[url]https://8ch.net/tech/res/601574.html[/url] - Original Source
Apparently it takes screenshots of your computer and sends a list of your processes. (Used to catch cheaters apprently - still sketchy)
Here is the dev trying to defend himself months ago
[t]http://i.imgur.com/Nor2BxM.png[/t]
Furthermore, the devs are currently DCMA'ing anyone who links the code or any proof of the "spyware"
[url]http://pastebin.com/bCu6ghhP[/url]
Shit, sure they're using the screenshots and processes to catch cheaters and they've admitted to doing as much but it's still sketchy as hell.
And Illegal.
Edit:
Example image it takes (Of your WHOLE screen, not just the game):
[t]https://media2.8ch.net/tech/src/1464139408888-0.jpg[/t]
It'd be different if it only took shots of the game window itself, but outside of the window as well? what
Imagine taking cheating in a rythym game so seriously you create Bab's first anticheat and accidentally threaten the privacy and security of your entire userbase. And then DMCAing people for calling you out and posting proof. That's when it's time to :stop:
is the game multiplayer and not coop? If so, the cheat excuse would make sense, but everything about this feels wrong.
is the game singleplayer? Then the anti-cheat excuse makes literally no sense.
There's literally no reason for it, and there's even less reason to steal passwords and desktop snapshots just for "Anti cheating"
Hey it's all for intellectual property protection, right?
[QUOTE=J!NX;50389641]is the game multiplayer and not coop? If so, the cheat excuse would make sense
is the game singleplayer?
then fuck no, this asshat should pay for any possible damages to anyone that may have been affected by this
anti cheat in single/coop player games piss me off. There's literally no reason for it, and there's even less reason to steal passwords and desktop snapshots just for "Anti cheating"[/QUOTE]
IIRC its singleplayer with leaderboards
[QUOTE=Jelman;50389655]IIRC its singleplayer with leaderboards[/QUOTE]
so basically, anticheat shouldn't even be existent on this thing.
[QUOTE=J!NX;50389641]is the game multiplayer and not coop? If so, the cheat excuse would make sense, but everything about this feels wrong.
is the game singleplayer? Then the anti-cheat excuse makes literally no sense.
There's literally no reason for it, and there's even less reason to steal passwords and desktop snapshots just for "Anti cheating"[/QUOTE]
osu players take the online leaderboards stupid seriously, idk why considering it's easily one of the most casual rhythm games available but who are we to judge
[QUOTE=J!NX;50389641]is the game multiplayer and not coop? If so, the cheat excuse would make sense
is the game singleplayer?
then fuck no, this asshat should pay for any possible damages to anyone that may have been affected by this
anti cheat in single/coop player games piss me off. There's literally no reason for it, and there's even less reason to steal passwords and desktop snapshots just for "Anti cheating"[/QUOTE]
As far as I know, it's not really multiplayer or co-op, but more so just very, very competitive scoring leaderboards (any active osu! players correct me on this, I stopped playing a year or so ago)
[QUOTE=J!NX;50389641]is the game multiplayer and not coop? If so, the cheat excuse would make sense, but everything about this feels wrong.
is the game singleplayer? Then the anti-cheat excuse makes literally no sense.
There's literally no reason for it, and there's even less reason to steal passwords and desktop snapshots just for "Anti cheating"[/QUOTE]
It's a singleplayer game with online leaderboards which are probably the most important part of it.
There's also multiplayer options, it's exactly the same but you play against other people in real time
honestly the idea of an anticheat itself is not bad, scoreboards and all, but it's the way it was implemented
if they also send data not over https, that would be amazing
[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;50389633]Imagine taking cheating in a rythym game so seriously you create Bab's first anticheat and accidentally threaten the privacy and security of your entire userbase. And then DMCAing people for calling you out and posting proof. That's when it's time to :stop:[/QUOTE]
Sounds like [url=https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1519380]Hex and his obsessively perfect HAC[/url] to me.
Reddit says that there is no automated screenshot tool, and all of them are taken via an admin command, !monitor <username>, which then takes said shot(s).
The game's owner also said this
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/yprQfOv.png[/IMG]
And I'd buy it only being used for suspected cheaters. Snooping on everyone's screens (with 15k players online) seems like too much of a waste of time.
hey i mean maybe read the ToS before installing software
Section 9 Lines 2-3 of OSU!'s ToS:
"Any submission of any personal information is done only with your voluntary act (website), or automatically (game client software) where necessary to provide diagnostics and feedback."
[QUOTE=Coment;50389760]Reddit says that there is no automated screenshot tool, and all of them are taken via an admin command, !monitor <username>, which then takes said shot(s).
The game's owner also said this
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/yprQfOv.png[/IMG]
And I'd buy it only being used for suspected cheaters. Snooping on everyone's screens (with 15k players online) seems like too much of a waste of time.[/QUOTE]
Still could be maliciously used on anyone else
[QUOTE=Jelman;50389767]Still could be maliciously used on anyone else[/QUOTE]
Apparently not anymore.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/dsXhs5Y.png[/IMG]
Of course, it's still closed-source and there's no way to verify that, so take it as you want.
[QUOTE=Coment;50389760]Reddit says that there is no automated screenshot tool, and all of them are taken via an admin command, !monitor <username>, which then takes said shot(s).
The game's owner also said this
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/yprQfOv.png[/IMG]
And I'd buy it only being used for suspected cheaters. Snooping on everyone's screens (with 15k players online) seems like too much of a waste of time.[/QUOTE]
It seems odd to not take the obvious solution, reveal a sample screenshot (taken on a test machine, not a random user's machine) and show what osu [I]DOES[/I] do.
If the screenshots are faked, but osu still takes screenshots exactly the way the faked screenshots show, the faked screenshots are still pretty damn representational of the problem even if they don't represent real incidents.
[QUOTE=Coment;50389777]Apparently not anymore.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/dsXhs5Y.png[/IMG]
Of course, it's still closed-source and there's no way to verify that, so take it as you want.[/QUOTE]
Peppy is currently working on making Osu open source, so I guess we will see.
Not defending the dev, screenshotting the entire screen is very scummy and could potentially be abused to spy on the players, but there are ways to cheat that involve cheats outside of the game. For example, making the window transparent and then playing the game with a video behind it of a map. Then the flashlight mod is used, which hides all of the screen but a small area, gives you a point modifier which makes it easier to get top 50s on maps. So people can basically cheat the mod this way, without any game hooks other than whatever program they used to change window transparency.
I'd imagine the built in screenshot button wouldn't capture the window transparency, so a full screen capture might be necessary. And cheating programs that dont have an ingame ui? I'm sure those probably exist.
And yes, the scoreboards are very important to a lot of players in this game, and honestly myself included. It's enjoyable to pass people in rank.
I feel as though peppy should've been much more up front about his methods but at the same time I don't think he is the kind of person who would abuse this to invade a user's privacy. If other people had access to this, such as other osu admins, that is much more worrying though.
[QUOTE=Period;50389819]
I'd imagine the built in screenshot button wouldn't capture the window transparency, so a full screen capture might be necessary. And cheating programs that dont have an ingame ui? I'm sure those probably exist. [/QUOTE]
[URL="https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/4kzlx0/osu_source_code_leaked_and_has_spyware_on_it/d3j9oaa"]Seems like that's the case.[/URL]
[URL="https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/4kzlx0/osu_source_code_leaked_and_has_spyware_on_it/d3j8ftt"](More explanation of the dev here, also)[/URL]
This reminds me of GMod's render.Capture() and how it takes the steam overlay sometimes
It was announced for quite some time now the game will become open source so it's hopefully not a big issue anymore. I've been part of the osu! community for quite a while and manage to talk with the main dev (peppy) quite a few times. He's a nice guy but during the mid-early years (2009-2012) of the game's lifetime, he had a bit of an ego problem and was prone to be impulsive at decisions and power trips. Often takes drastic measures at times, and can be kinda bad at criticism as well.
A few years ago he was all set on locking a lot of the code and features of the game, including a file format that would stop players on being able to modify/remove beatmap elements such as backgrounds, skins or videos. Traditionally beatmaps are packaged with a .osz file and then extracted into the game as a folder with all the necessary files like the images and song file itself. He even tried to try to look a way to copyright his code and making sure it stays closed source and no one could copy his game. He usually doesn't like it when people are asking for a toggle feature to disable some things, and is super strict with cheating and making sure all features are turned on for all users. He was very insistent on a lot of particular things and he'd go as far as to delete someone's account when they clash too often at the forums. Eventually he did start to chill a bit and listen to the community more (most features like disabling beatmap elements, keeping it open, community events etc.), and he even announced quite a while back the game would go open source soon.
I haven't been active myself in the game for quite a while, only playing a game a few times every odd month or so, and I'm no way defending his actions here as well, since it really is shady. But there is a chance he is telling the truth on his defense at Reddit and that he really isn't intending anything malicious, and may have just used an impulsive and particular shady code back when he was still building up the game, but never removed it soon enough.
This already came up like 1-2 years ago, not sure why it blew up so much now.
[QUOTE=Coment;50389760]Reddit says that there is no automated screenshot tool, and all of them are taken via an admin command, !monitor <username>, which then takes said shot(s).
The game's owner also said this
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/yprQfOv.png[/IMG]
And I'd buy it only being used for suspected cheaters. Snooping on everyone's screens (with 15k players online) seems like too much of a waste of time.[/QUOTE]
more importantly, if he's getting screenshots from 15k people every few minutes, daily.....
where the hell is he storing them?
[QUOTE=Sableye;50390092]more importantly, if he's getting screenshots from 15k people every few minutes, daily.....
where the hell is he storing them?[/QUOTE]
I don't think anything is stored unless it thinks you're cheating by using another measure to check.
[QUOTE=Sableye;50390092]where the hell is he storing them?[/QUOTE]
the comment in there says caps are deleted 'within hours'. I'd assume it's more of a passive thing that happens to suspect cheaters
this is kind of a tight balance, it's one of few presumable solutions to detect that type of cheat that runs entirely independent of the game. Because of how it works, it's reasonable the dev would avoid just announce how his anti-cheat works because cheaters would look for a counter, and (like what's happening now) everybody will assume he's somehow spying on 15,000 users by rooting through 15,000 screencaps once every few minutes.
I'd assume it only acted when something trips a basic potential cheating detection, like 100% perfect completion or accurately hitting the same pixel over and over and over or whatever might be the case. It's still hella ham-fisted and could accidentally reveal personal info or embarrassing content, and it probably breaches some sort of privacy law and should be removed (which he claims had already happened), and to ensure the source leak doesn't allow any third parties to access said content
[QUOTE=dai;50390180]the comment in there says caps are deleted 'within hours'. I'd assume it's more of a passive thing that happens to suspect cheaters
this is kind of a tight balance, it's one of few presumable solutions to detect that type of cheat that runs entirely independent of the game, and because of how it works, it can't announce that it's doing it, because cheaters would look for a counter, and obviously what's happening now, everybody will assume he's somehow spying on 15,000 users by rooting through 15,000 screencaps once every few minutes. I'd assume it only acted when something trips a basic potential cheating detection, like 100% perfect completion or accurately hitting the same pixel over and over and over or whatever might be the case[/QUOTE]
It's indeed a matter of ticking lots of unusual flags during plays when submitting them online. Your typical player would be hard pressed to be monitored.
40k rank osu player here
everyone in the community knows osu is rather privacy-invasive for its anti cheat so if you feel strongly privacy the game probably should be avoided
and if you're worried about legality osu already has plenty of problems: pretty much all of the songs in osu beatmaps are used without permission and don't really classify as fair use making osu guilty of large scale copyright infringement
[QUOTE=Sableye;50390092]more importantly, if he's getting screenshots from 15k people every few minutes, daily.....
where the hell is he storing them?[/QUOTE]
Guess who also created Puush and has massive servers for storing images
[QUOTE=paul simon;50390442]Guess who also created Puush and has massive servers for storing images[/QUOTE]
I'm going to go out on a limb and say elon musk
I played this for a day and ended up thinking it was boring
does it leave anything behind on an uninstall or will that do the trick
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