW has it correct. It's great that folk who attempt to cheat get their upcommance, but what happens to folk with legit CD key issues? it could obscure their attempts to get a solution.

Rgds

LoK

[W0lle 1052]

Their solution is to contact customer support with their key and proof of purchase. Each of their tickets is will get individual attention so I fail to see how their attempts to get a solution is obscured.

The others deserve what they get alone for running some hacking tool on their computers and I hope that their key is the only thing they lose. :)

[Placebo 29]

Their solution is to contact customer support with their key and proof of purchase. Each of their tickets is will get individual attention so I fail to see how their attempts to get a solution is obscured.

Exactly, otherwise what I was I doing for about 5 hours today on the support system? :)

[W0lle 1052]

Exactly, otherwise what I was I doing for about 5 hours today on the support system? :)

Playing FIFA again?

[dmarkwick 261]

I guess my comment was more about forum response than Battleye response :) forums are generally the first place people go to with problems. Battleye will have more accurate logging details of any genuine infraction, whereas forums generally make wider assumptions straight away :)

Just sayin'. Forums can be a cold place sometimes for new people just looking for a solution.

[Cards525 10]

Again;

This wasn't a problem until April.

As for people complaining because they tried a hack, shoulda just used common sense and not downloaded it in the first place...

I remember when I was young and foolish I downloaded a "PASSWORD RECOVERY".exe... Yea that was a fun windows re-install.

[[aps]gnat 28]

LOL .... probably the best Anti-Cheat effort I've seen.

Karma is a bastard ;)

[Nicholas 5]

Karma. :)

Edited September 3, 2012 by Nicholas

[maddogx 13]

This thread brightens my day whenever I see it. :)

As if script kiddies screwing each other over wasn't already fucking priceless, there are several extra large cherries on top of this awesome cake:

1. A whole bunch of script kiddies will probably be frantically re-installing the game (or even their whole OS) for fear of having fallen victim to this hack. (Not that it would help.)

2. Some of them may well stop using hacks altogether.

3. Some of the actual victims will be buying the game again, because their key is compromised.

4. Many people thinking about trying out hacks just for shits and giggles will be put off by this.

[cjph 0]

Love it. If only there was similar justice for the telephone calls I keep getting telling me there is a 'windows problem' with my computer . . . . I normally just ask them some particularly intimate questions in my most seedy voice, and they usually hang up.

cj

[jblackrupert 14]

I never flag those videos when I see them.

There are also people who have set up honey pots with way outdated long since detected hacks to draw traffic away from the sites with updated yet to be detected hacks.

No sympathy here.

[Leon86 13]

if you search youtube there's at least 7 pages of these kind of "fee hack" videos, amazing.

[Hawkeyez 1]

WARNING: Massive cd-key theft going on [ 29.08.2012 • 17:00 ]

As already mentioned in the previous news post, there is currently a massive ongoing effort by certain entities to steal people's cd-keys to then sell them for a profit. Private hack forums are full of posts of these fraudsters trying to sell heaps of cd-keys for a cheap price. We are talking about hundreds of cd-keys here, so this is not a small issue at all. The game developers confirmed that this is a huge problem right now.

Their process of stealing cd-keys is quite simple: They advertise a supposedly undetected hack on sites like YouTube and the moment you download and run it (it will probably report that the hack failed to load) your cd-key is already stolen. In many cases your actual cd-key in registry is overwritten with a banned one, so you will automatically receive a global ban message on join (see below). This is done to prevent you from using your cd-key again, so the fraudsters can sell them claiming that they are valid and not in use. Note that this can be fixed (temporarily) by deleting the cd-key from the registry and reinstalling your game. While your original cd-key is not banned due to this, it might very well end up being soon when your cd-key is being used by a cheater that purchased it. This causes many players to think they were innocently banned when in fact their cd-key was stolen and used for cheating. At the very least you will often receive a "CD key in use" message when trying to connect to servers.

If you think this is false propaganda to cover up supposed false global bans I advise you to do some research on this yourself. You can easily verify this by searching for "free DayZ hack" on YouTube. You will see lots of results and almost all of them are scams. Most of them are actually quite popular and have thousands of views. When downloading them and opening the .exe file in e.g. Notepad (warning: do not actually run the .exe!), you can find cd-key related strings such as "SOFTWARE\Bohemia Interactive Studio\ArmA 2 OA" (the registry location of the cd-key) inside.

In short, heed the following: DO NOT EVER RUN ANY HACKS OR OTHER SUSPICIOUS SOFTWARE! If you end up being banned due to your cd-key being stolen there is nothing we can do for you.

(Battleeye link was here) Posted for reference in case people have not seen the warnings and are tempted to download this rubbish.

I read where Battleeye is having problems or something? I guess my next stop is to go over there now. I still am getting bans and lost sessions and no connections; I dont download hack crap and have used some addons in the past. I have reinstalled Arma2 twice now with no addons. I dont know if I should suspect a stolen key but this is ridiculous. I now play on some servers where Battleeye is not used just so I can play the game I paid for.

It seems to me that Battleeye is useless. I have seen cheaters playing in GOD-MODE and flying boats and whatever else they throw in - so far since I reinstalled I only landed on one other hacked server and left immediately. ARMA is probly the best Army Sim out there and the only one I play because of the player versatility.

I dont know what Vanilla is either and tried those six- addons etc - all to no avail and gave up on mods. I had some luck with ACE and ACE 2 and had to drop them as well.

It is getting like one must have to join a respected clan now and basically play alone cause no one in the clan ever shows up either.

Please FIX THIS !

Hawkeyez

[maddogx 13]

It seems to me that Battleeye is useless.

A common misconception. BattlEye is simply playing catch-up, trying to cover countless attack vectors in ARMA2's way too trusting (and frankly broken) network architecture. At least BattlEye is slowly getting there, thanks to $able's close cooperation with BIS. That's the kind of direct support that ARMA2 needs, and I really don't see that happening with any other AC tool.