Over time, we’ve significantly advanced past the era of Limewire, where each download represented a gamble: it might be Cascada’s “Every Time We Touch” or a virus rendering your computer functional merely in title.
Over the past twenty years, the cybersecurity environment has undergone a significant transformation. At times, even seemingly harmless online games like MMORPGs can serve as entry points for illicit activities.
In the world of Final Fantasy XIV, this is exactly the situation that has arisen following players’ discovery of significant weaknesses that were unveiled with the Dawntrail update.
According to reports on Destructoid, the game unintentionally granted access to a larger amount of information than it disclosed when modifying its Blacklist system.
Players of Final Fantasy XIV found out that specific add-ons, such as PlayerScope, enable others to view the account ID of alternate characters, posing a troublesome situation for harassment and stalking.
The Final Fantasy XIV Vulnerability Explained
In the latest version, every account now receives its own distinctive identification number instead of specific character IDs like earlier.
In July 2024, the Dawntrail update implemented a feature that simplifies the process of preventing interactions with other users, encompassing not just their primary accounts but also any alternate characters they may have.
Nothing special so far, you may think. What makes the new system troublesome is the execution.
In simpler terms, as mentioned by user Forymanarysanar on Reddit, the blacklist function in Final Fantasy XIV operates independently on each player’s device (client-side). Instead of filtering interactions on the server, it sends a complete data package to the player, and then the game installed on their device decides what information to display based on their personal settings.
According to Forymanarysanar, “there are several available plugins for the game that can automatically fetch player account IDs without any need for in-game interaction. To do this, simply initiate a player search, and the game itself will provide the account IDs of all players shown in the results.
More recently, a Reddit user discovered that the PlayerScope add-on keeps tabs on your account ID and server retainer details, as well as those of other players near you. This gathered information is then saved onto a single, central server.
Even if you create alternative characters, it doesn’t guarantee freedom from stalkers because the associated plugins can reveal the owner of the character based on the account ID.
To evade tracking by PlayerScope, you need to choose the option of leaving the service by connecting with their Discord server. This action has sparked outrage within the communities of Final Fantasy XIV.
Some people argue that the current data tracking should shift from an ‘opt-out’ system to an ‘opt-in’ one, whereas others contend that the extension or plugin in question should be completely eliminated from GitHub due to alleged breaches of their Terms of Service.
It’s still unclear what Square Enix plans to do about this matter, but concerns are growing that the window for fixing the issue might have closed. This is because it appears that account IDs have been publicly accessible for more than six months, and it’s possible that centralized databases containing this information already exist.
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2025-01-11 21:08