‘Hackers’ used Friday the 13th exploit to kick streamers out of the game

‘Hackers’ used Friday the 13th exploit to kick streamers out of the game

As if things couldn't get any worse for Friday the 13th's developers, they've also had to deal with a login vulnerability

The last week has not been kind to Friday the 13th: The Game developer IllFonic and publisher Gun Media. Since its launch on May 26th, the game has been experiencing cataclysmic server issues. Now, some malicious script kiddies are kicking them while they’re down.

On June 1st, Gun Media sent an email to livestreamers whose accounts had been logged into by people taking advantage of a vulnerability in the game’s login functionality. Victims of this exploit were being kicked from their games and losing control of their inventories.

The publisher’s email reportedly stated that the game’s “client is being sent a SteamID and then taking that ID and acting like it’s logging in. So, that boots your active game. We only allow one login.”

If that doesn’t sound like a real hack, that’s because it’s wasn’t one. The attackers were simply taking advantage of a what looks to be a poorly executed client login system on the game maker’s part.

Fortunately, it doesn’t appear that any personal information was “compromised,” according to the email, because the perpetrators didn’t have access to the livestreamers’ actual SteamIDs.

“We don’t store this information on our database,” Gun Media wrote in the email. “Our database was not compromised in this attack in any way.”

It seems that the developers have taken care of this exploit and that it shouldn’t be a problem going forward. But the timing couldn’t be worse for a game that’s already losing a lot of goodwill with players and Kickstarter backers.

As far as the game’s server issues go, it looks like patches for the Steam and Xbox One versions are starting to roll out, while PlayStation 4 players are still waiting for their fixes. While a lot of bugs have been addressed, many players will still be experiencing matchmaking issues. To IllFonic’s credit, the developer has been forthcoming about the game’s myriad of issues and is regularly updating the game’s Facebook page with up-to-the-minute news about the current progress of upcoming patches.