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Sonic 2 HD

Discussion in 'Fangaming Discussion' started by Canned Karma, Mar 28, 2012.

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  1. Lanzer

    Lanzer

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    And here we fucking goooo...

    Up next A certain website that ends in Z's fear mongering followed by Jim Sterling's trolling. Ready to frighten and panic the masses into thinking were all evil hackers wanting to steal their infomation.

    I really want to punch Luke in the face.
     
  2. Metal-Geo

    Metal-Geo

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    So wait, is this keylogger also present in the 64-bit executable? I never even unpacked the 32-bit executable when I heard virus-scanners were going bonkers about it.

    Fuck it. I'm gonna delete the whole shebang when I get home.
     
  3. Vangar

    Vangar

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    There's only one problem. There really is a key logger in the program.


    Anyone who knows the history with LOst shouldn't be too surprised. I ran this thing at work, though =/
     
  4. Metal Man88

    Metal Man88

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    There is a chance it is not. I ran the 64 bit one and no registry entry was made. But I can't say for certain.
     
  5. I gotta say this made for a fun day on IRC

    I hope that the project is able to recover from this but this has turned into some pretty hefty stuff... I still don't know how I feel about it. On one hand, its kind of blown out of proportion. On the other hand, everything about the way this game was programmed is shady, and the input methods go with it. Call it what you want but in a way all of this bad press was bound to come out the moment the exe was packed in such a way that it set virus scanners ablaze. The Sonic 2 HD team was lucky this shitstorm didn't hit sooner.

    Time for some damage control boys and girls. Good luck with that
     
  6. Tithin

    Tithin

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    So wait, does this appl to both the 32 bit and the 64 bit exes? I only ran the 64 bit one and it didn't trip my antivirus (eset).
     
  7. Rockman Zero

    Rockman Zero

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    Videos for Hellfire Commentaries.
    Got any saved chat logs?

    I'd delete them both to be on the safe side.
     
  8. H Hog

    H Hog

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    So hey, uhm... Any word, reaction, or even a sign of life at all from LOst since this thing started?
    Anything whatsoever?
     
  9. JaxTH

    JaxTH

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    Jack shit.
    He was on once but did not grace this topic and instead posted something over in GSD. He has also apparently set his status to invisible or something now.
     
  10. Cooljerk

    Cooljerk

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    He posted once in this thread to confirm that, yes, you're not allowed to hack his shit.
     
  11. Fuck him, hack all his shit.

    Retro has basically built itself on hacking shit, and after all this, he deserves NO exception whatsoever.
     
  12. Metal Man88

    Metal Man88

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    His stuff was already hacked earlier. Bits of source code were even ripped out of it.

    The main question is whether the project will continue, now that Sonic 2 HD is synonymous with LOst potentially stealing people's passwords.
     
  13. dsrb

    dsrb

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    [citation needed]
    But in seriousness, since this is the second or third time someone's posited this as the reason for the keylogger, has anyone tested to see what (if anything) happens when a screenshot is attempted?
     
  14. Willie

    Willie

    Each day the world turns Laugh 'til it all burns Member
    This has got to be the worst thing I have ever seen happen to Sonic fangaming and Sonic Retro. You know, I recently pirated Multimedia Fusion 2 and got false positives, but my anti-virus program gave me the option to get rid of it instead of just automatically deleting it. With this game however, as soon as my anti-virus program scanned it, they automatically removed the dangerous parts of the fangame. I now have to warn a lot of people about this bullshit on some forums I go to and Facebook. I have never linked anyone anything malicious in the past and it makes me so fucking mad one of the most hyped Sonic fangames ever has caused me put harm toward other people's computers. I generally try to be nice on this site but fuck you LOst. You've destroyed the reputation of this project and damaged Sonic Retro's image in ways I didn't even think was possible. How about you make a response explaining your actions instead cowardly not saying anything? :| You cocksucker.
     
  15. Cooljerk

    Cooljerk

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    Citation provided:

    link: http://www.sonicretro.org/2012/03/guest-editorial-in-which-I-rain-on-the-sonic-2-hd-parade/
    Reddit topic: http://www.reddit.com/r/SonicTheHedgehog/comments/rguw9/sonic_2_hd_alpha_is_here_upgrade_those_nostalgia/c45qomb

    EDIT: Nobody is saying he HAS removed the ability to remove screenshots - the fact that screenshots are floating across the web enmasse disproves that easily. Rather, people are positing that perhaps the keylogger is related to the very real ability to disable screenshots that he once proposed. Because, for me at least, I'd much rather believe that the keylogger is the remnants of a misguided "feature" rather than an attempt at malice. Because I still like this place the people in it, and I've known lost for years and it's still hard for me to believe he;s purposely fucked up this badly.
     
  16. Lanzer

    Lanzer

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    Do me a favor guys, Spread the word on the whole Issue with LOst and post the editorial along with it on whatever gaming press site you go to and you see the article pertaining to this. Luke's word warping is going to be one of many idiot journalists who are going to make it look like Retro are the evil development team who are putting keyloggers in fangames and trying to steal data when we all know thats not the case.

    We gotta save face on what little respect we do get from the outside, I'd really hate to see SAGE tainted by something like this.
     
  17. steveswede

    steveswede

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    I can't believe I had to go into my regedit to delete a keylogger from this game. Way to go LOst that dick of a move you have done was not only a massive up yours to this community but a bigger one to your own team members. If you were that bothered about anyone hacking and taking pictures (which is just insane) of your work then you should have kept your engine to yourself.
     
  18. Guess Who

    Guess Who

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    I feel like it's extremely important to note that we have no evidence of malicious intent. As far as we can tell, the game does not store your keystrokes either locally or remotely. The only thing we can say for certain is that while S2HD is running, it listens to keystrokes no matter what app has focus, so if you alt-tab to your browser, S2HD can still read your keystrokes. Right now the only confirmed security problem this presents is that Sonic might jump if you hit spacebar while typing a forum post. Retro's advice to delete the software is more of a cautionary, "better safe than sorry" warning until we know more about what's going on.
     
  19. dsrb

    dsrb

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    I was referring to the assertion that it was included specifically to prevent screenshots, not its mere existence, which I don't doubt at all; but you got that in your edit.

    Listening to keystrokes at all times also seems silly. Kinda seems like being a control-freak (pun unavoidable).
     
  20. Josh

    Josh

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    Yeah, what he said. This doesn't look like a keylogger at all to me, given the information provided. It doesn't LOG anything, right? At best, L0st had some sloppy code. At worst, he was trying to disable screenshots and videos. But I don't think he meant anything more malicious than that, given that the program doesn't store anything it reads and doesn't communicate anything back.

    I haven't uninstalled it. Reporting it like this without clearly defining what it does, calling it a keylogger when it evidently is not, and throwing unwarranted hysteria around is going to hurt Retro's reputation more than L0st being an asshat with his code ever could.

    That said, I understand why such swift precautions had to be taken. Even the possibility that it was a keylogger was cause for concern. I just wish we'd taken a few hours to discuss it as a community and taken more time to figure out what it was before letting it get out to mainstream gaming blogs.
     
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