Bug, Exploit or Aliens?

Before mark this as: "welcome to SL..." i wanted to be sure this is not a bug (to issue to jira) and nor a exploit (that's why im posting here... to collect evetually other users similar experiences).

Here's what happened: i was into a SIM, then my map started to open itself, landmarking to the main Help Island, i've tried to close it but it reopened every each second (automatic), i've tipped to home but the problem remained, i've then removed all my clothes, huds etc. (just to be sure it wasn't a script... even if i'm always sure about the scripts i wear), but the problem remained, i've then closed all the webpages on my PC's and checked that no background tasks were running (because the issued appread similar to when you click on a SLURL...), the problem remained there... then well i quit SL.

I've relaunched SL, joining in the same SIM were the problem started, and well it appeared again, i've tipped again at home, but the problem remained.. so i quit again.

I've relaunched again SL, but this time i've spawned at my home.. the problem wasn't there, i remained there for 5 minutes and it didn't come up, so i tipped again in that SIM... and dada! the problem started again. Then i start to think about a problem related to that particular sim, and i've been aware of a possible malicious code/object owned by a residet.. so i did another test... i've quit again.

I've relaunch SL again, spawned at home (no problems), tipped to the sim nearest to the one affected, and there were no probs, then i've crossed the sim border... i've reached the other residents sits there... and du! the problem come up again! Then i had to stay away from that sim for some minutes.. then i returned back and the problem were gone.

Consideration: i dunno why a bug should appear on that particular SIM, but no other residents (as i know) where reporting the same problem... so i assume that a) it's one of that SL strange things that u cannot explain; b) someone were "attacking" me with a "new exploit" (i've just kicked out a couple of guys there because of weapons kidding (it's PG)).

If it's a) ...who cares. If it's b) ..well it is really annoying, but before issue this to JIRA i would like to know if someone else experienced something similar. thanks.

the only thing that I know of that launches the map is
llMapDestination()
and that only works in attachments

so it's possible it's been exploited, but more likely a bug

Vittorio--
This sounds like you were being detected by an object, then repeatedly being given the landmark from it's inventory. When an object gives an inventory item to an Avatar (agent), sim boundaries do not come into play.

However, if it was an object giving you the landmark, while you were logged out of SL during your "testing", you still would have been receiving the landmarks and they would be waiting for you when you logged back in.

And, if you have your preferences set to have IM's received when offline sent to your email account, you should have received email messages indicating you had items given to you and they would be availble the next time you logged in.

This sounds like what you were experiencing rather than a bug. The object could have had a timer set up, so that it only sent you the landmark for certain amount of time, and you happened to be past the cuttoff when you logged into your area instead of the sim in question.

Void makes a good point regarding the Map popping up.

Unless something has changed in how landmarks are presented, when receiving a landmark from an object, I believe you will only see the landmark pop-up appearing, and not the map itself.

Not long ago, a change was make so that when you double-click on a landmark in your inventory, instead of popping up a window for the landmark, you are now teleported right-away.

A similar change would have to have been made to cause the map to launch with being given a landmark, for my reasoning above to be feasible I would think.

I vote aliens, just because they are making me do it.

I have been getting a similar thing for the past week. It involves a "Multi-tool" attachment (Hug/Kiss/Goto). Even though I have purged the item from my inventory, every time I TP off my "Group" sim, I get bombarded with IM's from this thing. I have checked "scripts", LM's -everything in my inventory, and this critter no longer exists in the inventory, but I still get the IM's.

I was also recieving E-mails to the point that I had gotten over 3000 of them in just 3 days. I ended up cancelling all E-mails from SL because of this.

I finally unloaded and re-loaded SL, but that has not worked.

I have no idea how to stop this from happening, and a "Bug Report" only told me to cancel the E-mail.

llMapDestination also works in touch events.

If you were to touch an object, and it was designed to enter a loop, repeatedly calling llMapDestination, perhaps even in an infinite loop...

you would experience exactly what the OP describes. As soon as you enter the region it starts right back up again.

I wonder if, if this is the case, we could figure out a way to find the source object. 'Til then, a support ticket seems like the most logical thing...

Update:



When a script pops up your map, the only info the client receives about the object is its name... That is insane...

If it wasn't a bug ...then llMapDestination would be a explanation, but not as it is supposed to work, since i didn't touched any object when it happened.. so you say it may be an object with a timer (countdown) that may issue the command after a certain period of time, but i believe it won't work, since llMap is supposed to work only inside the touch event (and when you invoke the timer you gonna close the touch routine and open *later* the timer one). So, again, if it's not a bug, then it must be a exploit over the llMapDestination command (it is possible to send via llSensor (example) that would be really scary).

Vittorio, I would appreciate it if you didn't post scripts that abuse features.

llMapDestination open the map of the owner of the object not the person who touched it. So find the ACTIVE object you own in the SIM that is causing this problem and delete it.

actually, i have a sign that ppl can click to open the map with llmapdestination, wouldn`t be suprised if u could do it with an phantom prim and collision detection

Well, llmap causes trouble... but it's one of dozen commands that u may put into a infinite cycle to cause troubles, so it's not the script itself causes the "abuse feature" but the (easy to understand) concept... i think that scriptkiddy may write down a couple of lines to do that without my "help". ..anyway sry for the posting, it will not happen anymore.



That was in the past? Are we sure it didn't changed recently? Coz the documentation doesn't talk about the object ownership but just:

"Opens world map centered on region with pos highlighted.
Only works for scripts attached to avatar, or during touch events."

Anyway i don't have any object of that sort into the SIM, otherwise i wouldn't have posted here. Thx for your help anyway.

That's the first test i've did (collision) ...and (lucky) it won't work. It doesn't even with sensors. If someone exploited it, it must be something to do with the SIM name (first paramenter, eg: adding "%xxx_bkabka_avatar_key_xxxx%SIM_NAME". But it's just a guess... the option "it's just a random bug" still in place.