Activision Blizzard Secretly Watermarking World of Warcraft Users
75 replies, posted
[QUOTE]A few days ago I noticed some weird artifacts covering the screenshots I captured using the WoW game client application. I sharpened the images and found a repeating pattern secretly embedded inside. I posted this information on the OwnedCore forum and after an amazing three-day cooperation marathon, we managed to prove that all our WoW screenshots, since at least 2008, contain a custom watermark. This watermark includes our user IDs, the time the screenshot was captured and the IP address of the server we were on at the time. It can be used to track down activities which are against Blizzard's Terms of Service, like hacking the game or running a private server. The users were never notified by the ToS that this watermarking was going on so, for four years now, we have all been publicly sharing our account and realm information for hackers to decode and exploit. You can find more information on how to access the watermark in the aforementioned forum post which is still quite active.[/QUOTE]
This has just hit [URL="http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/09/11/149228/activision-blizzard-secretly-watermarking-world-of-warcraft-users"]Slashdot[/URL] and [URL="http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/zph9s/activision_blizzard_secretly_watermarking_world/"]Reddit[/URL]. No actual journalistic report on this since it hasn't been picked up by big sites yet.
Original discussion [URL="http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/world-of-warcraft/world-of-warcraft-general/375573-looking-inside-your-screenshots.html"]here[/URL].
My opinion is that they're covered by the EULA, who knows what other kind of shit they do without players knowing, but this is still freaky as hell. Watermark looks something like this:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Qc5ME.jpg[/img]
its machine code
pretty clever way to find hackers
[editline]11th September 2012[/editline]
out
That's cool, but running private servers should be allowed.
[quote]we have all been publicly sharing our account and realm information for hackers to decode and exploit[/quote]
This sounds a lot like fear mongering.
It said that it was the userID, not your password or even your account name (userID is either a random string or an old outdated account name that isn't used for account security) that was part of the watermark, so you aren't likely to get hacked with that alone if someone sees a screenshot you posted years ago.
And who cares if people know which realm you are on?
[bad reading]
That is actually a really clever idea.
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;37629145]IP address is a not a nice thing to publicize.[/QUOTE]
The OP said IP address of the server, not the user.
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;37629145][bad reading][/QUOTE]
It's the IP of the game server so that's going to already be public.
It's really impressive actually. I wonder if they've nailed anyone by using this watermark technology.
Ok that's genius
Someone over there has got to be on a sigh'n'moan marathon right about now because he's spent weeks coming up with this system, and now he's gotta come up with something better.
thought it said waterboarding that would be way meaner
[QUOTE=Marik Bentusi;37629343]Someone over there has got to be on a sigh'n'moan marathon right about now because he's spent weeks coming up with this system, and now he's gotta come up with something better.[/QUOTE]
To be fair, this was a secret for 4 years, which is a long time for something like this to not be well known.
They probably also have another system in place already to replace it too.
[QUOTE=Marik Bentusi;37629343]Someone over there has got to be on a sigh'n'moan marathon right about now because he's spent weeks coming up with this system, and now he's gotta come up with something better.[/QUOTE]
They'll probably find a way to make it invisible or hide it like EXIF data.
We need a "fucking genius" rating.
Think about it. When guilds claimed first-kills and posed near boss corpses in screenshots, Blizzard had a way of instantly knowing when and where the images were taken (on what server), and whether they were real or fake.
[QUOTE=Perl;37629401]We need a "fucking genius" rating.[/QUOTE]
'Winner' suffices.
[QUOTE=zugu;37629668]Think about it. When guilds claimed first-kills and posed near boss corpses in screenshots, Blizzard had a way of instantly knowing when and where the images were taken (on what server), and whether they were real or fake.[/QUOTE]
Or they could have just put in a server side check for the particular NPC getting killed.
That would make slightly more sense.
I actually think the guy who found this is even more genius
why dumb rates? watermarks arn't new but someone finding them is really great.. I mean how did he found this?
Should've atleast included it in the ToS I think
Seems like lying to the playbase for all these years
How does that watermark look like on an actual screenshot?
[QUOTE=Shadow45;37629872]I actually think the guy who found this is even more genius[/QUOTE]
This has been known for a while, apparently it just went mainstream because someone found it (again).
It's known that they have been doing this since WotLK Alpha. They used this method to remove people from the Alpha that broke the NDA. People are getting their panties in a twist for no specific reason as there is no personally identifiable information in these messages. (Account IDs are useless to everyone except Blizzard).
And they don't ban people that they find out are playing on private servers going off some screenshot data. If so me and a lot of other people would have been banned already.
The Worlds of Warcraft. They are trying to communicate.
I have no problem with this, good job to whoever thought of this.
[QUOTE=MaxOfS2D;37630017]How does that watermark look like on an actual screenshot?[/QUOTE]
I imagine it would just look like artifacting.
I guess it makes it possible for them to know which people are making attempts to sell their accounts, despite marking over their names in the screenshot.
Does this mean Diablo III also does this?
i get the feeling that using steam or anything else to take the pictures would remove it
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