StarCraft 2 Hackers Forcing Players To Watch Shooting Videos

StarCraft 2 hackers are reportedly exposing unsuspecting gamers to horrific footage of a real-life capturing in addition to movies that includes vivid flashing lights, seemingly designed to set off seizures. Whereas Blizzard is investigating, it appears this has been occurring for almost a 12 months or extra.

On April 20, a StarCraft 2 participant shared a narrative a few hacker injecting a video of a mass capturing into the sport whereas they had been taking part in on-line. Reddit user Tad0422 explained that this occurred whereas taking part in a map in StarCraft 2‘s Arcade, a characteristic of the sci-fi RTS that lets gamers add custom-created maps and modes to play with others. Whereas taking part in with some associates, the group encountered some “rando” gamers.

About 3 minutes [later] a video appeared on my display,” claimed Tado422. “I’ve by no means seen this earlier than however it took up the entire display. It was a Russian pop video or one thing that performed for 20 seconds or so. Most of us had been speaking in chat about what the heck was occurring.”

Tado422 additional defined that, shortly after the primary video, a second video appeared. This one confirmed a person getting into a retailer and capturing folks within the head.

“At this second I freaked out and laborious closed out of StarCraft 2. My 5 12 months previous daughter was within the room with me, half being attentive to me taking part in a online game. That is past unacceptable. I ought to by no means have to fret about seeing folks murdered or porn whereas taking part in a SC2 sport.”

Tad0422’s submit blew up on Reddit and led to many different SC2 gamers sharing their tales about comparable hackers injecting annoying or graphic movies whereas individuals are taking part in the sport. I reached out to Tado422 and so they shared with me a replay of the match that was hacked by somebody. Additionally they made it clear that this isn’t a problem with the Arcade map they had been taking part in or the creator of that mode. It seems to be a bigger exploit inside StarCraft 2‘s Arcade Mode. Yow will discover others reporting comparable incidents with screenshots, too.

As reported by 404Media, some players shared stories of seeing swastikas while playing. One other consumer claimed they had been hit with an “epileptic screamer” video designed to set off seizures utilizing flashing photographs and light-weight. A majority of these issues with hackers hijacking maps and modes in Arcade have been reported by StarCraft 2 players for at least a year now.

Kotaku reached out to Blizzard. The corporate says it’s conscious of the scenario and is at the moment working to “repair” the exploit. Right here’s the corporate’s full assertion:

“We’re investigating a participant declare that disturbing content material that violates our insurance policies appeared in a sport. We take the security of our gamers and our platform very critically and are working to repair the exploit we imagine might need been used to add this content material.

Replace: April 22 – 8:30 p.m. EST: Blizzard despatched over a brand new, up to date assertion.

Right here it’s in full:

We’re working to repair the exploit we imagine might need been utilized by sure gamers to add content material that violates our insurance policies. We take the security of our gamers and our platform very critically. The inappropriate content material is being eliminated, and the accountable events have been banned. To forestall further coverage violations, we’ve got briefly disabled the flexibility for gamers to add new maps and mods via the SC2 Map Editor whereas we work on a everlasting repair.

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