Major Exploit?

28 minutes to go until we can get back in.
We hope.
And while we all sit here, could some nice US type person tell the rest of the English-speaking world what an 'exploit' actually is?
A loophole an evil-minded griefer can exploit, viz. take advantage of, is that it?
If so, what sort of potential grief made them pull the whole system at 0.6 second's notice?
Ah, I have it!
Someone discovered that if you stood on one leg in front of an ATM and said 'gimee' three times, they drained all of the Linden Corp's financial reserves.
Or something.
Oh well.
That filled in 6 minutes while we all wait.
Sad, or what?
But, seeing as we're all here, what's an explot?

Yes, thats what I was assuming too. The script thing is obviously very serious but so is the texture exploit. Between the two you pretty well cannot do business in the game and either one makes it nearly impossible for certain businesses to continue.

EDIT: The exploit is probably that of being able to view other's scripts without permissions, which sounds related to the issue with being able to grab 256x256 versions of textures with the right combo of commands from anything, regardless of their permissions. Either of these things are severe enough to result in major theft and economic distruction if allowed to continue for even a very short period, hence the sudden SL dump. If a person knew about both, you could essentially rebuild and rescript the exact same object someone else made if you wanted to, destroying the ability to sell unique objects.

I suppose we need to start posting how to steal the textures using the new LL Texture Theft Tool(tm)?

Huh, no wonder I didn't see anything on the bloody thing and wondered what "attachment exploit" people were talking about.

Let's hope it doesn't come to that. I'm worried it hasn't caught their attention yet. I'm glad you followed it up in Answers.

So tired of waiting now! I hate to be impatient but does anyone know what time (UK) we'll be able to get back on??

They're all taking a nap at the moment. The grid will come back up monday morning when everyone's going to work.

lol - I would have been at the front of the queue.

As I understand it, the exploit meant that everybody on the grid had the ability to delete any objects.

grid status has changed from Offline - to Offline : Lindens only - so it shouldn't be too much longer.

soooooo, they're not fixing the steal textures exploit... typical of LL, maybe we can expect that partivular feature debugged in the next update, when it's upgraded to "just steal the whole item the texture is on" >.>
maybe we should rioting until they start fixing real issues with updates rather than putting in half assed, bugged, pointless features... *passes out petrol bombs and guns to all* Just remember to loot me a plasma screen HD tv

is the texture stealing an OpenGL bug? The one I read about grabs any texture rendered by OpenGL - so it works with any game - not just SL.

It also required a .dll file - so possibly only a Windows exploit.

No idea what this recent exploit is (an exploit is essentially a potential loophole in the code that could be used to do bad things - like steal, delete or edit stuff you don't own)...

Such a shame it has interrupted the amazing SL Relay for Life event, which had been pulling in a lot of AVs yesterday and through the night (UK time) - the builds are simply stunning and and donation candles all around the sims were glowing with generously donated cash - all for a good cause (American Cancer Society)

fingers crossed we should be back up and running soon - in the meantime, why not check out http://bloghud.com - and check out some places to go once the grid's up

umm Karen started sending out notices at least 5 min before they closed if your sim crashed that would be another story

Yea You right its better now then never. Because if serious damage is done we are all screwed. They better Stop napping and fix the grid.. there was a wedding planned for today

No. it's worse than that. It's a problem with one of the new tools, so it puts this ability in the hands of any user who stumbles across it. Unfortunately, it's not the only one, and I'm not sure that it's the one they're investigating now.

I told some builder friends about this "texture theft with the eyedropper" exploit and we all attempted to re-create it last night. Nobody was able to get a texture using this.

The only thing I personally saw the eyedropper tool do was open a texture in my inventory when I clicked on a prim that had that texture on it.

I'm not doubting you and the others who have posted about this. I am just saying, I don't see how someone could easily stumble upon this exploit. Even the hints I've seen about it posted here did not help (256x256 etc).

If someone wants to steal textures all they'd need do is download the GL Intercept program, anyway.. and they would not be limited to 256x256...

Not deleted, just sent back to the owners inventory.

Well, I didn't test it myself, I rezzed a prim for someone who did. I do know though, that people posted pretty soon after, and had also found it, and they report it's easier than you would think. The GL Intercept is one thing, but to be able to achieve something like this with the actual tools is potentially a much greater problem. Scammers and thieves are often opportunists.

I suppose it's possible that I saw no notice, coincidentally got logged off, and then went straight to the forums and the shut-down info was already posted. I suppose the sim I was in might have crashed (coincidentally, of course) at EXACTLY the same time that the post went up. I admit that could have happened.

It's also possible that the shut-down info was posted in the forums, then the sim I was in crashed, and then the in-world notices went out, so I missed them. Could be.

It's equally possible that I'm a human-alien hybrid mole-agent, sent back to earth to help others like me subvert SL and conquer it in the name of my Alien Overlord Masters, or "AOM's".

Then again, maybe Bill Clinton really DID call me after SL went down last night, all weepy and maudlin. I suppose he very well may have proposed marriage. Maybe.

Or perhaps....you're talking about notices being sent out to the people that got to stay on AFTER I was kicked off.....like, today, not last night...the notices that went out before the fix started. Not before log-ins were locked out.

Maybe.

Yeah.

The thing is, we'll never know the truth. It will forever remain a riddle, an enigma, a piece of spoiled pork behind the bookcase of morality. Oh, we wrinkle our collective noses at its pungent stench, certainly; but can we honestly say we don't admire its tenacity? I think not.

In conclusion, The Tunguska Blast was caused, indirectly via reverse-temporal distortion, by last night's SL shut-down.

I will accept any combination of L$ and/or private lap dances as compensation.

Thank you.

Anyone on the grid now know if they fixed the Texture Theft Tool exploit?

Or are they gonna leave it for another day and see just how much damage it can do?

It's not fixed yet.

I'd like to hear word from them as to whether it will be fixed and when.

Zoe my brother just got word from a linden that she has not even heard of a fix for the texture one in the works. We don't know how to repro this one so I can't tell you for certain if its gone or not.

True dat.

I went to the sites of Impeach Bush signs lots of times, using the Roam search list as my travel guide till I found that the inworld Land For Sale list worked even better, filing abuse reports.

Returning them would have been much more satisfying.

I am beginning to get the feeling this was not a bug...but is indeed a new Feature(tm), and that LL has made a choice internally to ignore 100% IP rights issues and just let the thieves run rampant, and force the content creators and IP rights holders to fend for themselves.

I desperately hope I am wrong...but I am beginning to seriously think this is the case now.

If so, LL will find content creators leaving in droves soon.

It is a new feature, at least that it's intent which is a tool to assist in building.

Just for the record, your textures are safe if they're 1024x1024, involve very crisp detail, or have complex alpha transparency.