Hacking

This article will deal with the scourge of Combat Arms - hacking.

Hacking in Combat Arms is the use of programs by malicious players in order to gain an advantage in the game. It can also refer to account hijackings via keyloggers, etcetera, but that is another topic and "social engineering" sounds cooler to refer to that subject. All hacking activities are against the Terms of Service and in some cases, the law, and is detrimental to the enjoyment of the game. Do not do it.

There are many hacks available for Combat Arms but we won't go into that, and neither should you (unless of course it is to be aware of how low some people can go, although Limbo is probably a better game for that). What we will go into is the patched hacks, that is, the hacks that are no longer working due to Nexon (yay Nexon!):

• God Mode - locked HP due to clientsided HP. AP was unaffected.
• No Fall Damage - take no damage to falling except into water
• Rank hacks - ability to choose any rank from Trainee to General of the Army
• Teleport - teleport to any destination on the map
• Automatic Flag Capture - automatically capture the flag when touching the enemy flag.
• Play on unreleased map - ability to play on the then-unreleased map Two Towers
• Unrestricted Goals - play games to 1000 kills or 1000 flag captures 
• Invisibility - 
• Lifetaker - rapidly amassing kills in seconds without anyone "dieing", although deaths would still be handed out. 
• Lifegiver - Gives HP to other players or opponents.
• Spawn-anything-from-knife ("knife hacks") - rockets, zombie brains, mines etc
• Blinker - gives other player's screen a yellow glow
• Anti-kick - blockage of the kick function
• Flying - ability to fly freely. Doing this results in a Nexown. What you see nowadays is glitcher.
• Partial glitcher - ability to go through any wall. This has been patched for large-scale walls. A side effect of this was that when going through any window, ledge or platform may cause you to 'rubber band' everytime you go through them. This is most known in Short Fuse and Two Towers where there are many windows that "rubber band" you back to your original position.
• (Status Unknown) Kill Concealer - kills and accolades obtained by a hacker are concealed by attributing those kills and accolades to random people in the game. Accolades would flash across your screen as if you obtained them, but would be rewarded to the hacker instead on the website. The creator deemed it too overpowered and was never released for public purchase.
• Chat Hack - ability for a hacker to conceal their name when chatting or change the name displayed when chatting. Mostly seen in conjunction with 'Kill Concealer' and the December 08 hackwave ([GM]Nexon advertisements).
• Hostile Kick - The ability to "kick" a player with anti-kick by forcing an enemy player to suicide instantly everytime they respawn (ignoring the 3 second invulnerability). 

Why You Shouldn't Hack.

We would like to seriously warn all the players who have been using hack tools and those who are even considering to do so at this stage that your PC's can become highly vulnerable to attacks by the real hackers who created such hack tool[s]. 

Some free hacks are deliberately coded by the hackers allowing them to fully access PC's that has activated their hacks. Hackers can download or upload anything they want, they can make your PC crash by implanting a bug or a virus and so on. 

Therefore, we hereby strongly advise to cease the implementation and use of hacking tools for your own sake due to the severe and substantial damage they may cause.  

This announcement is based on facts that we were able to reveal through internal investigation so please note that the potential damage that you can imagine is real.

------ [WARNING] Serious Hacking Vulnerabilities, 18th January 2010, Combat Arms Europe Notices

Who's hosting these hack sites? Can I do anything about them?
If you come across a site that seems illegitimate such as phishing, hacking or promising free NX for spamming their site on certain Facebook posts for whatever reason, there are ways of notifying the hosting company and taking the site down.

For phishing and scam sites
Firstly, enter the URL into a WhoIs search such as http://whois.domaintools.com/. You can find out who is hosting the website by looking the Namesever / nsever result or other results indicative of who owns the domain.

Hey, sometimes you can even call the phisher! In this example, Byethost is the hosting company.

Go to the hosting company's website and send them an email reporting Terms of Service violations or Acceptable Use Policy violations.

A sample of what to write for free NX Cash Code websites:
To ***hosters name***,

I am writing this email to inform you that you are currently hosting ***URL***  which is a website solely designed to trick users into completing surveys in order for the owner to earn money.   ***Change this description paragraph to suit the website you are reporting***

The website tells users to spam the link on several Facebook sites to earn "NX Cash", paid virtual currency for Nexon Corporation games. "Free NX Cash" is considered stealing as NX Cash is purchased with real-world currency and thus there is no such thing as $25 dollars worth of free NX Cash. The user is then directed to several marketing websites to complete surveys and thus earning the owner money while the user is returned nothing. ***this paragraph explains to the Customer Service agent why the first paragraph is a scam***

This is similar to phishing and is not condoned by Nexon Corporation. ***any required evidence here***

Thank you.

It may take a couple of hours before the hosting company acts upon your complaint but rest assured that hosting companies (especially free hosting options) are keen to shut down scam sites from their database and will act upon complaints if found valid.

For hack sites, there isn't much you as a single entity can do about it as according to most web hosting companies they are within their Acceptable Use Policy. They are simply hosting a forum discussing game exploits (and are paying customers) and without a legal document such as a DMCA Takedown Notice will turn a blind eye.


Question of the Post
What, in your opinion, do you think to be the best hacking prevention program out in the market?

Did you know?
Nexon used to award hacker-reporters with NX / GP for their hard work. In order to report a hacker, there was a dedicated thread for it on the forums. It was hundreds of pages long. Unlike the rules of the forum today, naming and shaming hackers by username was encouraged. This lead to people being framed and harassed and now all screenshots with players names can be considered harassment and may lead to a suspension.