Hacks on Cncnet

[ArabChuckNorris1]

Just played a game on Yellow Snow Garden, 2v2v2v2. I always host, and somehow someone sold all my teammate's base and was able to launch like 15 nukes and chrono everything everywhere. At the end, random civilian infantry units started getting produced out of my base without even my doing and the game afterwards had a recon error. 

I don't care much about it, but I hope that it's just a one off thing and won't start repeating over and over again. 

Players I played with were: xander, Alee, Happy_, ACER, Volte. I also played with Lebanese, but he is my duo, we live together. 

 

[PrezSpammer]

Unfortunately, it's becoming more and more common as more and more players with nefarious intentions keep getting their hands on these cheats. Just last night, a guy who went by the nick "TGH" was on the same team as me in one of my games. He built a hacked unit, the frozen chrono miner, which moves the exact same way as chrono infantry, in order to quickly take crates. He then started making civilian infantry come out of my barracks. Unsurprisingly, that game too also ended in a recon error.

[Grant]

Hi guys, we've got our team looking into fixing this. It is tricky and time consuming. 

In the meantime you can help us by sharing video/screenshot evidence so we can ban accounts that are cheating.

Also if you're not on our Discord, it would help us if you could post evidence there and we'll be able to action quicker. https://cncnet.org/discord
 

[Ra2Nub]

I have OBS and could record it, but so far I still have yet to face this mysterious hack...

[Ra2Nub]

I finally got victim of this now too, and tried ASAP to record it with OBS. Unfortunately there's no sound because i was in a hurry, but basically you hear the sell sound and "structure sold" in same way you would hear as you sell it yourself. You can see clearly in this recording I am not anywhere near the sell button.

Video: 

First my weather controller, base, and chrono was sold. This is when I immediately did hurry and opened my recording stuff in hope he would do it again. He did, including to other people. We are not sure who exactly did it, but I personally suspect red because he ended up very suspiciously destroy the remainder buildings (oils) so he could cheaply win after all the selling. Other suspect it was purple.

My instant assumption how this is done is the person's client is edited where every building's sell icon is "valid" (basically, the "owned" check removed), and maybe the game server does not verify whatsoever if this is true or not, thus accepts it and sells your building. Its clear in this video the selling is done like a human.

Edited April 22, 2023 by Ra2Nub

[PrezSpammer]

It also looked as if whoever was green fell victim to the force quit hack. He's got rather sizeable manpower and infrastructure and yet doesn't give an explanation as to why he just spontaneously quit? I sure hope they come out with an update soon to make these vicious cheats irrelevant.

[Sam-I-am]

 

On 4/22/2023 at 9:03 PM, Ra2Nub said:

I personally suspect red because he ended up very suspiciously destroy the remainder buildings (oils) so he could cheaply win after all the selling. Other suspect it was purple.

I'm sure it was Purple. If you watch your clip again, it's quite obvious.

Whenever someone attacked him, he immediately used his cheats against the attacker.

Green attacked him, destroyed his MCV and the moment he was about to destroy the other MCV, his whole base was gone. He was out, and clearly was forced out.

Like @PrezSpammer said; He was arguably the strongest. There was no reason for him to quit like that.
I mean, at least he would've used his ready nuke, but Purple used the quit cheat on him before he could use it. The sell cheat wasn't enough. It was more urgent.

Then you attack him, he sells your stuff. Teal storms him, he sells his stuff too.

Red was playing normally. He had almost nothing, but was still fighting to win, and he just took advantage of the situation.
A coward cheater doesn't attack so bravely like Red did, and doesn't search for every crate to promote the few tanks that he had.

He seemed like a genuine player, a real fighter, and he was lucky, because you and Teal were much stronger than him (obviously).

BTW, Purple being the only one with two techs (especially Yuri) only adds to the suspicion. 😁

Cheaters like that deserve an absolute permanent ban, without parole. 😄

Edited April 26, 2023 by Sam-I-am

[Ra2Nub]

24 minutes ago, Sam-I-am said:

 

I'm sure it was Purple. If you watch your clip again, it's quite obvious.

Whenever someone attacked him, he immediately used his cheats against the attacker.

Green attacked him, destroyed his MCV and the moment he was about to destroy the other MCV, his whole base was gone. He was out, and clearly was forced out.

Like @PrezSpammer said; He was arguably the strongest. There was no reason for him to quit like that.
I mean, at least he would've used his ready nuke, but Purple used the quit cheat on him before he could use it. The sell cheat wasn't enough. It was more urgent.

Then you attack him, he sells your stuff. Teal storms him, he sells his stuff too.

Red was playing normally. He had almost nothing, but was still fighting to win, and he just took advantage of the situation.
A coward cheater doesn't attack so bravely like Red did, and doesn't search for every crate to promote the few tanks that he had.

He seemed like a genuine player, a real fighter, and he was lucky, because you and Teal were much stronger than him (obviously).

BTW, Purple being the only one with two factions only adds to the suspicion. 😁

Cheaters like that deserve an absolute permanent ban, without parole. 😄

The thing that made me doubt was when I attacked purple you can see his tesla reactor and MCV was also getting sold. Was it him just quiting or was he also getting his stuff sold? Anyway, the most important part is that I recorded the hack in action I suppose, and hopefully Grant and his team can figure out how to tackle this.

[Sam-I-am]

31 minutes ago, Ra2Nub said:

when I attacked purple you can see his tesla reactor and MCV was also getting sold.

I think he sold his stuff by mistake. 
Maybe he wanted to move the MCV away from the oil rig to save it from the storm, and to repair the reactor, but with the cheat-mode on, it seems that any sellable building you select gets sold, and out of nervousness, he got confused, because he was about to lose (which is a nightmare for a cheater).

Thank you for providing evidence. 

Edited April 26, 2023 by Sam-I-am

[Sam-I-am]

BTW, it may be useful to:
1- Ban players who have a cheating warning.
2- Disable side, color and start selection (by the host, not the client).

Because some cheats depend on those to work.

Edited April 28, 2023 by Sam-I-am

[PrezSpammer]

I'd also like to add how it's blatantly obvious that another cheat being employed was the map reveal--which we often referred to as "map hack" or "mapping" back in the XWIS days. This once notorious cheat which was so infamously rampant back then, appears to have reared its ugly head once again. How else could he force sell buildings that were under yellow and teal's gaps without firsthand being able to clearly see them? Another major concern is whom else has also started map hacking? Now it's a matter of relearning all the traits of map hackers and trying to educate others--at least the ones who both actually know English and are willing to listen, on what to watch out for.

Edited April 28, 2023 by PrezSpammer

[ArabChuckNorris1]

On 4/26/2023 at 2:33 PM, Sam-I-am said:

BTW, it may be useful to:
1- Ban players who have a cheating warning.
2- Disable color and spot/start selection.

Because some cheats depend on those to work.

Good ideas but the game that I had which had this same hack I was host and I had forced random colors selected, so I don't think it's that. 

[Sam-I-am]

10 hours ago, PrezSpammer said:

another cheat being employed was the map reveal--which we often to referred to as "map hack" or "mapping"

Yeah. I noticed that he could see what's under the gaps, but that's not a map hack. It's a general hack, not related to the map itself.

BTW, another important point is that there are many fake versions (copies of the same map with the same title and pic but with modifications for cheating).
Why is that an issue? Because it's hard to tell real from fake. For example, If you favorite the real one, the fake ones would be added to your favorites as well! Because they have the same title.
I mean, even if you're not trying to cheat, you may select the wrong one unknowingly and spread it. 

So, I suggest the removal of duplicates. If there are newer versions of the map with the exact same title, at least they should have a number or something added to their titles as a marking, to help identify and eliminate cheat maps.
If you're not trying to fool others with a cheat map, why would you use the exact same title?

7 hours ago, ArabChuckNorris1 said:

Good ideas but the game that I had which had this same hack I was host and I had forced random colors selected, so I don't think it's that. 

Thanks.
Seems like he's using a more powerful tool.

[Sam-I-am]

On 4/22/2023 at 9:03 PM, Ra2Nub said:

My instant assumption how this is done is the person's client is edited where every building's sell icon is "valid" (basically, the "owned" check removed), and maybe the game server does not verify whatsoever if this is true or not

Or maybe it does verify and warn about different files, but most hosts would let "the suspect" play anyway.
How about: if you have different files, you can't join?

Edited April 28, 2023 by Sam-I-am

[XMaDTanKX aka T-90]

Reading this, I can't really understand why in 2023 there are players cheating in Ra2, sounds like a bad joke.

Actually the people playing nowadays should be peopel who really likes the game and/or been playing for years and not this scum.

[Sam-I-am]

9 minutes ago, XMaDTanKX aka T-90 said:

Reading this, I can't really understand why in 2023 there are players cheating in Ra2, sounds like a bad joke.

Actually the people playing nowadays should be peopel who really likes the game and/or been playing for years and not this scum.

Hahaha. I guess some people enjoy cheating.
..or they love to play and hate to lose and can't win without cheating.
People cheat in all kinds of games (not good people though ).

[Sam-I-am]

My turn...

I'll tell you what happened. You can take my word for it, or you can ignore me.
I have nothing to prove it, but I'm telling you the truth.

We were playing OIL for 8 (FFA), some guy attempted a failed rush on me, so I attacked him back, destroyed his MCV and almost everything else he had, but then he started building stuff without MCV! Blatantly, while I was at his base to see it firsthand.

He made several Sentry guns (Soviet) and Pillbox (Allied) without having either MCV.
I had a Spysat, so I was able to verify that he had no MCV away from his base.

That's not all; although I managed to destroy all his stuff; he remained alive/didn't lose! (Short game was on), until he got bored and decided to leave.
Mid oil was taken by someone else and all spots were occupied by other players.

The best thing is, I know for sure who he is.

These are his nicknames:
poop (the one he used when we were playing).
memo
m16
noorman
z10m
PTX
peter
amer
ppm
emaaa
polzz

If you see any of these nicks, avoid playing with the guy. You don't wanna waste your time with a cheater.

GLHF

Edited April 30, 2023 by Sam-I-am

[XMaDTanKX aka T-90]

Thanks for the info, you don't have to prove it at all, cheaters exist, bad losers too, and tats a fact.

Anyway I believe he can create a new nick at any time 😪

[Sam-I-am]

58 minutes ago, XMaDTanKX aka T-90 said:

Thanks for the info, you don't have to prove it at all, cheaters exist, bad losers too, and tats a fact.

Anyway I believe he can create a new nick at any time 😪

Thanks for reading. ☺️

Yeah, and we can check IDs anytime. 😉
His nicks are logged, so even if he creates new ones, he can be identified.

[olivia32]

Hello there,

Just played a game on Yellow Snow Garden, 2v2v2v2. I always host, and somehow someone sold all my teammate's base and was able to launch like 15 nukes and chrono everything everywhere. At the end, random civilian infantry units started getting produced out of my base without even my doing and the game afterwards had a recon error. 

I don't care much about it, but I hope that it's just a one off thing and won't start repeating over and over again. 

Players I played with were: xander, Alee, Happy_, ACER, Volte. I also played with Lebanese, but he is my duo, we live together. 

Best Regards

Olivia devid

[Sam-I-am]

On 4/30/2023 at 9:50 PM, Sam-I-am said:

I have nothing to prove it

Now I have a proof.

It was all done using a fake map.
The cheater was the host, probably.

Whoever is on spot 2 gets an instant map reveal, extra money, can build Soviet + Allied, and doesn't lose when all buildings are destroyed, even if short game is checked.

See for yourself...

The original map:
[8] The Oil In The Center Of The World x2 (FINAL)

The fake one:
(8) The Oil In The Center Of The World x2 (FINAL)

The cheater edited the title slightly, putting (8) instead of [8] and used a different pic, though he didn't have to.
Usually there's no difference at all in the title/pic between original and fake.

Remember to delete the fake one afterwards.
To do that, open Skirmish mode, look in Standard maps, type the name or part of it (in the search bar below), right-click and delete.

We need to get rid of cheat maps and those who make them.

I suppose the server logs the ID and IP of the original uploader, so if it's confirmed to be a cheat map, it should be deleted from the database, and the uploader should be banned, and if possible, depending on the map's unique hash, it should be blacklisted and automatically deleted if someone else uploads it again, otherwise, if any other player has it and selects it (purposely or by mistake), it would be uploaded to the database again, and further spread to other players, giving an unfair advantage to one over the others.

I mean, when you see that it's hosted on CnCNet official server, you get the impression that it's a valid one, but then you realize that the official database is full of cheat maps.
Can you imagine how damaging that can be to the reputation of CnCNet? It's like CnCNet is facilitating the distribution of cheat maps.

The least that can be done is to make it easier to delete maps (not just in Skirmish), and maybe dedicate a topic in the forum to report cheat maps and warn about cheaters (with proof).

Things to be aware of/Recommendations to avoid falling victim to cheaters:

1- If any player has a cheating warning, don't play with them.
2- If the host selects a specific side/start/color on an unofficial map, that is suspicious. You better leave, because they might be cheating.
Using a cheat map doesn't give a cheating warning.
3- If the host selects a map that you don't have, which is a version of a clean one that you already have, it's likely that it's a cheat map. Especially if you can't tell the difference.
In that case, I'd recommend that you go to the custom maps folder (\Maps\Custom) and delete the one you just got from there (you can sort by date to easily find it).
4- If you suspect someone of cheating, play the map again alone (make sure it's the exact same version), pick exactly what the suspected cheater picked (side, start, color) to know if it's the map that's being used to cheat.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Sam-I-am

[Ra2Nub]

Ah, yes. Cheated maps. They have been around even when I played back in 2017, unfortunately. Back in the day people hosted many times cheated officially maps, which basically followed all your patterns except that in the bottom right corner it would say its an unofficial map (major red flag).

Anyway, I checked the map you thought is fake in final alert and can confirm what you said:

These are placed at the very bottom of the map and have a flag to give them to the player in a specific spot.

Nasty stuff, but a bit older method of cheating.

TIP: In non-oil maps if you suspect a cheated map move your in-game screen to corners of the maps and many times you hear oils making sound and noise. A map without oils? MAJOR red flag. Immediately get out.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Ra2Nub

[Sam-I-am]

13 hours ago, Ra2Nub said:

in the bottom right corner it would say its an unofficial map (major red flag)

All official maps are included with the game/client.
Needless to say; any map that doesn't come with the game/client is unofficial, so the fact that you had to download a map that is a copy of an official one is in itself a warning. You should immediately delete the new one.

13 hours ago, Ra2Nub said:

I checked the map you thought is fake

I didn't think it's fake. I was certain and proved that it is, and anyone who plays it can verify that, simply by choosing spot 2, as I mentioned before.

13 hours ago, Ra2Nub said:

In non-oil maps if you suspect a cheated map move your in-game screen to corners of the maps and many times you hear oils making sound and noise. A map without oils? MAJOR red flag

Most cheaters use other methods to get unlimited money that are much better and less obvious than having hidden oil rigs.

Anyway, how about you check the map you were playing when you got your buildings sold?
I don't think I have the same fake one that you were playing, so I can't do it.

You don't need Final Alert, just select the spot where Purple was, also same color (and side, if you remember) and see if there's anything unusual.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Sam-I-am

[PrezSpammer]

Something else that's changed since the early days is the overall attitude towards cheaters taking a turn for the worse. Back in the day, no matter if it were FFG, clan matches, tournaments or QM, you'd almost always get shamed and in a lot of cases, teammates would take it upon themselves to have the cheater removed from the game. However, nowadays in so many instances where someone was blatantly cheating, other players chose to simply just acquiesce in it. Granted, the language barrier has become so highly prevalent which really doesn't help either. Regardless, players who continue to participate when it's clear their teammate is cheating and use it to their benefit, ought to also have their nicks put out there for us abiding players to be made aware of.

[Sam-I-am]

2 hours ago, PrezSpammer said:

in so many instances where someone was blatantly cheating, other players chose to simply just acquiesce in it. Granted, the language barrier has become so highly prevalent

I don't think the language barrier has anything to do with that; It's a matter of choice.
I mean, even non-English speakers can say: Cheater! Player X (or any color) is cheating, but they don't care. "Whatever. Just a game".

2 hours ago, PrezSpammer said:

players who continue to participate when it's clear their teammate is cheating and use it to their benefit, ought to also have their nicks put out there for us abiding players to be made aware of

Of course that's not good; "Silence is complicity" as they say, right? but only cheaters should be named and shamed, if you ask me.

Anyway, we can't just accuse people without proof; Otherwise, you'd have a ton of false accusations.

You only need a short clip to prove that cheating happened, but to make sure/prove that the cheater's teammates were OK with it, you need to watch the whole game and read every comment; something that won't be interesting to anyone. 
Nobody got time for that and no one cares about it.

Some people just want to play; they don't like to say anything, and maybe they would avoid playing with the cheaters afterwards, but when the game is ruined, it's ruined.
It's not the silence that ruins games; it's the cheating. That's what we need to eliminate.

Edited May 4, 2023 by Sam-I-am