Possible to hack a computer through an online game?

Alright, I ran into something interesting today and am trying to piece it together.

Some of my friends and I play Desert Combat all the time, it's like the only game we play anymore. Anyhow, one of my friends was over today playing for a long time on one of my computers and he started exploiting map glitches (flying in Docks, wall hacking in Lost Village, amongst other things). Apparently he was talking smack and denying he was hacking to other players and so forth, and got some people mad.

While he was playing I was on a networked computer finding and downloading new maps for us to play and I didn't know he was doing that. Anyhow, I hear the instant message noise from my computer he was using and asked him to minimize D.C. and switch PC's so I could check it out.

At first, I thought it was a friend of mine who plays practical jokes on me, but after about 10 min it started to dawn on me that this guy was a real creep. I was able to piece it together later that it was someone that my friend ticked off when he was playing D.C. He even got some info from my HDD. I made my friend buy me a pack of CD-R's and we're backing up important files and formatting the HDD as I speak.

How could someone do this and how can I prevent this from happening again? It's just -- odd. :confused:

I don't understand why you think he hacked into your system. Just cuz he sent you instant messages does not mean a whole lot.

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Originally posted by TheSpegmaster
I don't understand why you think he hacked into your system. Just cuz he sent you instant messages does not mean a whole lot.

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Well maybe he didn't HACK into my system, but I know he saw (and opened) some files in My Documents folder... and that worried me enough.

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Some of my friends and I play Desert Combat all the time, it's like the only game we play anymore. Anyhow, one of my friends was over today playing for a long time on one of my computers and he started exploiting map glitches (flying in Docks, wall hacking in Lost Village, amongst other things). Apparently he was talking smack and denying he was hacking to other players and so forth, and got some people mad.

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What a ****.

In some ways you got what you deserved - even though I would have been happier if the guy would have wiped your PC.

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Originally posted by irwincur


What a ****.

In some ways you got what you deserved - even though I would have been happier if the guy would have wiped your PC.

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Hey, I hate that kinda stuff too. If you knew me, you'd know that I would never hack like that. My friend has been kicked and banned from like 100 or so servers, but he keeps playing... I just call him an idiot and move on. He likes to play ay my house a lot because his computer is a piece of junk. So he created his own profile over here and when he's over he logs on. My only fault is I didn't monitor him when he was playing, and most of the day up to that point (AFAIK) he wasn't doing that crap.

If you ever wanna play me, I go by Furious Walnut in D.C. ICQ me if you ever wanna play. My ICQ is 247100980. I am a model gamer, seriously, I don't even take vehicles to planes.

Anyhow, back to the point. How does someone hack an online game? Maybe he was the admin and could see ips and went from there?

Milo

I was just giving you a hard time.

he could get your IP from the game then use one of many ways to access your computer, like IM program exploits, network shares that are open to the Internet, OS security exploits, etc...

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Originally posted by muisejt
he could get your IP from the game then use one of many ways to access your computer, like IM program exploits, network shares that are open to the Internet, OS security exploits, etc...

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Well, more or less, it opened my eyes to a potential leak in my internet security. What can I do to prevent a hack in the future?

keep up to date on security patches for programs you use, use a firewall and virus scanner

Definitely make sure your updates are, well, up to date. I just installed an update this morning for DX...yes, DX. It is a security flaw that could allow some one to get into your system.

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Originally posted by Un4given
Definitely make sure your updates are, well, up to date. I just installed an update this morning for DX...yes, DX. It is a security flaw that could allow some one to get into your system.

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DX = Direct X?