Team Fortress 2 source code has leaked • Hacker News Board

Re: Team Fortress 2 source code has leaked

#41

Post by minikites » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:10 PM UTC

ThomPete wrote: post #36

exabrial wrote: post #3

Cheats and hacks were already bad enough, I imagine this won't help :( Darn, one of the most fun games I like to play. Sadly, OSX Catalina killed the game for Mac users because Apple recognized the extreme demand by casual users to break all their old 32bit applications.

I literally just downloaded Steam on the mac to show my boys Team Fortress only to be met by this sad news :( I really hope something like TF2 resurfaces in some form again. I never liked the feel of Fortnite.

What about Overwatch?

Re: Team Fortress 2 source code has leaked

#42

Post by MaxBarraclough » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

colejohnson66 wrote: post #35

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source code availability makes it a lot easier to find vulnerabilities. Open source code is much more likely to already have been audited better. Closed source code often depends more heavily on security by obscurity, and unexpected source release can definitely make vulnerabilities immediately apparent that weren't known prior.

> Open source code is much more likely to already have been audited better. Worth keeping in mind this isn’t a silver bullet. OpenSSL with Heartbleed comes to mind.

Very true, but OpenSSL in particular is rather infamous. Unfortunate given that so much relies on it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7556407

Re: Team Fortress 2 source code has leaked

#43

Post by colinhmit » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:12 PM UTC

ThomPete wrote: post #36

exabrial wrote: post #3

Cheats and hacks were already bad enough, I imagine this won't help :( Darn, one of the most fun games I like to play. Sadly, OSX Catalina killed the game for Mac users because Apple recognized the extreme demand by casual users to break all their old 32bit applications.

I literally just downloaded Steam on the mac to show my boys Team Fortress only to be met by this sad news :( I really hope something like TF2 resurfaces in some form again. I never liked the feel of Fortnite.

You should check out Overwatch, which I consider to be TF3. They reimplemented many characters 1:1 including soldier (pharah), medic (mercy), demo (junkrat), engi (torj), as well as the 2 point capture and pushthecart modes.

Valorant, a beta game from Riot, is then a blend of overwatch + csgo, making it closer to tf2 6s.

Re: Team Fortress 2 source code has leaked

#44

Post by gbrown » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:12 PM UTC

plopz wrote: post #23

gbrown wrote: post #14

Maybe they should just embrace it and open source the code (without giving away the trademarks). The community is pretty engaged, so I bet it would be a boon for both security and modding.

I don't know what this contains, but many times games cannot be open sourced because they use libraries that would have to be removed before they could open source it.

Good point. IP law is such a headache.

Re: Team Fortress 2 source code has leaked

#45

Post by markdown » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:16 PM UTC

colinhmit wrote: post #43

ThomPete wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I literally just downloaded Steam on the mac to show my boys Team Fortress only to be met by this sad news :( I really hope something like TF2 resurfaces in some form again. I never liked the feel of Fortnite.

You should check out Overwatch, which I consider to be TF3. They reimplemented many characters 1:1 including soldier (pharah), medic (mercy), demo (junkrat), engi (torj), as well as the 2 point capture and pushthecart modes. Valorant, a beta game from Riot, is then a blend of overwatch + csgo, making it closer to tf2 6s.

The person you're replying to said he was disappointed to find that MacOS Catalina can't run TF2. Why recommend a game that won't run on any version of MacOS?

Re: Team Fortress 2 source code has leaked

#46

Post by russdill » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:17 PM UTC

notaplumber wrote: post #17

What is up with the strange sensationalist claims in the article on and Twitter? Source code availability is not a prerequisite to people finding vulnerabilities or RCE exploits in games, there are many established games with open source game clients. Security researchers routinely reverse engineer proprietary software. Bizarre.

As someone who's reverse engineered large portions of a game with similar tech from the same era, I would be absolutely shocked if there were not remote exploits.

Re: Team Fortress 2 source code has leaked

#47

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:26 PM UTC

notaplumber wrote: post #17

What is up with the strange sensationalist claims in the article on and Twitter? Source code availability is not a prerequisite to people finding vulnerabilities or RCE exploits in games, there are many established games with open source game clients. Security researchers routinely reverse engineer proprietary software. Bizarre.

[deleted]

Re: Team Fortress 2 source code has leaked

#48

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:27 PM UTC

VectorLock wrote: post #5

If the remote code execution thing in CS:GO is true I wonder if it could lead to virtual item theft. We're talking about potential loss of items worth of tens of thousands of dollars. I'm sure Valve could eventually recover them but that could be some serious anxiety and opportunity loss for item holders that are affected.

[deleted]

Re: Team Fortress 2 source code has leaked

#49

Post by cameronbrown » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:27 PM UTC

kroltan wrote: post #10

cameronbrown wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The HL2 code wasn't leaked, it was stolen: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-21-the-boy-who-st...

Web link: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-21-the-boy-who-st...

Updated to remove AMP link above.

Re: Team Fortress 2 source code has leaked

#50

Post by whylie » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:28 PM UTC

notaplumber wrote: post #27

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source code availability makes it a lot easier to find vulnerabilities. Open source code is much more likely to already have been audited better. Closed source code often depends more heavily on security by obscurity, and unexpected source release can definitely make vulnerabilities immediately apparent that weren't known prior.

I have to believe given the sheer size of these communities, that the source code being available only helped to confirm what was already known. The panic seen here hearkens back to the days when companies made similar ridiculous security claims about open source software compared to proprietary software.

That seems like quite a stretch. The difference between having the source code and not having it is night and day as far as exploring potential vulnerabilities...which is one of the strengths of open source as you point out, but this code was not intended to be || written as open source hence the panic. Feel like you missed the mark on this one.