Has SL ever been attacked?
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Cindy Claveau
Gignowanasanafonicon
Join date: 16 May 2005
Posts: 2,008
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05-25-2005 07:42
I was talking about SL to a friend of mine (he actually signed up and logged in for his first SL experience last night -- a chaotic, lagfest Rave party.... LOL) and he's been fascinated with this world. He's asking questions I can't answer though, but which I think are good ones.
The one that made me go "Hmm" was this: A mutual friend of ours had bought a hat which included a script to launch pyrotechnics on command. Unfortunately, whenever he wore it, his client crashed. Once he removed the hat, he was fine. Lesson learned: not all scripts are well-written.
So my friend asked me whether any script kiddies had ever scripted viruses that attack other people's clients, or whether that's even something that could be done. I mused that, since SL was in beta and has been "live" for about a year or more, surely this had been anticipated and dealt with. Or it just wasn't possible.
I know all kinds of meanness can be done with scripts, and I'm aware that it can get players banned. My question has more to do with the potential threat, possible counter-actions and what a non-scripting user such as myself could do to protect myself... if it's a problem at all.
Input please? Thanks!
Cindy
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Loki Pico
Registered User
Join date: 20 Jun 2003
Posts: 1,938
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05-25-2005 07:45
Have you read Snow Crash?  But seriously, it has not been an issue really. What happens in SL stays in SL, more or less. There could be something come up I guess, but Im sure it would be dealt with in a timely manner. |
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Merwan Marker
Booring...
Join date: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 4,706
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05-25-2005 07:45
I'm more concerned with what we do to one another in our interpersonal actions then technically. 
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Cindy Claveau
Gignowanasanafonicon
Join date: 16 May 2005
Posts: 2,008
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05-25-2005 07:49
From: Loki Pico Have you read Snow Crash? But seriously, it has not been an issue really. What happens in SL stays in SL, more or less. There could be something come up I guess, but Im sure it would be dealt with in a timely manner. What's Snow Crash? Where do I find it? Merwan, good point. Obviously, emotional injury is much harder to overcome than getting script-pushed or insulted by people we don't know. And one could probably inflict more grief here on the forums than with scripts, if we could put a numerical value to hurt. Cindy |
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Jillian Callahan
Rotary-winged Neko Girl
Join date: 24 Jun 2004
Posts: 3,766
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05-25-2005 10:08
From: Cindy Claveau What's Snow Crash? Where do I find it? |
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Susie Boffin
Certified Nutcase
Join date: 15 Sep 2004
Posts: 2,151
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05-25-2005 12:48
From: Merwan Marker I'm more concerned with what we do to one another in our interpersonal actions then technically. I agree with Merwan. The tech attacks are little more than a nuisance compared to what some cruel people consider "fun" in Second Life. |
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Torley Linden
Enlightenment!
Join date: 15 Sep 2004
Posts: 16,530
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05-25-2005 13:05
From: Cindy Claveau
The one that made me go "Hmm" was this: A mutual friend of ours had bought a hat which included a script to launch pyrotechnics on command. Unfortunately, whenever he wore it, his client crashed. Once he removed the hat, he was fine. Lesson learned: not all scripts are well-written.
I'm curious if this hat also crashes other people who wear it -- if it's universal for Residents, then it would likely be good cause to file a bug report and get to the bottom of it because LL is always looking out for new ways to crash, especially crash sims because that can put a downer on many people's enjoyments of SL. Some objects are bound to crash viewers if the wearer has an overheated video card, underpowered computer, and numerous other reasons. Good to test it out.
On the whole though, Cindy, SL has been pretty secure. If something was found out, as has been seen from past instances on the Forums, parts of the community would get very vocal about it quickly and LL would hear. Most reports of "hacked clients" have ended up being external things like a non-SL-specific virus, malware, or other malignant computer code happening to affect SecondLife.exe along the way.
So, beautiful thing here is you can relax, and if stuff does happen, since you're on the Forums, you'll prolly be aware of counteractions to any possible threat really quickly. |
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Cindy Claveau
Gignowanasanafonicon
Join date: 16 May 2005
Posts: 2,008
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05-25-2005 13:34
From: Torley Torgeson
I'm curious if this hat also crashes other people who wear it -- if it's universal for Residents, then it would likely be good cause to file a bug report and get to the bottom of it because LL is always looking out for new ways to crash, especially crash sims because that can put a downer on many people's enjoyments of SL. Some objects are bound to crash viewers if the wearer has an overheated video card, underpowered computer, and numerous other reasons. Good to test it out.
I'll pass that along to my friend, Torley. Thanks. From the way the story was told to me, Friend #1 bought a similar hat and it worked fine. The friend in question is using a 3GB machine with high end specs so I don't think it's likely to be the video card or underpowered computer. From: someone On the whole though, Cindy, SL has been pretty secure. If something was found out, as has been seen from past instances on the Forums, parts of the community would get very vocal about it quickly and LL would hear. Most reports of "hacked clients" have ended up being external things like a non-SL-specific virus, malware, or other malignant computer code happening to affect SecondLife.exe along the way. So, beautiful thing here is you can relax, and if stuff does happen, since you're on the Forums, you'll prolly be aware of counteractions to any possible threat really quickly. I've learned so much here already. You guys have lifted the thin veil of naivete from my eyes As a relatively new user, it was easy for me to forget that SL is still going to have the same problems as most other 'games' I've played, with the same saints, sinners, twits, geniuses, fools and abusers. My first week in SL has been so much fun I'd almost forgot they were out there. Cindy |
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Snowcrash Hoffman
Digital mind virus
Join date: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 282
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05-25-2005 14:05
From: Loki Pico Have you read Snow Crash? . hmm what do you mean? |
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Lordfly Digeridoo
Prim Orchestrator
Join date: 21 Jul 2003
Posts: 3,628
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05-25-2005 16:20
From: Cindy Claveau
So my friend asked me whether any script kiddies had ever scripted viruses that attack other people's clients, or whether that's even something that could be done. I mused that, since SL was in beta and has been "live" for about a year or more, surely this had been anticipated and dealt with. Or it just wasn't possible.
Attacks on and in SL have a rather varied and colorful history. In the days of Beta, a group called the WWIIOLers (from a MMORPG focusing on world war 2) moved into the sim Jessie, and basically staked their claim via violence; their neighbors fought back, apparently quite viciously; auto turrets, nuclear weapons, and so on. The lindens tried putting up a wall to separate the warring factions, but instead the two sides tore down the wall and sprayed political graffiti over it. A few months after I started in July of 2003, there was an in-world wedding between two of some more rather well-known members of the community; the wedding was scheduled to take place in the Sim known as Plum (or maybe it was Lime...) In any case, about a half hour before the wedding was set to start, someone put a nuke script in the middle of the Sim... it shot particles everywhere and literally crashed the sim. Due to a glitch in the save state, the Sim kept coming back online with the nuke, which would make it crash over and over... thus making the wedding a moot point. The wedding was later moved to an aircraft carrier and happened without a hitch. In October of 2004 I created -- after a few warning forum posts that no one read -- a self-replicating zombie that was supposed to nudge people and hunt folks in packs. Mostly harmless, and they were killable with most bullet-shooting guns... but instead of people banding together to kill the "zombies (in reality, slow moving green cubes), they let them multiply all over the place, and everyone freaked out and demanded my head on a stick. I received the last Zombie return a few weeks ago. Someone has made a "virus" in SL with a popular av attachment; upon wearing it, you unknowingly spam everyone around you with a rather disgusting picture. SL's version of Goatse, I guess. And then sometime during 2004 (I forget when), SL was the victim of a DDoS attack for a few days. So, it comes in all stripes. LF
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Schwanson Schlegel
SL's Tokin' Villain
Join date: 15 Nov 2003
Posts: 2,721
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05-25-2005 16:32
From: Lordfly Digeridoo and everyone freaked out and demanded my head on a stick. I'm still waiting for my LF head stick.... |
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Jillian Callahan
Rotary-winged Neko Girl
Join date: 24 Jun 2004
Posts: 3,766
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05-25-2005 16:35
From: Lordfly Digeridoo In October of 2004 I created -- after a few warning forum posts that no one read -- a self-replicating zombie that was supposed to nudge people and hunt folks in packs. Mostly harmless, and they were killable with most bullet-shooting guns... but instead of people banding together to kill the "zombies (in reality, slow moving green cubes), they let them multiply all over the place, and everyone freaked out and demanded my head on a stick. I received the last Zombie return a few weeks ago. *sniffles* I loved those. They were so cute!  Here's a group trying to give me huggles: |
