Security News > 2020 > December > Valve's Steam Server Bugs Could've Let Hackers Hijack Online Games
Critical flaws in a core networking library powering Valve's online gaming functionality could have allowed malicious actors to remotely crash games and even take control over affected third-party game servers.
"An attacker could remotely crash an opponent's game client to force a win or even perform a 'nuclear rage quit' and crash the Valve game server to end the game completely," Check Point Research's Eyal Itkin noted in an analysis published today.
Valve is a popular US-based video game developer and publisher behind the game software distribution platform Steam and several titles such as Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, and Dota.
Steam Sockets is also offered as part of the Steamworks SDK for third-party game developers, with the vulnerabilities found on both Steam servers and on its clients installed on gamers' systems.
Check Point said that gamers playing Valve's games through Steam are already protected by the fix, although gamers of third-party games should ensure their game clients received an update in recent months to mitigate the risk associated with the flaw.