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 (since patch 1.15), Warcraft III (since 2009-04-14, patch 1.23) 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]
Warden scans outside of the games process and memory to only find certain drivers and Dynamic Link Libraries also certain model edits but not all.
Warden now scans Warcraft game memory space only, with exception of a few tools. It should be noted that warden consists of two programs. One starts when the game is launched and reads memory program hashes once, potentially displaying a screen stating that the offending software violates the Terms of Service, preventing the user from accessing the log-in screen. The second program monitors the memory space the game operates in exclusively.[citation needed]
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[edit] Operating Systems
World of Warcraft can be played on both Macintosh and Windows systems, but only the Windows version has Warden. The design of Mac OS X, requiring administrative rights for one process to inspect the memory space of another, completely inhibits Warden from operating.[3][4]
The current version of Warden (Thursday, July 02, 2009) does not leave its own address space.[5] As such, the aforementioned limitation is no longer a problem. Despite this, the existence of a Mac version of Warden has yet to be confirmed.
[edit] Privacy Concerns
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and other groups have labeled Warden as spyware.[6] 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]
[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 stance on moderation bots calls them "Third-Party Programs".
[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.[7]
Judge David Campbell ruled against MDY in July, and agreed with Blizzard’s infringement claims and stated the third party program tortiously interfered with World of Warcraft's sales and impacted Blizzard's relationship in a negative fashion with their customers. And a US district court awarded Blizzard $6.5 million in damages against MDY Industries, but have held Merc personally liable for the awarded money.
[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.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Fulton III, Scott (2005-10-24). "Does a "World of Warcraft" EULA compliance mechanism count as spyware?". TG Daily. http://www.tgdaily.com/2005/10/24/world_of_warcraft_warden_is_it_spyware/index.html.
- ^ Ward, Mark (2005-10-31). "Warcraft game maker in spying row". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4385050.stm.
- ^ http://www.savorydeviate.com/pocketgnome/ Pocket Gnome Website
- ^ Pocket Gnome forums: We have a huge reason to believe that Warden does not exist on Mac OS X. Mac OS X was built to make sure people couldn't make a keylogger and immediately start reading your programs without you knowing. Thats why if you ever get a keylogger blame yourself, you approved of it to read all your stuff by typing in the administrator password. You know when you install a new program or every time you open PG, it asks you to insert your admin password? Its because programs cannot read or open other programs in Mac OS X without the administrative password. Since WoW does not ask for such password when opening, it can not read other programs.
- ^ http://www.mmowned.com/forums/bots-programs/217188-warden-governor.html Cypher, World of Warcraft Reverse Engineer
- ^ McSherry, Corynne (2005-10-20). "A New Gaming Feature?Spyware". Electronic Frontier Foundation. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2005/10/new-gaming-feature-spyware. Retrieved on 2007-11-27.
- ^ WoWGilder.com
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