The latest news about the CS2 IP leak exploit has put players’ security in danger as bad actors were able to obtain their IP addresses pretty easily. Luckily, Valve fixed the issue rapidly, but many IPs were leaked while the team was working on a possible fix.
Valve, the company behind Counter-Strike 2 (CS2), has recently fixed a significant security problem. This issue allowed some players to do tricky things like putting pictures into the game and finding out the IP addresses of other players. Initially, people thought it was a big problem called cross-site scripting (XSS), but it turned out to be a different problem related to how HTML works.
What is the CS2 IP leak exploit incident?
CS2 uses a system called Panorama UI for its look and feel. This system uses different technologies like CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. The problem happened because game developers could make the game accept HTML in certain places without checking it properly. This allowed players to use a kind of trick to show pictures in the game where they shouldn’t.
According to reports from the gaming community, this exploit allowed players to manipulate the game’s visual elements using a simple HTML code linked to an image. The underlying issue, however, posed a serious security threat by potentially exposing the IP addresses of all players connected to the server. While unconfirmed, this security loophole could theoretically grant unauthorized access to a player’s Steam account or even their entire computer.
CS2 hitboxes update is here to solve your problems
“Lots of people talking about the CS2 exploit atm. Stored XSS is potentially possible here but needs exploration. IP grabbing is trivial and confirmed. Not good either way,” said Pirate Software on X, formerly known as Twitter. You can find their thread about the matter below:
Lots of people talking about the CS2 exploit atm.
Stored XSS is potentially possible here but needs exploration. IP grabbing is trivial and confirmed. Not good either way.
Wait for @valvesoftware
to fix this as it came out this morning and will likely be patched soon. pic.twitter.com/I8rJBbWIdy— Pirate Software (@PirateSoftware) December 11, 2023
Exploiting the problem
While some users exploited the flaw for harmless amusement, others utilized it to gather the IP addresses of fellow gamers. By using the <img> tag to execute a remote IP logger script, they could log the IP addresses of all players who viewed the vote kick. This information could be exploited for malicious purposes, such as launching Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks to disconnect players from matches.
Valve’s fast response to the CS2 IP leak exploit
According to Bleeping Computer, Valve acted quickly to solve this problem. They released a small update (7MB) that fixes the issue. Now, when you try to do the trick, the game just shows it as plain text instead of allowing it to do anything harmful. This quick action by Valve aims to keep the game safe for all players.
Why are CS2 queue times so long and how to fix it?
Counter-Strike 2 has faced some problems since it came out, struggling to be as popular as its older version, CS: GO. In October, some players were wrongly banned because of issues with certain computer drivers. Valve fixed these bans later, but it shows that they still need to work on making CS2 better. Valve’s dedication to fixing problems and keeping the game secure is important for the success of CS2.
Featured image credit: Valve
