Married IRL

On Security

So, a while ago Blizzard came out with their Authenticators, a two-part token authentication system.  Super cool.  We have had a number of guildies hacked in the past, as I’m sure most of you have seen.  So, Cay and I got one, as did a large proportion of our guild.  And when they finally came in, we hooked them up and breathed a sigh of relief.  This made hacking our accounts much less likely.

Unfortunately, it’s apparently only “less likely,” not “impossible.”

This morning, one of our holy paladins (who bought the authenticator and tied it to her account) tried to log in.  She got an invalid password a number of times, so she went through account management to reset her password.  She logged in again, and the character selection screen popped up.

Did you spot the problem?

That’s right, it went straight to the character selection screen - without requesting her authentication code.  When she logged her character on, she was in Stormwind, in her PvP gear, with no gold and no PvE gear.

So, the fact is that this hacker somehow managed to get the security token removed from her account.  Now, this isn’t something that could be done with a keylogger - the token information is all kept in Blizzard’s system.  And from what I understand, you’re not supposed to be able to remove a token from the account without at LEAST speaking personally to customer support.  There is no “remove token” option in your account management page, so even if Blizz’s WEBSITE was somehow hacked to allow someone to bypass the need for a token to get into account management, the hacker still shouldn’t be able to remove the token to the account.

This raises two distinct possibilities.

The less likely of the two is that Blizzard’s account servers/authentication servers have been hacked directly.  Why do I think this is less likely?  Because it would mean that some hacker, somewhere, has access to EVERY World of Warcraft account in the US at least.  I can’t imagine a security hole that big, at least, I can’t imagine a security hole that big that wouldn’t quickly become public (the existence, if not the details of the exploit that let it happen) as account after account got hacked.

The more likely of the two is that Blizzard’s policy on how to handle the tokens has gaps in it.  Whether someone at Blizzard removed a token for an email request, or the hacker actually had the gonads to phone them up and somehow social engineered his way into getting the token removed from the account, this is the most likely scenario.

Either way, it doesn’t make me all warm and fuzzy about my accounts security.  I hate to say it, but I’d RATHER it be the second possibility, at least then it’s a stupid person, rather than a gaping security flaw.  But either way, it is inexcusable.  Even if our friend was infected with every keylogger known to man, those keyloggers can’t crack the token.  That has to be done by Blizzard, or someone with access to their systems.

Actually, that opens up another possibility I hadn’t thought of until now.  It could be a Blizzard employee doing the hacking.

So what about it, Blizz?  How did this happen?  How was the system compromised?  Because in this case, you can’t point to the customer.  The fault ultimately lies, incontrovertibly, with you and your system.  Whether it is your computer system or your customer support agents remains to be seen.

Believe me, I’ll be asking this on the official forums when I can post there.

As soon as I get home.  To my security key.  :/

Update 1:  The player in question has spoken to a GM. They’ve started the standard retrieval process, but the GM was unable to say how, when, or why the token was removed from the account.

Another Day

Thanks guys for all the awesome replies to my post yesterday.  I really do appreciate it. ^.^

Some thoughts:  Yea, I know, I should probably take a break.  I have one coming up.  We’ve got some visitors from out of town coming the first full week of August, and since Jason is working all week, it’s up to me to show them around the dull and drab… I mean, wonderful New England landscape.  Yea… that’s it. >.>

Probably won’t be raiding that Wednesday XD  As for the “Ug” factor that came from Monday, it’s been settled, and I think, guildwise, we’re forging ourselves into a more coehsive whole.  The guildie came back (YAYNESS) and had a good long chat with Jas and I.  Jas put up kinda this “State of the Raid Progression” thread on the forums, and Brig was also awesome for putting up this really cool thread about everyone coming together.  It made me all teary.  He really is a Positive Warrior. XD

Good positive responses to the SotRP thread too, so huzzah for that!  One hiccup, hopefully it can be solved.  But otherwise, not everything is as dire and dreary as it was the day before.

I think another contributing factor, at least on my end, was the end to Jas’s unemployment.  He’s got a job now (did I mention HUZ-FUCKING-ZAH?!) and I was so used to that stress in the background that it was weird not having to worry about it.

Ok, that might not make sense.  It does to me, so I guess that’s what matters. ^.^

I’m also getting more and more time at my job, which, makes me one of the happiest people ever.  I love this job.  Now if only I can get back to school to get that pesky Bachelors, then Masters in Library Sciences, then, THEN I’ll be feeling hella awesome.  That, however, is very long term.

Did… did I just say hella?  /headdesk

Oh!  Something else that was all interesting and makes me QQ like a little girl:  FIO GOT A BETA KEY AND I DIDN’TT.T

A guildie of ours got him a beta key last year, and he just got his invite last night.  I expect him to be farting around with that once he gets home, before BT tonight.  So far, I have to say, I hope they do something more with the Typhoon spell… it looks like a big teal blob O.o

For now, it’s off to farm some more Primal Shadows and maybe get lucky and get that Shadow to cloak enchant (/crosses fingers).  Btw, I FINALLY got Spell power to bracers.  Cleared out the area of Geomancers three login’s in a row!  /rawr!

/hugs

<3 Cay

What to do?

My weekend was most excellent.  Flinging hapless wild boars into the middle of a bunch of bored lupus was mucho fun ^.^

Playing a psychotic pit fighter NPC was also like, the highlight for my weekend.  ZOMG it rocked.  So much so that I might make a Kindred of the East and play it with Fio in his vampire game who has a similar make up to the psycho pit fighter.

MAYBE.  Still not sure, because I’m not much of a vampire person, but KoE is a different flavor of Vamp.  We shall see.

Anywho, this post started on Monday, it’s now Tuesday, and time for me to talk about what’s been on my mind lately.

I love playing WoW with my friends.  But I’m getting to a critical point.  I think I’m starting to burn out with all this raiding shit.  Yea, I know, you’re thinking, “WTF HOW?  You only raid 3 nights a week for like 3 hours!” and yea, I do.  But I’m an officer too.  So along with the raiding, I’m stratigizing with the other officers on how to approach the new/problem boss, working with a different make up of raiders each time, getting the healers in order and giving them their assignments each raid.  Doesn’t sound like a lot when you look at it, but add on top of the whole pile the stress of “What if X or Y has to cancel last second, what then?” and you’re forced to bring an alt in that’s not prepared, or X was a tank or healer or mage (we only have 1 raiding one T.T) or something important to the raid.

The stress piles up.  I hate the stress.  I thought back in SSC/TK things were bad.  It’s just gotten worse.  And on top of all that, there’s been some differences with some people on where to take the guild progression wise.  Everyone’s got their thoughts, has loot they don’t want to leave behind, etc.  Everyone has an opinion on everything.  And I have this thing where I want to try and keep as many people happy as possible.

But it’s costing me my happiness.  I’m burning out.  I don’t even feel like logging in now.  And it sucks.

I’m not saying people are horrible, no good, very bad, er whatever.  If that’s what you’re reading into this, then you’re dead wrong.  If you’re an officer or a guildleader, you probably know all about what I’m experiencing.  It’s not fun.  I was the troupe “leader” for a while in my werewolf LARP a few years back.  Being in charge SUCKS.

We downed Azgalor for the first time ever last night.  And when one of the officers made a boo boo after some Archimonde attempts, we lost a guildie from it.  Not sure if they’re coming back.  I hope so.  But it’s like, you know, we’re human.  We have human failings.  Not everything is going to be perfect every time.  But it’s like, we took out a boss that was giving us grief for the past three weeks… and we lost a guildie.  Bad event kinda over shadows the boss killing high.  : /

I don’t usually blog about this kind of thing.  It’s that negative gossip crap that just isn’t me.  But honestly, I’m looking for advice.  Because I’m tired.  I love playing with my friends, though there are some things we’ve had to sacrifice to get where we are and I’m not even sure it’s worth it any more.  I know I want our guild to hit Illidan right in the face before Arthas comes out to freeze our butts with level 80 stuff.  It’s very DOABLE too.

What do you do?

Gone for the weekend

Gonna play some Ratkin goodness at a friends house.

And I’m so unprepared. But that’s good. It’s how a Rat should be ^.^

Oh and I must remember to tell you about my experience in SSC yesterday, as I lead a raid on Rakzha.  It was preeeeeeeetty interesting!

Oh!  One more thing:  FIO GOT A JOB!  It’s for 30 days right now, this trial period stuff, which is GREAT cause he has 30 days to let them see how AWESOME he is.  BUT ZOMG!  HE’S GOT ONE! /happy dance

Have a good weekend all!

OMG look at the time!

Le wewt! Patch 2.4.3 is out today, I’m working until 8 pm EST so I won’t get to get my mount for my huntards yet (both are 30 XD) but as soon as I get home ZOOM!

Squeaker update: She got her PVP shoulders. I now have Bat Wings (Hehe, I like that name) but I’m one of those Prot warriors my RL dislikes: I use PvP gear for PvE means. But hey, they look cool and I’m not dying! So nyaaaaaaaaah.

Cay Update: ZOMG I HATE MOUNT HYJAL TRASH! Sorry for the caps but seriously, how are you supposed to learn a boss when you have to go through 8 waves of SUCK each time? We were stuck on Anentheron for a few weeks, now we’re stuck on Ass-ga-whore. He’s such a tool! Hits like a truck, silences and the rain of stupid fire - ARG! Not to mention the Doom being brought down every 45 seconds. /sigh
It’s ok, it’s growing pains, it’ll be ok.

Rakzha update: Weeeeeeeee! Got rid of her two crappy trinkets and finally got enough badges for her Icon of the Silver Crescent and the Darkmoon Card: Crusade.  Huzzah!  She’s doing about 600 DPS on average now, which isn’t stellar but ain’t too shabby.  And melting face = still fun.

Phelyx Update: She’s 60!  And in Outland!  And Frost!  Miloc beat her to 70, but that’s fine.  She made it!  So far, so good.  She’s got max alchemy, so I now have a potion maker.  /flex  And her tailoring is still a WIP, though I find it amusing that she’ll be my 3rd tailor, so she’s going Spellstrike.  I’ll have a CD for each cloth! MUWHAHAHAHA!  <.<  Anywho, so, she’s still a WIP.

Leilu update:  She’s 50, and I stalled, again.  Her LW and JCing are finally at a point where I can toss her mats again, but I need to do some epic farming on Rakzha for the leather.  As for playing her… I dunno.  I think it’s the zones she’s in.  I’m getting pretty bored of Azeroth : /

Cay update: Ok I fibbed, the huntard is only 29 BUT that’s ok, I can watch some more House or Star Gate SG1 and get her to 30, NO PROBLEM.  :P  We’ll see if she makes it any farther, simply because my last two hunters were stuck at that level… Stephi is also feeling unloved at 30.  But he has a mount. XD

Giddg update:  Nothing to see here, she’s just farming motes… *buzzzzzzzzz*

Sasha update:  Tank tank tank tank farming life tank tank tank tank tank

Moon Update: Other than some fun times with Thrall… er, yea, anywho, she’ll be running some lowbies through RFC and WC XD

Basementkat update:  Oh, hai, did I mention this one yet?  No… huh… well, ya see… there was an empty spot over thar on that umm… acct… thingie… and well.. I HAD TO DO EET!  So I have a fully of the Fang decked out Ferlol drood… horde side XD  I figure since Sasha is such and awesome farmer for Ally side, I’d make Basementkat for Horde.  He’s still a little guy though, only 21, so 9 levels to go before mount. Hehe.

And I think that’s about it ^.^

Hopefully, the delay in posts will lessen.  But it’s still crazy round here.  Sooooo who knows!???!?

<3 Cay

Nooo, not agaaaaaaain T.T

So, Gigeer made a good point in one of my Squeake posts (I know, long time since one of her posts XD) and I figured it was a good time to update on how she’s faired since dinging 70 a month ago.

She’s definitely looking cool!  Her first time in Kara, she got her Pocket Watch trinket, and that was it. (Oh and 20 badges, I switched to Cay for Nightbane ’cause they needed healz XD.)  Then, her second Kara visit coughed up the Eternium Greathelm and some Tier 4 lovin’ in her Warbringer Handguards (which I put 2% threat on.)

So, not bad for two weeks of Kara in which I was pretty much a waste of space T.T

Buuuuut this past Saturday’s Kara, I got both the coveted Nipple-thar Breasteses Plate (you CAN’T tell me that the Nipples are a HUGE distraction thar!) and the King’s Giant Popsicle Stick!  So now I look like a proper tank ^.^  Oh and she had enough badges to replace her blue Shadow Labs questy wrists with the Bracers of the Ancient Phallac… er, Phalanx.  Yea… that.

Only glaringly obvious upgrade I need?  If you said a tabard, you’d be wrong (niiiipplesssss).  It’s her shoulders.  Considering the abysmally crappy drop rate of the Mantle of Abrahmis, I’m gonna… gulp…. grindArathiBasinfor20marksbecauseIhavethehonoralready NOOOOOOOOOO I SAID IT!

I’m gonna get Squeaker some Season 2 shoulders… but I’m not going to enjoy slamming my face into the keyboard.  Admittedly, it’s gonna be very interesting PvPing Prot…. >.>  So… yea… back into the furnace I go.

PS: I like the look of tier 5 shoulders… so this is also slightly asthetic too XD  Cause you know, Squeaker isn’t EVER going to see Loot Reaver, Ever.

Pony Island Adventure!

So I banged myself up pretty good yesterday, popping my knee out of place again (old injury), so here I am, not able to really stay at the PC for too long before my knee screams at me ELEVATE ME DAMN IT!

So it’s time to play with my ponies.

No, this is definately not WoW related. So FAR from being WoW related, well, ok, they are both online games… but this is almost like me talking about my secret obsession with Hello Kitty Adventure Island er something… >.>

I play Ponyisland. It’s a lot of fun too. Did you ever play Neopets? I was a HUGE fan of Neopets when I was in college. It was the thing that kept me occupied (that and THESE AMAZING GARGOYLE STORIES GO READ NAO!) while I was fixing random internet lab issues (”Printer’s jammed again.” “Who the hell stuck THAT in there!? WTF?”)

I liked Neopets for all the little games and what not, but honestly, the pets themselves were kinda just fluff. I always thought, wouldn’t it be kinda cool if I could breed a Zafa with a meecha? But nope, I think that was just a bit to much for that site. So, years later, when I’m bored as hell at my old job, a friend of mine mentioned this website called Ponyisland.net, where you could breed with your own ponies. I’ve loved My Little Ponies since I was little. My Gran got me this whole set for a year, where Mom gave me a new pony each month that year. Best. Thing. EVER. Ponies, also, were the only “dolls” I ever played with when I was young that never ended up decapitated and in the toilet.

I hated Barbie. -.-

Aaaaaaanywho, so, friend show’s me PI.net and I’m instantly hooked. Just BAM! Hooked. I’ve got a bunch of accounts, tons of ponies, I’m breeding them left and right, making starters and the whole nine. Questing to get levels, so that I can get Bonus Points to make more AWESOME starters.

They came out with a new race, called Phoenix Ponies. A-DOR-ABLE! I made a bunch of Nixies, and my plan was to make a PI first (three Special gene Nixie!) But then I got more involved in WoW, the ponies kinda fell to the way side, and I got bored and tired of them.

Cut to a few months ago. I’m feeling down, and I’m bored. Down because I’m thinking of Moo, about how much I miss her. Then I remembered, I named a pony after her. I sold my accounts back at PI, so I wasn’t sure if she’d still be there.

I kind of debated going back, thinking if the pony Shar was gone, I’d just set myself up for more of a let down, ya know?

So I was ecstatic to see that her pony was alive and well.  And it got me wanting to go back.  The PI community does have a lot of kids in it, but it’s probably one of the least malicious communities I think I’ve ever encountered.  Like, I mean, you look at the WoW O-boards and go

Troll
Flame
QQ
Something interesting and/or useful
More Trolls

the list could go on and on.

On PI, for the most part, very pleasant crowd.  Granted, it’s a PG only environment, but hey, it’s nice to be able to wade through some clear water after all that crap you just sloshed through over at Wow.com/forums.

Shar’s pony btw?  She chose the colors.  She’s adorable.  And I miss her so much.

Now I’m back to breeding, back to questing, and having fun with it again.  Oh, and because it’s silly, I remember doing this thing called Adoptables too.  Basically, you have like virtual Pet Pets, type deal.  But it’s run by individuals in the community rather than the PI administrators.  I had some Gargoyle adoptables.  I don’t remember where I put them… but they were fun at the time.  Made me a lot of Pony Gold too. XD