Beware the cursor hack
by Eliah Hecht 
Apr 5th 2007 at 7:14PM
Apparently there is a flaw in the way windows handles animated cursors that could enable people to hack into your WoW account. Now I'm not sure why anyone would want an animated cursor in the first place, but de gustibus non est disputandum. It seems that malicious cursor sites can install arbitrary code on your computer along with the cursor, where it sometimes lies in waiting until you log in to WoW. At this point it pounces, records your login info, and sends it back to the hacking group responsible.The good news is Microsoft already has a patch out to fix this vulnerability (released on April 3rd), so go download it (auto-update will get it) and you should be safe. One interesting factoid in the BBC article on this flaw is that the value of a WoW account is now greater than the value of a credit card, at $10 and $6 respectively. What's so useful about the average WoW account that it's worth $10 on the open market?
Update: You can find the download link for Microsoft's patch in our previous article on this vulnerability. Please download the patch if you have not already.
[via MMORPGDot]
Filed under: Patches, Odds and ends, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim Apr 5th 2007 7:42PM
What's with the proliferation of Latin in World of Warcraft these days? Guild names, toon names, now a casual reference in a blog post... Maybe HBO's "Rome" has breathed new life into a dead language?
Eliah Hecht Apr 5th 2007 8:25PM
Never watched Rome; I heard it wasn't particularly good, and I'm not much of an HBO fan anyway. I did, however, study Latin in high school.
kanihel Apr 6th 2007 4:27AM
Funny how wowinsider looks like a computer security blog theese days... Guys, my other tabs are full of this..
Any vulnerability could lead to compromise your wow account or any other account u have ..
What about talking something else (go enable autoupdate, stop clicking or downloading any crap running on the net and u're done with it) ?
multikast Apr 6th 2007 7:42AM
@3
I disagree. it appears that there are hacker sites that have directed their attention right at WoW and hacking your account. For this reason, I feel it is definitely a proper article to post because it affects all of us that play WoW, not just the computer user in general. I applaud WoW Insider for looking out for us, and even though you and I may get our updates regularly, there are many others out there who don't and they must be informed.
inwee Apr 6th 2007 12:45PM
hahaha mac cursor ftw :-)
Scytherea Apr 6th 2007 5:50PM
"What's so useful about the average WoW account that it's worth $10 on the open market?"
Simple. Blizzard is less likely to come knocking on your door for hacking someone's account, selling/sharding all their stuff, and then selling the gold. Considering the amount of stuff in your bags, banks, and on all of your characters, most accounts have at least 1000g in them, which goes for ~$50-$60US at most gold selling sites.
Credit card fraud carries significant risks, including fines, and possible jail time. WoW fraud? "We're suspending your account. Shame on you!" is about the worst you can expect.