Curse

Sjeng · May 17, 2008, 09:19 PM // 21:19

Got this un my mail today:

Quote:

Hello,

Thank you for your response. You should be able to change the password on your Guild Wars game account at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Let us know if you need any further assistance.

Thanks,
John
Guild Wars Account Support

And indeed it works fine now.
- Still annoyed about the way they don't read your problem and send replies that don't help at all.
- Still don't know what the problem was, and if it's permanently solved, or that I will have the same problem the next time I try to change my account password
- Still hate the fact that you don't have to fill in your OLD password before you can change it! That is seriously unsafe!!!

But I do have to admit they always stay friendly no matter how annoyed and sarcastic people get with them... :P

I hope the problem is solved for everyone now.

Sjeng · May 18, 2008, 08:02 AM // 08:02

All right, here's my final correspondation with John:

Quote:

Thank you John,

It works fine now, but what I'd like to know is what was wrong? Was is a website bug? I hope it's permanently solved now.
And shouldn't you be required to fill in your OLD password before you can change it? That just seems safer to me. You might want to add that requirement. Just a tip. Sjeng

John replied swiftly:

Quote:

Hello,

Thank you for your update. We do not require the previous password for the game account because you have to know the PlayNC master account username and password to get into the account in order to change it.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

Thanks,
John
Guild Wars Account Support

So I decided to give him my final argument and leave it at that:

Quote:

Hello John,

Thanks again for the swift reply

I know that you need to login to playNC first in order to change your GW account password. So technically you're right. But seeing the recent increase in accounts being robbed, wouldn't it be safer to require both the playNC login information AND the GW-account login information?

Imagine this scenario: Someone isn't 100% fully protected with an up-to-date virusscanner or spyware scanner. (It's not unthinkable, not everyone knows so much about virusscanners and spyware). A hacker is using a Trojan keylogger (or whatever) to track this person's keystrokes. He succesfully finds out the person's PlayNC loginname and password. Now all he has to do is log on to the playNC website using the information he illegally obtained, and presto: the PlayNC site TELLS the hacker the login email for the guildwars account(s) this person has, and all he has to do is change the PlayNC login information and change the guildwars account password(s). He can now rob the person's account(s). Another victim.

If the hacker also was required to fill in the OLD GW-password, then he needed additional information to change it. So now the hacker would also need to know the victim's GW-password. It just makes it more difficult for hackers to be succesfull.

Now, I admit I'm not familiar with "hacking" at all. So maybe my scenario isn't possible. But if it is, wouldn't it make sense to require as much information as possible to make changes?

All I'm saying is that there have been many robbed accounts lately. It's on all the community forums. People are getting paranoid. Isn't there anything Anet and PlayNC can do about that? Wouldn't my suggestion be a step in the right direction?

Well, I'll leave it with that, and leave it up to you what to do with my suggestion. I just hope all this recent robbing will be dealt with soon.

Thanks again! Sjeng

I hope this will help in making things safer for everyone. Be vigilant!

Sjeng.

DivineEnvoy · May 18, 2008, 10:05 AM // 10:05

I hope this will be helpful.

I was hacked a week ago, and it was a Trojan Keylogger. However, I have quite a few anti-virus and anti-spyware applications installed on my computer. They are the following: NOD32, Spyware Doctor (Invalid registry, so I couldn't get an update), Adaware, and some other antivirus programs like AV and such. None of them managed to find the keylogger. With this said, I was able to find the virus after uninstalling and reinstalling Spyware Doctor, and it somehow gave me a valid registry state. So some of you may want to reconsider about trusting some programs.

Following up, I would like to share my discovery on how I found out that I have been hacked. I was disconnected four times in one day. Despite the fact that one out of the four was a server crash, my internet was stable, and so, I suspected it to be something malicious. Here's the key point of the issue: these disconnects were all error 7's. After doing some researches with a second computer, I was able to identify the following:

Legit disconnection when you are located in an outpost: You will go back to your character screen, you will be able to log back right away.

The other disconnection when someone has logged onto your account while you were in an outpost: You will go back to your character screen, but you will need to provide your password again, then you will be able to log back on.

Legit disconnection when you were in an explorable area: You will be asked if you want to reconnect to the server, assuming your internet is stable and working, you will be able to do so.

The other disconnection when you are in an explorable area: You will be asked if you want to reconnect to the server, assuming your internet is stable and working, you will not be able to do so, and you will receive a network error.

Here's a problem I have identified: when someone logs onto your character screen, only your buddylist will go offline, and of course, you will be asked to retype your password and such. Problem is, as far as my researches go, this is the same as a legit network issue with the buddylist.

Upto this point, by getting error 7's, I had doubts that there were actually any hackers. May I ask what in the world happened to those error 35's we were supposed to get if someone logs onto our account while we are on it?

Let's look into something more serious: the location of the virus. First of all, I have installed Firefox onto my computer for school purposes, and the moment when I found out that I didn't really need it, I didn't use it. That was about January of this year. I often do clean ups of my IE temporary files, and I have even tried a few programs that terminate my temporary files. The virus was located within a temporary folder of Firefox, and I guess all the terminations I had was not able to reach it.

As for the people who believe that they will be safe if they stop playing the game, I'm going to show you this.
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10277088
Just an addition to this thread, my friend reset his password before he quits.

Another point I would like to make is that hackers don't just randomly distribute keyloggers all over the places; can you imagine the logs they have to read if they had done that? In related to this, the only Guild Wars-related pages I visited the official Guild Wars website, Guru, GWonline, and the two wikipedia pages. Not trying to offend the mods here, but I still suspect I may have gotten the keylogger from one of the previous mentioned sites. In fact, this will be my last post here on Guru, and I'm going to format my computer just to be safe. If anyone wishes to contact me ingame to discuss this topic, my ingame name is the same as the forum name I have here.

Lastly, I'm not going to blame anyone or anything for this incident; after all, I do intend to go to various sites to see if I will get a virus. After getting the virus, I'm always interested to see if I'm able to kill it. Nonetheless, from this incident, I realized how much my account meant to me, and how much fun I had on it. I guess when you reach this age, things will just become dull, and you will only be happy when you look back into your memories. Certainly, I will not allow anyone to torment these memories. Relevant to this, I can see that there are people who share the same perspective as me; this was the reason to why I made this post, despite I have to go through a day of format and updates.

Also, when the hacker noticed I was online before he or she logged on, the hacker logged off imediately. In the whole incident, nothing was stolen. It is rather suspecious to what exactly was the hacker intending to do with my account.

**cosyfiep** · May 19, 2008, 12:05 AM // 00:05

hey did we ever get that 'update' on the 'meeting' of the 'exploit' from miss regina???? (she mentioned in the closed thread about the hacked accounts....she said she would get us information as soon as she had some....well that was what over a week ago?).....

FluffyBunny007 · Jun 27, 2008, 11:11 PM // 23:11

Hey, sorry for the necro res on this thing, but I think I just got hacked.
I left for two weeks to go on a family vacation, and when I come back, all my ectos, gold, zkeys, jadeite shards (lol whut?) and probably a few weapons/materials that I forgot I had was all gone, also I think he did something back in the guild cause I guess it got me kicked from it haha. I havent answered any false emails or anything, and the only person who knows my password is my real life best friends who wouldnt do something like this. The only thing I can think of, is that I am linked to the PlayNC account thing when i registered to it to lodge a support ticked about the xunlai house a while ago.
So, I don't know if the hacker is back or not, but you may want to be careful.

Lord Xeshm · Jun 28, 2008, 01:44 AM // 01:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by FluffyBunny007

the only person who knows my password is my real life best friends who wouldnt do something like this.

Sorry to say this, but this might be the reason why.

buckscrib · Jun 28, 2008, 02:55 AM // 02:55

I had an account that got hacked a couple years ago by gold sellers and A-Net closed the account. There was nothing I could do to get it re-opened. Made me leave GW for a while.

Lalamika · Jul 01, 2008, 07:44 PM // 19:44

I just got hacked yesterday and lost two of my characters. I don't understand how on earth this happened when I triple scanned my computer using three different anti viruses and then I scanned today and found nothing. Not a keylogger, nothing. No one knows my info, not even my husband. I filed a support ticket just wanting to know if they can track who did it, I don't care that I don't get my stuff back, even though I just blew 80k on vabbian armor for my dervish that is now deleted. (I know I will not get my stuff back.)

I just want answers. You know what I got? I got the typical "Oh you're a dumb person, you must have given out your info or gotten a keylogger durr durr" response. That's not what I asked support, stop treating your customers like they are a bunch of 8 year olds. They even said in the response that they KNEW their servers are secure. How are you secure when someone can just log into your account while you're on it and boot you off? I think they really need to change this.

esthetic · Jul 01, 2008, 09:29 PM // 21:29

I could have sworn i had bout 150 plat in storage after i sold some item. Logged back on a day later and I had only bout 13 plat in storage >.< WTH!!!

Hyper.nl · Jul 02, 2008, 09:32 AM // 09:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by esthetic

I could have sworn i had bout 150 plat in storage after i sold some item. Logged back on a day later and I had only bout 13 plat in storage >.< WTH!!!

if it was hacked, then the hacker would probably steal ALL your platinum, not leaving the last 13.

Sweet Mystery · Jul 02, 2008, 10:04 AM // 10:04

Erm... are the people being hacked signing up to the Xunlai tournament house...? This is on the GW website, and totally open to sniffing with HTTP being plain text... and here you submit account info... and perhaps people putting in their game passwords, despite being told not to...?

R.Shayne · Jul 02, 2008, 12:55 PM // 12:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lalamika

They even said in the response that they KNEW their servers are secure.

Anyone working in IT/Software Support who ever makes this statement should be fired on the spot because they are idiots.

There is one rule anyone in IT or support should know, "A compentant hacker/s will always win, period." Your only chance is to slow them down long enough to trace them.

Going to take a short walk, need to cool off now.

FrAnt1c² · Jul 02, 2008, 01:23 PM // 13:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sweet Mystery

Erm... are the people being hacked signing up to the Xunlai tournament house...? This is on the GW website, and totally open to sniffing with HTTP being plain text... and here you submit account info... and perhaps people putting in their game passwords, despite being told not to...?

But you cant submit the same password for the xunlai house as your password for your gw account

Fril Estelin · Jul 02, 2008, 01:47 PM // 13:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by R.Shayne

There is one rule anyone in IT or support should know, "A compentant hacker/s will always win, period." Your only chance is to slow them down long enough to trace them.

Not entirely true. What they should remember is: the amount of protection should roughly be proportional to the asset value. You don't protect the NSA's and Anet's server with the same assumptions, because breaches have very different consequences in both cases

And sometimes hackers simply loose because the cost of the attack is not worth it (a GW account has a lesser value than a WoW one). And the cost of tracing a hacker can be prohibitively high (that's why it doesn't happen more often, technically it's quite easy, if international links didn't cost so much).

Tamgi Sun · Jul 02, 2008, 05:22 PM // 17:22

1: Where you online when you got hacked? if so what happend, where were you?
No.

2: Do you use textmod? If you do, where did you download it from?
Yes, from GuildWiki.

3: Are you on American or other servers at the time? (And when you loged in what was your location? (Server/Outpost)
European, EE1 Great Temple of Balthazar.

4: Do you have your account linked to play NC or use the online store?
Linked to PlayNC only, never used the store. I didn't know it was linked to PlayNC until I got hacked though

Teh [prefession]-zorz · Jul 03, 2008, 12:27 AM // 00:27

yes ive been hacked, multiple times

1mill+ hacked.

must of made his day.

**cosyfiep** · Jul 03, 2008, 01:26 AM // 01:26

they're baaacckk....

now that its summer I guess the hackers that didnt get caught in that 'unknown' update are at it again------

Antheus · Jul 03, 2008, 02:56 AM // 02:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by DivineEnvoy

I hope this will be helpful.

I was hacked a week ago, and it was a Trojan Keylogger. However, I have quite a few anti-virus and anti-spyware applications installed on my computer. They are the following: NOD32, Spyware Doctor (Invalid registry, so I couldn't get an update), Adaware, and some other antivirus programs like AV and such. None of them managed to find the keylogger.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Generic anti-malware software does not protect against application-specific hacks.

The real question here is, how did the trojan get there? These things cannot just appear, even if targeted at GW specifically, they cannot install themselves without any of those anti-virus applications warning the user about it.

But once it's installed, these applications will no longer detect them.

Also another thing to add to this survey: Which IM software do you use? MSN Messenger is notorious for being malware magnet, and should be first thing disabled by any user worried about security.

Brianna · Jul 03, 2008, 03:14 AM // 03:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Antheus

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Generic anti-malware software does not protect against application-specific hacks.

The real question here is, how did the trojan get there? These things cannot just appear, even if targeted at GW specifically, they cannot install themselves without any of those anti-virus applications warning the user about it.

But once it's installed, these applications will no longer detect them.

Also another thing to add to this survey: Which IM software do you use? MSN Messenger is notorious for being malware magnet, and should be first thing disabled by any user worried about security.

Please explain how it is a Malware Magnet? Are you talking from the side of accepting files from people or an exploit in the program itself?

kerpall · Jul 03, 2008, 03:15 AM // 03:15

My hack story will make you laugh, cus im retarded:

Ingame: no

I was in Ascalon int. dis 1 (older than 3 months though), and i was selling some high-end goods. Some random guy pm'd me a link through a skill template, i went to it. Downloaded a keylogger >.> . Luckily i was selling a sword for my friend that time, and didn't have it, however i did lose about 1000k in (vabbian + 15k) armors across my accounts.

I did however log into their Guild hall, as they invited me into the guild (silly russians >.> ), took a snapshot of the guild roster before it kicked me off

.

I put all the officers / leader on friends list, none of them logged in again... I suppose my report + picture worked (ty anet for drawing my name outta the hat, as the person you do decide to help

)

Just a guess: Guru highend is basically a giant list of people to be hacked. I did have that sword advertised here, so it is probably likely they saw me either on guru, or ingame (although the guy who pm'd me wasnt in the map? ).

Hope this helps!