Report: Steam Forums Down, Possibly Hacked

November 7, 2011

The Steam forums are offline, with a message to visitors declaring that they are undergoing maintenance, but some users are telling Eurogamer that the forums may have suffered a security breach. Currently the forums are displaying the following message:

"The Steam Forums are temporarily offline for maintenance," a message on Steampowered reads. "Your patience is appreciated."

Eurogamer received an email from one Steam user who said a group changed the text on the forum and spammed some users' email addresses. The group is reportedly from FknOwned.com, a website that offers video game hacks, porn, etc. The group managed to deface the forums and some users reported receiving emails from Steampowered.com with the following message:

"Ever wanted to dominate the servers you play on with guaranteed results, but you were too afraid to cheat because of ban risks? Visit [removed domain] It's safe, secure and undetected."

"Along with hacks, we've also got some general discussion sections, hacking tutorials and tools, porn, free giveaways and much more. This site has been conditioned to meet all your needs in terms of resources so be sure to take a look and tell us what you think."

"Thanks again, the fkn0wned team."

No one has claimed that user data has been compromised or that any Steam accounts have been breached. Valve has not publicly commented on this story.

Source: Eurogamer

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Comments

Re: Report: Steam Forums Down, Possibly Hacked

Submitted by djnforce9 on Wed, 11/09/2011 - 08:25.

Thankfully the Steam forums use the vBulletin forum software which encrypts account passwords (using md5 with salt) in the database (I know since I've set up vBulletin forums before). This makes it absolutely impossible to decrypt them back into plain text again (the wonders of trap-door cryptography).

The hackers could on the hand change people's forum (not Steam) passwords if they broke into the Admin Panel but that wouldn't accomplish anything useful. The worst it seems they've done is collected a huge list of user e-mails to spam and that's about it. Hopefully Valve can just roll back to the latest backup and things will work once again. I guess it depends on how the intruders broke in (phished an admin, found an exploit, etc) which determines how long it will take to prevent future incidents.

Shout box

NyuRena: You nailed it James! Yikes..06/18/2013 - 1:56pm

james_fudge: With MS willing to share with the government, an always listening device should give everyone pause.06/18/2013 - 1:37pm

james_fudge: you can't turn off the Microphone on the Kinect and it has to be plugged in. It's not rocket science.06/18/2013 - 1:35pm

E. Zachary Knight: The Humble Bundle Guys just don't like me having money in my pocket do they? https://www.humblebundle.com/06/18/2013 - 1:12pm

E. Zachary Knight: CMiner, I know that my Android camera is off unless I am using an application that turns it on. Same with the microphone.06/18/2013 - 12:38pm

CMiner: Can you turn off the camera on an iPhone? Like, -really- turn it off, not just change a setting that -tells- you the camera is off?06/18/2013 - 12:13pm

james_fudge: when they make it a requirement, yes they are06/18/2013 - 12:10pm

CMiner: I just don't think Microsoft bears any more (or less) responsibility for privacy with its Kinect camera than do the makers of laptops or smartphones with integrated cameras.06/18/2013 - 12:00pm

Imautobot: The ability to operate the console without the camera is key. It's a peripheral, not directly integrated into the console, and yet it behaves as if it is. Thankfully I don't have kids, and won't have an Xbone either.06/18/2013 - 11:49am

CMiner: Oh, I agree that the decision to make the kinect mandatory/always listening is terrible.06/18/2013 - 11:48am

E. Zachary Knight: CMiner, and the easier the provider makes to do such things, the better. The fact that the XBone will not even funtion without it plugged in and turned on in some fashion makes a world of difference from a PC Webcam.06/18/2013 - 11:38am

CMiner: It takes steps on the user's part to ensure 100% privacy (unplugging, uninstalling, putting tape over it, not putting it in the kid's rooms, etc)06/18/2013 - 11:29am

CMiner: My point is that no webcam producing company can guarantee that no one will ever ever ever be able to access video from that webcam without your knowledge and permission06/18/2013 - 11:28am

E. Zachary Knight: Of course at that point, you are still opening up yourself to Windows zero day vulnerabilities and back doors that they are happy to share with the government before Windows users.06/18/2013 - 11:26am

E. Zachary Knight: Cminer, I don't because I wipe the OS and reinstall something more secure, Linux. Even still, just wiping the OS and reinstalling Windows fresh removes all the bloatware PC companies install.06/18/2013 - 11:26am

E. Zachary Knight: I agree that the Kinect requirement of the XBone has my civil liberty senses tingling. Just another nail in the coffin for me.06/18/2013 - 11:25am

E. Zachary Knight: Honestly, I wouldn't put anything with an integrated camera in my kids' rooms. You are just asking for trouble. Of course, I am not a fan of having tvs/videogames/computers in kids rooms in general.06/18/2013 - 11:24am

CMiner: In the case of integrated webcams on laptops, do you have the same concern that people at Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc might be spying on you?06/18/2013 - 11:24am

E. Zachary Knight: I love awesome indie devs. Incredipede is free if you run linux! http://www.incredipede.com/linux.html Thanks @ColinNorthway You're the best.06/18/2013 - 11:23am

Imautobot: More creepy is that the Xbox Camera can see in the dark. Now we're in Buffalo Bill territory.06/18/2013 - 11:21am

All shouts

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