Blizzard is scanning the memory for Bot software names

[_Mike]

Well Mike, I understand what you are saying but sometime it make me wonder if the EULA can be used against the user/player. Someone like me that know nothing about Blizzard's EULA reading that Warden may scan my Memory for 3rd-party is enough to make me worry.

My guess is that is the exact reason why they haven't updated the EULA. Scare tactics. If they can get people worried enough to not bot/cheat then that section has served it's purpose
Note that I'm not saying that you can do anything you want without them detecting it. I'm just saying the scans aren't as intrusive as they make it sound.

[nerfmeplease]

Blizzard did get in trouble for their "intrusive" scanning of memory, but it is back in the wow-glider days when that got busted down. If any of you remember back then, you had the ability to randomize your program window name or set it to something like "Notepad", because it was actively scanning program window names for known illicit programs (not porn, like someone else said, that was simply a side effect of scanning open windows names). Im sure they leave it in there for legal reasons if anyone feels like they need to sue or think blizzard is watching something their not supposed to. So they leave the EULA more broad to cover themselves.

believe it or not, theres people that will do just about anything for money...

[Markn12]

Well Mike, I understand what you are saying but sometime it make me wonder if the EULA can be used against the user/player. Someone like me that know nothing about Blizzard's EULA reading that Warden may scan my Memory for 3rd-party is enough to make me worry. Put it this way,

1. EULA screen is enforced once you newly login to your account.
2. EULA says it may scan my PC's RAM for illegal 3rd-party programs. (Sorta like accept it or don't play if TLDR)
3. And then come Markn12 calling OP retard and whatnot saying it is illegal but blizzard just lazy to change it.
4. And yours saying it will scan partially and not all the files (which i find it acceptable as an answer)
5. So if the EULA is not updated, they are still violating the privacy by not listing it may scan partially and not all
6. They can not know that we are running 3rd-party softwares via warden if it's totally illegal.
7. This is an endless discussion unless someone is sueing them.

Reason i posted is actually to annoy Markn12 cause "How do we know that he/she not a retard calling others retard." I know i troll a little but at the same time i am quite intrigue by the EULA. Gonna google more later.

Oh and the Antivirus thing was a joke and also my point. They automatically have your consent once you press "Agree" and because it is antivirus you will automatically know that it will do that and at the same time Blizzard could use the similar trick to trick the players into thinking it is just an EULA and it's TOO DANG LONG to read i'll just press agree to skip those annoying text attitude to take your account away so you will either stop or make another purchase. They don't care if you stop cause they already have your money.

Because this same idiot posted this thread on DB forums and was given why it doesn't apply anymore and he insist it still does and they're still doing it.

[meta23]

Firstly, I'm not exactly sure if what Blizzard was doing was illegal or not. I would imagine there would be plenty of lawsuits filed against them if it were but I can't find a single case against them, except random blog posts stating that they have been sued for it.

The game is new which explains the lack of lawsuits. And then there is evidence that Blizzard is using warden to look for suspicious programs. Because AutoIT and DemonBuddy users are target in the hundreds or thousands now. Both software were known to be undetectable. Also it could be that warden is only scanning for bot names when they manually check a suspicious account. As long nobody is providing evidence to the contrary it is a legit assumption. And it is not enough to point to the 2005 or 2007 WoW client and Warden. A lot could have changed (for the better or worse).

So how exactly is Blizzard finding "undetectable" bot users? They do not look for gold collected, since many banned had only days old accounts.


On the bottom line
Blizzard should be forced to clarify their EULA about monitoring and should be forced to provide an explanation for account closures. And accounts which are banned should get a full refund.

[_Mike]

The game is new which explains the lack of lawsuits.

Yeah, wow has only been around since 2004 so it's definitely a new game..

And then there is evidence that Blizzard is using warden to look for suspicious programs.

What evidence? I'm starting to think that you are unable to read, or just don't understand plain English. I've given you explicit instructions on how you yourself can check if warden is scanning external applications. Have you even attempted this?

[meta23]

What evidence?

Again, Blizzard is stating explicit (In their EULA) that they use their software to scan for suspicious programs. So it is a reasonable assumption that they actually doing this.

I've given you explicit instructions on how you yourself can check if warden is scanning external applications

I'm sorry but a program from 2007? which is monitoring a client form a different game is not enough. Also they might only scan (as i wrote above) when they have flagged an account for suspicious activity.

This suspicious activity in the last days has been at least in parts from new account creation from known IP's.

[KuRIoS]

Again, Blizzard is stating explicit (In their EULA) that they use their software to scan for suspicious programs. So it is a reasonable assumption that they actually doing this.


I'm sorry but a program from 2007? which is monitoring a client form a different game is not enough. Also they might only scan (as i wrote above) when they have flagged an account for suspicious activity.

This suspicious activity in the last days has been at least in parts from new account creation from known IP's.

Meta please you are being dumb.... Blizzard faced a shitstorm in the media and elsewhere due to what warden was doing years ago in WoW.
Do you really think that they would risk a major lawsuit from all the gamers in Diablo 3 for privacy breaches .. Specially in those countries, like Denmark, where a EULA counts for nothing...

EULA on OC - We have the right to give away your email to Blizzard and we have the right to install iframe keyloggers and take over your computer and send all your money to us. (this is hidden in the agreement when you sign up(No of course it is not)) does this mean we are allowed to do it if you accepted it?

Regardless, IF they scanned outside of D3 memory, every botter should just come together in a class action lawsuit for breach of privacy..

How do they catch botters? Always online players doing the same quest over and over and over and over without rests.. lands exactly the same place every time (agb) and only breaks are to transfer gold.
When one account is banned they can use the IP to check for repeated patterns from that IP.. see that doesnt even call for a breach of privacy

[meta23]

Do you really think that they would risk a major lawsuit from all the gamers in Diablo 3 for privacy breaches

Yes, because the company is up for sale, because of their EULA and because of the entire approach of how they ban.

As long there is no theory how Blizzard manages to ban AutoIT and DemonBuddy users, we have to assume that they use shady practice - scan for these programs. And i see no reason why we can not speculate about it. There is no fact i know of, which would rule out illegal practice. Actually the entire practice of banning without providing evidence is shady.

The motive is that to much bots bring inflation, hence less money for Blizzard. And Blizzard needs money now to pay Vivendi or make shareholder happy. They have nothing to lose i would say.

[KuRIoS]

Yes, because the company is up for sale, because of their EULA and because of the entire approach of how they ban.

As long there is no theory how Blizzard manages to ban AutoIT and DemonBuddy users, we have to assume that they use shady practice - scan for these programs. And i see no reason why we can not speculate about it. There is no fact i know of, which would rule out illegal practice. Actually the entire practice of banning without providing evidence is shady.

The motive is that to much bots bring inflation, hence less money for Blizzard. And Blizzard needs money now to pay Vivendi or make shareholder happy. They have nothing to lose i would say.

PLease take a picture with your webcam so we can see your tinfoil hat.. it must be huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

[meta23]

PLease take a picture with your webcam so we can see your tinfoil hat.. it must be huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

Ha ha

Why not provide a solid evidence why they would not break privacy? They did this before... and just the believe they wouldn't do it, is just naive.

[KuRIoS]

Ha ha

Why not provide a solid evidence why they would not break privacy? They did this before... and just the believe they wouldn't do it, is just naive.

On Warden

Why not provide evidence that they are? Fact is that no company, in their right mind, would make the same mistake on purpose and risk losing a lot of money.
I think they are spying on me and going through my trash.. I also think they have a camera in my smoke detector to see if I am botting. If you dont believe me, provide solid evidence why they would not do such a thing.. They COULD have done this before and believing they wont is just being naive... Do you see the similarities?

[meta23]

I reading this blog. But on a second thought: Has anybody here a conclusive answer how the manage to detect AutoIT user? As i understand these kind of bots are not detectable to the nature of simulating just human inputs, without scanning for these software artifacts?

For a matter of fact i know that they do not scan every account for a bot program, but they might do it manually once an account got flagged, for whatever reason.

[KuRIoS]

I reading this blog. But on a second thought: Has anybody here a conclusive answer how the manage to detect AutoIT user? As i understand these kind of bots are not detectable to the nature of simulating just human inputs, without scanning for these software artifacts?

For a matter of fact i know that they do not scan every account for a bot program, but they might do it manually once an account got flagged, for whatever reason.

Doing the same short interval cycle exactly the same way for 15 hours in a row is easy to detect if they want..
Anyways I am done talking about it... I think your points are immensely stupid, but you probably think the same of mine.. However I think you should go and debate if the US government was really behind 9/11, if the moonlanding really occured and if 2pac is really dead... There are loads of people who think like you

[meta23]

I think your points are immensely stupid, but you probably think the same of mine.

No, i don't. Only ad hominem attacks because of my honest discussion on the EULA, are kind of stupid. I do not pretend that i'm 100% correct or that anybody here is wrong. Just present an honest opinion, argument or maybe even a fact and this is good feedback for me. I understand that my headline is a bit sensational though. Rather should read "Is Blizzard scanning the memory for bot software?" or "How can Blizzard ban "undetectable bot users" without memory scan?.

[cdmichaelb]

Yes, because the company is up for sale, because of their EULA and because of the entire approach of how they ban.

As long there is no theory how Blizzard manages to ban AutoIT and DemonBuddy users, we have to assume that they use shady practice - scan for these programs. And i see no reason why we can not speculate about it. There is no fact i know of, which would rule out illegal practice. Actually the entire practice of banning without providing evidence is shady.

The motive is that to much bots bring inflation, hence less money for Blizzard. And Blizzard needs money now to pay Vivendi or make shareholder happy. They have nothing to lose i would say.

[...]How do they catch botters? Always online players doing the same quest over and over and over and over without rests.. lands exactly the same place every time (agb) and only breaks are to transfer gold.
When one account is banned they can use the IP to check for repeated patterns from that IP.. see that doesnt even call for a breach of privacy

Doing the same short interval cycle exactly the same way for 15 hours in a row is easy to detect if they want..
Anyways I am done talking about it... I think your points are immensely stupid, but you probably think the same of mine.. However I think you should go and debate if the US government was really behind 9/11, if the moonlanding really occured and if 2pac is really dead... There are loads of people who think like you

As KuRIoS states, blizzard is simply using pattern detection. Everybody assumes that blizzard can't afford, or it takes up too much processing power or whatever they say to make themselves feel better, but protip: GPUs are a cheap and powerful calculating machine which is all they need for pattern detection, and if they target specific players they don't have to watch every player.

Things that make it a lot easier for blizzard is everyone farming sarkoth, being a demon hunter, and using AGB (a db plugin). I talked to the creator of AGB and he told me he doesn't use any randomization, he depends on only "natural randomization" caused by latency. I don't know about anyone else but my latency doesn't vary very often. And even with this natural variation the routes are going to be similiar enough to be considered "the same bot" (not to mention the big give aways, bots have a predetermined end condition that is very precise compared to humans). An example I gave was military Jet autopilot landing on carriers (ships): The autopilot was so precise that even on a ship that was moving and rocking on the waves, and the Jet fighting the resistance of the wind it would always land generally in the same exact spot and it was wearing down the runway too quickly, now if autopilot will do something like that with so much variable do you really think a few MS of latency is going to naturally vary a bot enough to make it seem human? The people who developed the Autopilot programmed intentional variation (flaws) into it to make sure it didn't wear down the runway so fast, bot makers should do the same it wont be a perfect defense but it will definitely help. (I could go on, but it makes me angry thinking about my convo with the AGB dev)

"How can Blizzard ban "undetectable bot users" without memory scan?.

Players they will target (as KuRIoS said) are excessive user, previous offenders (maybe, I'm not confident in this one), people making too much with gold/rmah or trading too much gold away.
Other companies have died while keeping themselves cheat proof (much more so than wow ever was with warden)... those developers had to go somewhere eh?



Edit: I should mention I know blizzard isn't scanning for bot names in memory or EVERYbody would be caught. I use DB for 16+ hours a day, I use it on a barb, I don't use AGB, and I don't farm sarkoth. Never been banned, and I'm not even remotely scared that it might happen.