How blizzard will protect their maps

[Strilanc]

This is a post about how I believe blizzard will protect their maps. Everything I describe is do-able, and effective. I don't think there's anything else they could do. It's all speculation, but it's really the only reasonable thing they can do. I will laugh very hard if they have a "please don't open this map" checkbox.

Normally maps include the information necessary to open it in the editor, as well as the information necessary to play it in the game. Obviously these overlap somewhat. The fundamental reason you can't perfectly protect a map is because it must be readable by the game. If I get truly desperate I can simply read the information out of memory when the game opens it.

Protectors generally screw with the MPQ file in non-standard ways, and remove editor-only information. The downside is if you lose the unprotected version, you're screwed.

Here is what I believe Blizzard will do:
When you blizzard-protect a map, all the editor-only information is encrypted with a password. The map script will be encrypted but a non-encrypted version will be converted to byte code or otherwise optimized, readable by the game but useless for development. [The default editor will also voluntarily not open these files at all unless you give the correct password, but that doesn't really count, now does it?].

Notes:
- Object data and terrain will not be protected from anyone using an MPQ editor. It simply can't be done, unless there's a one-way transformation (like compiling) on terrain or object data that leaves it readable to the game.
- Trigger data will be relatively well protected. People may be able to add new triggers into already-compiled byte code, but retrieving and modifying existing triggers would be extremely difficult. Decompilation is next to impossible to automate.
- There will be no distinction between a protected or unprotected map, because only the developer will know the password to decrypt the editor-only files.
- Someone should totally do this for wc3. Just store the encrypted war3map.j as war3map.j2 or something.

Merry Christmas

 

[sqrage]

How bout just doing the same thing as Flash?

Have one filetype for playing the map (Would also be possible to make it highly compressed) and then another file type that is opened by the editor.

 

[Strilanc]

How bout just doing the same thing as Flash?

Have one filetype for playing the map (Would also be possible to make it highly compressed) and then another file type that is opened by the editor.

Yes, but then you lose the ability to retrieve your development version. Of course they could make this an option, but it better be the same file type just with editor info removed [some of us don't protect our maps, thank you very much].

I've heard rumors a password will be involved, which only makes sense in the context of encrypting editor-only files. Blizzard may not want people complaining that they lost their map because of blizzard's protection. The community can provide one-way protection more effectively than Blizzard, anyways, because we will break the MPQ files in clever ways.

 

[rover2341]

Hmm, I am not extreamly knowledge able in this area but...

Isnt it more like. You can read it from memory or what not when the game loads, but cant blizzard make it so its more like....


Take the map, turn it into function X. Input = your map. Output = what gos to war craft when it loads.
Thus. You would only be able to see the output of the game but not the triggers ect.
And to see the triggers ect that would be encrypted some how with a code. or something. (Ya depending how this is done, you could crack the code with a super computer. )

Am i right? or is it more like the output is more then enough information to figure out how i made the map ect ect.

*Edit. K, Nm then.

 

[Strilanc]

I don't really understand anything you said.

It sortof seemed to describe what I said in my post.

 

[monoVertex]

How bout just doing the same thing as Flash?

Have one filetype for playing the map (Would also be possible to make it highly compressed) and then another file type that is opened by the editor.

Those can be decompiled... Even with Flash, you need to protect the SWF with other programs in order to make them useless if decompiled.

 

[sqrage]

Those can be decompiled... Even with Flash, you need to protect the SWF with other programs in order to make them useless if decompiled.

Well everything can be reverse engineered. The cracking community will always be more powerful than the security community.

 

[Fire-Wolf]

Well everything can be reverse engineered. The cracking community will always be more powerful than the security community.

Wow so very very true... everything will always be reversed some way or another, just takes time..

But i think if it made like a thing when you protect the map it doesnt remove anything it just tells the editor not to open it if the password is incorrect. If you save the map then it activates somthing in the map, and if the map editor detects that that is switched, it checks for the password, then asks for it. If the password is incorrect close the map, if it is then open it. But this would be very easy to crack so...

 

[Strilanc]

I wish people would stop making stupid statements like "everything can be reverse engineered". The reality is a lot more subtle than that.

 

[enouwee]

I wish people would stop making stupid statements like "everything can be reverse engineered". The reality is a lot more subtle than that.

I wouldn't qualify these statements as "stupid" as they're true. If some piece of information is available for an application to process, so can you. There is nothing you can do to prevent such abuse.

The only way to make sure other people don't use your works without considerable effort is to compile and strip the stuff. Comments, source code and other data only useful to the design process is left out. One could still try to decompile what's present, but that may not be worth the effort.

 

[Strilanc]

I wouldn't qualify these statements as "stupid" as they're true. If some piece of information is available for an application to process, so can you. There is nothing you can do to prevent such abuse.

The only way to make sure other people don't use your works without considerable effort is to compile and strip the stuff. Comments, source code and other data only useful to the design process is left out. One could still try to decompile what's present, but that may not be worth the effort.

Yes, but people don't just apply it to situations where the information is completely available. I've seen people saying things like "Oh you can digitally sign your maps, but someone will just crack it." as if people who unprotect wc3 maps are somehow more intelligent than the entire cryptographic community, who've been trying to do things like that for decades.

A compiled map is simply much harder to edit, and you need skill to do it. I can write a deprotecter that newbs can use, but I can't write a decompiler that newbs can use. This means that unpopular maps are protected by the simple fact that the chance of someone with skill caring about the map is small. Sure, DotA will still get cracked, but everyone knows where to download legit versions of popular maps from anyways.

 

[BlackDeath09]

Protecting a map is simply finishing it and the damaging the written program to open in any kind of editor. Most of you can fix this with certain programs however, information released states that blizzard will be putting viral software to infect any hackers who attempt to break the system. Dont know if you all remember that stupid garage kid who hacked the blizzard website. yes they through him in jail for 3 years. i highly doubt any1 will try to hack any part of blizzards games information sites or maps, copyrighted by blizzard. why the new security system is unbeatable and is being cooperated by multiple world wide goverments to arrest detain and find hackers. I know for 100% fact blizzard has taken xtra effort in security with their new games, Take the new WoW that is coming out. If you say shit on it you will be banned for a week. Literally not just saying any shit if you actually say the word shit they will read in 150 ms and ban you immediately, they have become extremely strict with protection now.

 

[Lightstalker]

Protecting a map is simply finishing it and the damaging the written program to open in any kind of editor. Most of you can fix this with certain programs however, information released states that blizzard will be putting viral software to infect any hackers who attempt to break the system. Dont know if you all remember that stupid garage kid who hacked the blizzard website. yes they through him in jail for 3 years. i highly doubt any1 will try to hack any part of blizzards games information sites or maps, copyrighted by blizzard. why the new security system is unbeatable and is being cooperated by multiple world wide goverments to arrest detain and find hackers. I know for 100% fact blizzard has taken xtra effort in security with their new games, Take the new WoW that is coming out. If you say shit on it you will be banned for a week. Literally not just saying any shit if you actually say the word shit they will read in 150 ms and ban you immediately, they have become extremely strict with protection now.

What a bunch of nonsense. Blizzard can't put viruses in their software or they'd get sued big time. Also, you can say all the bad words you want on WoW. There is a word filter for a reason.

 

[SerraAvenger]

I think it would be interesting to add some random noise to the maps header, and encrypting some usefull data there - like who owns the scumeditor of this map etc.

The game engine could then know by the hashsum of the map where to look for the data, and show it at startup of the map ( quite much like the usual loading screen ).

If the map is messed with via a legal editor ( I mean one that uses the Scumeditor ), the editor will be different from the original one; If it is cracked with an illegal editor ( what know I, an MPQ cracker or a hex editor ) the Hashsum will change, hence pointing the engine to illegal regions of the noise, thus showing a messed up editor at startup.

Got what I meant?

 

[Strilanc]

Anything the normal editor does can be replicated by other editors. Making the file format hard to understand just means I pull out a decompiler and see what the editor is doing when saving the files. Then I can save any map I want.

Plus, why would you want to make it hard to save maps? Third party editors (like NewGen, scmdraft, etc) make huge contributions to the mapping community.

 

[black.sheep]

I think the best thing that could come out of this is removal of cheatpacks.

 

[Strilanc]

Inserting cheatpacks will probably still be relatively easy, compared to modifying existing features of the map.

You need digital signatures for that type of problem, and they have to be managed very intelligently to be of any use.