Warden (software)

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Warden (also known as Warden Client) is an anti-cheating tool integrated in Blizzard Entertainment games such as Diablo II (since patch 1.11), StarCraft (patch 1.15), Warcraft III and most notably World of Warcraft. While the game is running, Warden uses API function calls to collect data on open programs on the user's computer and sends it back to Blizzard servers as hash values to be compared to those of known cheating programs.[1] Privacy advocates consider the program to be spyware.[2]

In November 2005, it was thought that the XCP rootkit secretly included with Sony music CDs in North America for the purposes of copy prevention could be used to disguise cheat programs from Warden.

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[edit] Privacy Concerns

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and other groups have labeled Warden as spyware.[3] Blizzard has said that Warden does not gather any personally identifiable information about players other than the account being used.[citation needed] It also states that the data collected is only used for finding evidence of malicious programs and cheating.[citation needed]

The Governor is a third-party network monitoring tool created by Greg Hoglund of rootkit.com that monitors a portion, but not all, of Warden's activity. Although it may conflict with the World of Warcraft EULA and ToU, there have been no reports of anyone being banned for using the Governor.

[edit] Moderation Bots

"Moderation Bots" are third-party game clients written to monitor, administer, or moderate in game chat channels. While they are not used for cheating, Warden still disables them. Blizzard's stand on moderation bots calls them "Third-Party Programs". Blizzard does not at all support bots, however Chat/Moderation bots are legal. That means that you are in fact allowed to use Chat/Moderation bots as long as you do not spam, flood, etc, and that Blizzard cannot provide support for them. The Stealthbot is the most common moderation bot.[citation needed]

[edit] MDY Industries v. Blizzard Entertainment

Warden has been brought to light by Blizzard's lawsuit with MDY Industries, LLC., the creator of the gameplay automation software Glider (more popularly known as WoWGlider or MMOGlider). Blizzard has alleged in legal filings that Warden prevents players from creating unauthorized copies of the game client, which was previously an unknown function. Blizzard makes no mention of its known function of collecting data on open programs. Furthermore, it is actually referred to as "Warden," the first time Blizzard has confirmed its name.[4]

[edit] Legal Notices

Legal actions have been taken up against Blizzard's RAM scanning for privacy reasons as far back as its first implementation in the World of Warcraft alpha test to watch if users were breaking their confidentiality contract. Within days of the beta test new lines were added to World of Warcraft's EULA.

5. Consent to Monitor. WHEN RUNNING, THE GAME MAY MONITOR YOUR COMPUTER'S RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM) FOR UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY WITH THE GAME. AN "UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM" AS USED HEREIN SHALL BE DEFINED AS ANY THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY "ADDON," "MOD," "HACK," "TRAINER," OR "CHEAT," THAT IN BLIZZARD'S SOLE DETERMINATION: (i) ENABLES OR FACILITATES CHEATING OF ANY TYPE; (ii) ALLOWS USERS TO MODIFY OR HACK THE GAME INTERFACE, ENVIRONMENT, AND/OR EXPERIENCE IN ANY WAY NOT EXPRESSLY AUTHORIZED BY BLIZZARD; OR (iii) INTERCEPTS, "MINES," OR OTHERWISE COLLECTS INFORMATION FROM OR THROUGH THE GAME. IN THE EVENT THAT THE GAME DETECTS AN UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM, THE GAME MAY (a) COMMUNICATE INFORMATION BACK TO BLIZZARD, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION YOUR ACCOUNT NAME, DETAILS ABOUT THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM DETECTED, AND THE TIME AND DATE THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM WAS DETECTED; AND/OR (b) EXERCISE ANY OR ALL OF ITS RIGHTS UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, WITH OR WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE TO THE USER.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Fulton III, Scott (2005-10-24). Does a "World of Warcraft" EULA compliance mechanism count as spyware?. TG Daily.
  2. ^ Ward, Mark (2005-10-31). Warcraft game maker in spying row. BBC News.
  3. ^ McSherry, Corynne (2005-10-20). A New Gaming Feature?Spyware. Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved on 2007-11-27.
  4. ^ WoWGilder.com

[edit] External links

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