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from the move-along-nothing-to-see-here dept.
Lagg writes:
"We're in a climate where it's easy to accuse a company of spying on you by various means with a distinct possibility that you could be right, but sometimes a reality check is needed. A Reddit user recently posted a thread accusing Valve of writing code for VAC that iterates your DNS cache and sends the hashed entries to their server. The proof provided of this was a prettied disassembly (that was not easily reproducible due to how VAC loads symbols) that showed only that VAC was indeed iterating the DNS cache, which any knowledgeable programmer understands is not exactly an uncommon thing to do, as no socket code was to be seen. Today, Gabe Newell responded to these allegations by confirming that no they do not in fact snoop your cache entries.
There are probably a few things to learn from this, including not trusting a screenshot of code that looks complex without actually understanding what it's doing. A lack of any level-headed investigation is a bad idea and it's important to handle these situations before they snowball into a mob (as Redditors are bound to do)."
(Score: 5, Informative) by SpallsHurgenson on Tuesday February 18 2014, @01:25AM
According to TFA, Valve does do some snooping. The Steam client / Valve Anti-Cheat system checks the DNS cache for certain DNS hits (for instance, the ones used by cheat-programmers to authenticate the licenses used in certain cheat programs). If VAC finds a match, it hashes the result and sends it to Valve, where the user is flagged for review. So they are peeking. However, Valve says they are not uploading the contents of the DNS cache in its entirety, so if you go to dev.soylentnews.org or slashdot.org, they will never know because they aren't checking for the DNS entries on either of those sites.
Of course, this all assumes Valve is telling the truth, or that their software is working as intended. Given the current climate and unabashed greediness of corporations and governments for our personal data, you will have to forgive me if I take any and all such assurances with a large grain of salt.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Lagg on Tuesday February 18 2014, @02:10AM
http://lagg.me [lagg.me]
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(Score: 1) by GeminiDomino on Tuesday February 18 2014, @10:50AM
Well, it's pretty clear from TFS which way your biases lie.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
(Score: 1) by Lagg on Tuesday February 18 2014, @11:04AM
http://lagg.me [lagg.me]
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by GeminiDomino on Tuesday February 18 2014, @11:18AM
Perhaps the "fact" is that anti-cheating systems need to "snoop" as part of their primary function, but no, the contents of the DNS cache -- data unrelated to the game being executed -- are being read, without disclosure (until now), and reported back. But no, you can repeat it as much as you like but you're the one redefining "snooping" in an attempt to put a positive spin on your particular brand-tribe.
And I never said anything about "the editors", but even one of them acknowledged the slant after called out [dev.soylentnews.org] by someone else.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
(Score: 2, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday February 18 2014, @08:05AM
But surely DNS is a red herring. If they're sniffing for dodgy DNS records, implying a connection to a dodgy site, then why don't the dodgy hackers just use an IP address, and disappear under that radar?
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