Bug in EA's Origin, computers at risk

[Qtis]

If things couldn't get any worse for EA after the Sim City problems, a big has been found in the Origin game platform. The bug itself grants the hacker access to basically all the resources of your computer.

The attack, demonstrated on Friday at the Black Hat security conference in Amsterdam, takes just seconds to execute. In some cases, it requires no interaction by victims, researchers from Malta-based ReVuln (@revuln) told Ars. It works by manipulating the uniform resource identifiers EA's site uses to automatically start games on an end user's machine. By exploiting flaws in the Origin application available for both Macs and PCs, the technique turns EA's popular game store into an attack platform that can covertly install malware on customers' computers.

Source via Ars Technica

ps. Hopefully EA makes changes and fixes this quickly. The damage could be pretty severe and they don't need any more bad publicity.

 

[donaldgx]

:o poor EA, what a bad start for 2013

i won't be bugged to get more ea games

 

[medoli900]

EA is going down >_>

 

[Ericthegreat]

Would be interesting to know how long this exploit has been known and how many systems are affected.

 

[Gahars]

Hacking the service and taking someone's info?

Oh, so that's what they meant by "Origin-al sin."

 

[Qtis]

Would be interesting to know how long this exploit has been known and how many systems are affected.

Considering the same people managed this type of hack with Steam back in October 2012, I'd imagine they knew about it for a while. If I knew of a bug as damaging as this, I'd try it out on all platforms if possible. Just to make the companies get the point and do something about it.

 

[gokujr1000]

Good thing I have only ever had Origin for BF3 and ME3

 

[the_randomizer]

Ah, the joys of using Steam.

 

[KingVamp]

They wanted this on the wii u.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Ah, the joys of using Steam.

It was pointed out that a similar bug was found in Steam a while ago.

 

[the_randomizer]

It was pointed out that a similar bug was found in Steam a while ago.

Never had an issue, oh, and how 'bout that offline option and being able to play games if you don't have a good connection?

I guess you could say that EA is under a lot of hEAt. Hackers make Sim City enabled via offline, remove the DRM (or at least working on cracking it), being butt-hurt of Nintendo's refusal to add Origin. Yep, they're having one exciting year

 

[Chary]

EA can't catch a break.

 

[ShadowSoldier]

Hey OP, in big red letters in the opening post, you should add "THIS HAPPENED TO STEAM BEFORE TOO"

That way we don't get dumb comments like we are now. If anybody says dumb things after, I think we're pardoned by the King and Queen of whateverland to burn that sumbitch at the stake.

 

[Ergo]

EA can't catch a break.

Problem is, you make your breaks, and EA is basically, repeatedly, throwing itself in front of a truck.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Problem is, you make your breaks, and EA is basically, repeatedly, throwing itself in front of a truck.

SimCity has only been their only big flub in a while, at least that I remember. Their games have done well critically and have sold well. I think Dead Space 3 went a bit under expectations but it still topped US charts I'm pretty sure.

Gamers do often confuse "things they endlessly bitch about for no reason" like microtransactions and DLC with "bad business decisions" when microtransactions and DLC are actually good business decisions provided they don't turn away customers or profits. Which they don't since their games still generally sell well.

EDIT: Well Medal of Honor Warfighter was a bit of a flub (as well as its predecessor). I don't think it sold as much as they expected and it was pretty mediocre critically. And often critic scores determine long term profits.

 

[Rizsparky]

See EA, this bad karma is what happens when you don't announce Mirror's Edge 2..

 

[Ergo]

SimCity has only been their only big flub in a while, at least that I remember. Their games have done well critically and have sold well. I think Dead Space 3 went a bit under expectations but it still topped US charts I'm pretty sure.

Gamers do often confuse "things they endlessly bitch about for no reason" like microtransactions and DLC with "bad business decisions" when microtransactions and DLC are actually good business decisions provided they don't turn away customers or profits. Which they don't since their games still generally sell well.

EDIT: Well Medal of Honor Warfighter was a bit of a flub (as well as its predecessor). I don't think it sold as much as they expected and it was pretty mediocre critically. And often critic scores determine long term profits.

It's hardly limited to the things gamers gripe about--John Riccitiello's tenure has been one of missed opportunities (completely failed to capitalize on Wii or DS despite their massive userbases) and chasing every fad the minute it came along, usually by splashing out vast sums of money after those fads had run their course or been on the downward spiral (Popcap and Playfish, among many others).

They also accelerated the full-on rush into absolutely out-of-control game budgets which has done them no favors, either.

In addition, they failed to really create any new, sustainable, IP in the past console cycle, and are overly-reliant on licensed IP like Madden.

So I reiterate, you make your own breaks, and EA has been doing nothing but getting in their own way for at least the past five-plus years.

EDIT: and Origin is, at best, a "me too!" response to Steam, and a pretty poor one at that. (Purely from a marketshare perspective--we don't even need to get into the gamer gripe side of it.)

 

[GameWinner]

See EA, this bad karma is what happens when you don't announce Mirror's Edge 2..

....Wait... what...?

 

[weavile001]

well , fuck :/

EA is doomed :a
wait, didn't steam have the same problem a while ago?

 

[ShadowSoldier]

It's hardly limited to the things gamers gripe about--John Riccitiello's tenure has been one of missed opportunities (completely failed to capitalize on Wii or DS despite their massive userbases) and chasing every fad the minute it came along, usually by splashing out vast sums of money after those fads had run their course or been on the downward spiral (Popcap and Playfish, among many others).

EA isn't the only one guilty of that. Microsoft is doing it right now with Kinect.

They also accelerated the full-on rush into absolutely out-of-control game budgets which has done them no favors, either.

They were able to afford to. They did it with Battlefield 3 to take away some of the userbase of Call of Duty, and some of it worked. Now on the market it isn't just Call of Duty and Halo, it's Call of Duty, Halo, AND Battlefield.

In addition, they failed to really create any new, sustainable, IP in the past console cycle, and are overly-reliant on licensed IP like Madden.

Yeah they did. You can say that about any company, Sony Santa Monica? Yeah, they only focus on God of War. Naughty Dog? They only focused on Uncharted. Nintendo? Mario. Microsoft? Gears of War and Halo.

Not to mention, they brought out Dead Space and Dragon Age, which people LOOOOVE.