Is There Any Reason to Panic Over Team Fortress 2 and CS: GO Source Code Leakage
Due to the recent Fortress 2 and CS: GO source code leakage, at least two community servers have already disappeared because of remote code execution bugs. Valve has decided to address the leak with a series of tweets to calm down players.
Valve's Actions
Valve has checked out the code in question by paying attention to the leaked codes. Eventually, the company has not detected any reason for players to be worried or stressed about the current builds. Still, they continue investigating the situation and updating news outlets. If anyone has more data about the leak, the Valve security homepage described the most appropriate way to report the information.
The source of the leak has not been identified. According to SteamDB, the code was developed in the period of 2017-18. It sued to be made available to Source engine licensees. Valve News Network's Tyler McVicker stated in a Twitch stream that the code initially came from a "member of the Source engine development community" in 2018.
Luckily, the leak has not affected the online community. If it had affected critical mass, it wouldn't really hurt a particular individual. Also, it would affect the Source engine development community as a whole in a negative way. If source code leaks, Valve minimizes the ability to have that source code for the further development.
Further Discussions
The person who leaked the data to 4-chan didn't even get the code from anyone connected to Valve. Most likely, this data was taken from a completely different person. The Valve's management decided not to look back, because they recorded everything. The only thing that was determined is that a few modders had tried to keep the word of the leak to the third parties on the modding scene. It was a considerably successful attempt, until a falling-out with the actual leaker resulted in current events.
McVicker stated that that leak wasn't really "new" at all so that the risk to players isn't the worst possible option. This stuff has already leaked two years ago. Thus, everybody that was involved in the community or everybody that knew the engine properly was aware of the code out there. So, the professional actors most likely had already access to this code.
Current Situation
Currently, there is still some level of uncertainty in regard to the source of the leak. The more immediate problem is the detected discovery of remote code execution bugs in the source code. In case of such vulnerability existed, unscrupulous programmers would be able to compromise the security of TF2 and CS: GO players. At the same time, the remote code execution reflects on the actual situation: the ability to make someone else's PC execute code or commands on a distance.
Most reports were addressing Team Fortress and CS: GO community servers Creators and their actual role in the code leakage. As a result, TF and Red Sun Over Paradise had to take their servers offline for an unknown period of time. It was important for remote code execution exploit to process malicious code on the players. According to the official notification on the official Red Sun Discord, it is highly recommended to play the game on online servers until Valve offers an alternative solution.
The source code leakage of Fortress 2 and CS: GO is the first time that an RCE bug has been detected in Source Engine games. Thanks to buffer overflow vulnerability, TF2, CS:GO, Portal 2, and other video games were available for exploits that could be launched simply by hitting an enemy. Thus, the bug was detected by a security research company, which informed Valve. Then, this information went public as soon as the bug was fixed. The actual leak could address new RCEs before Valve could correct the related problems.
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Final Words
Valve keeps facing some security issues from time to time. In 2019, a proprietor of a CS: GO gaming server delivered promotion services to develop a large botnet. The main point here is to avoid an abundance of fake game servers for the popular online multiplayer games. For instance, Valve researchers dropped two zero-day vulnerabilities that influence the Steam game customer for Windows.
Thus, the owners and developers of Valve will continue to monitor the situation in order to provide players with all the relevant updates. In case, they find anything to prove otherwise, this information will be revealed to the public. At the same time, if there is some more information about the leak, it needs to be reported to the company's administration.
