Got a computer bug -- through Teeworlds??

Huh, I guess you're the first mom coming on that forum, so welcome!

Personnaly, I doubt this 'bug' is directly due to Teeworlds, I mean it's probably not a malware from the game, but probably from something connected to it - I don't know some problem with the graphic card or anything like that. It's really strange you got the same problem on the two PCs though, and just after installing that game. I never heard of such an issue with Teeworlds, so it cannot be a simple usual malware, just your computer who has problems to run it - that might be linked to the graphics, to the sounds, or to anything only used in games.

Bu-leader:

She already tried that

Consider yourself as being warned for flaming / useless post.

Hello,

I personally have never experienced this and I haven't seen any topics about an issue similar to your issue here on the Teeworlds forums. There clearly is some connection between Teeworlds and the anti-virus program. The program you had is a program I have never heard, and it doesn't look very big.

What I would suggest is that you reinstall Windows and after that switch to another anti-virus program, such as AVG free or ZoneAlarm. Both of those are free, but they still protect you very well. If you have money over and want to pay for a program, consider Kaspersky.

Most people tend to have important files on their computer(s) too. If you have that, please return here and tell us (me) that before you reinstall, in order to make sure they won't get lost.

It is technically impossible to get a virus through Teeworlds (if there aren't any bugs), providing you are playing on a pure server (CTF, DM or TDM) with an official map (ctf1-5 and dm1-7). You should also make sure that you are using the latest client from the web site. Do not take the development version. I believe that when this has been resolved, your child should be able to play Teeworlds again without any problems, as they game itself isn't very dangerous.

Direct link to the right client:
http://teeworlds.com/?page=downloads&id=5063

Sincerely,
Martin

Thanks for the welcome!
I am pretty sure this problem is not coming directly from the game or its main server, but from an affiliated server, like the one my son says acted like a CTF, but had a different category name.
As for both computers, they had been working fine up to that. Here is the link to our computer's specs. It's an HP m8247c. I believe it had enough processor/memory/graphic card for Teeworlds.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docu … =ot_search

Thanks, would you have any suggestions for a boot disc?

To Flamin: it seems I can't quote you, don't know why, but your comment is helpful. Anybody got any idea on how to fix a broken bootloader?

Sure, I'll take your advice, it's not fireman's management that counts, it's the enlightening! One can see much better with the lighting up of fires!
By the way, the first time, we didn't realize where the problem came from, so I just caged them both for 2 weeks, (got 2 kids you know), (oups! Sorry, sorry, sorry for the boring details, please don't get angry at me again, please, please please!...) But the second time, I did just what you said, I repeatedly smashed his face in the keyboard. Well, even with the gory blood offering, the computer still didn't want to work. Must be a really angry god inside, not easily satisfied. Maybe if I cut my son's hands, or pull off his eyes... ;-b

Thanks Martin, the antivirus program is Avira Antivir. For what I could read on the Internet, it is one of the most used. That might be a cause for the problem, I have been told many hackers go for the most popular programs, to get more preys.

I am sure the game itself is ok, but if some rogue servers are linked to it, maybe someone who has worked through the same type of problems has a good solution to offer... And maybe the community cares about its own safety and would be happy to see this solved, meaning the problem causers removed...

That's my problem, I have many important files on that computer, some important for me and some that would really pain my kids to loose. (I won't get into more details, for fear of inflaming some people . Otherwise, I would just have gone for a full reinstall of the system.

I would really appreciate if you or any other savvy person is nice enought to tell me how to reinstall the OS without loosing all the data, or any other way to get it working again without loosing the data.

For the security consigns, I'll certainly give them to my son, once I'll have gotten both computers to work again.

Thanks Driehoeck, I don't think it's because of Vista, my mom has XP, and her computer caught it too.

Annie

Alias I don't think a system restore will work with the bootloader missing...I found a cheap boot disc and repair for you http://cgi.ebay.com/FIX-WINDOWS-VISTA-X … 1c17fa68eb Only 10 dollars there's probably some cheaper ones online but can't be asses to find them. If you do happen to purchase a boot disc, all you have to do is enable boot to cd on start up. To do this just hit f1 when you start your computer. Scroll down to boot order, change order to cd rom first.

One question: You said the problem appeared on both pcs after playing teeworlds. Did your son play on that server that behaved like a ctf server, but was named differently in both cases? Or in other word: Is it likely that the problem is related to that special server? If yes, it could be helpfull to tell the name (or ip address) of the server, and also the gametype under which it appeared. It could be possible that certain server was a modified one, which exploited a bug in the teeworlds client, which then resulted in the operating system being broken. There were similar causes already, but as far as I know it was only possible to crash the teeworlds client. No other damage was possible. Also this bug has already been solved. But as stated before, it might be possible that there are other bugs which are being exploited by modified servers. Telling us more about that certain server your son used might help us prevent further damage to other teeworlds users and close the bug (if there is one).

However, i doubt this problem is related to avira. As far as I know this is a very solid antivirus program. Antivirus programs are usually programmed very safely, thus i doubt there are many possible hacker attacks against it (especially i doubt one would use teeworlds for that, there are probably better methods if you want to affect the antivirus program. Also teeworlds is not that wide spreaded.)

For Your problem I recommend you to use a live boot disk like http://www.knoppix.org/ and to mount your harddrive and save your important files on an external harddrive or usb stick or cds  (whatever is available to you). If you need further information about how to do that, there are many guides in the internet, for example This one here (which is based on a different live boot disk though, namely ubuntu live CD). Google will also give you a lot of useful results. After that you can simply reinstall Windows and copy the saved files back on your pc.

I hope I was able to give you some help,

ghost

Hi all, thanks for your insightful inputs. They made me think a bit.

After asking my son, a few things come up.

About the first incident, he can't remember which server it was. He was not even aware that his game might be in cause. It is just after the second incident that he made the connection. What now seems to have happened is that he was playing Teeworlds a lot at that time. So he played, and then turned the computer off. The next day, he turned the computer on, clicked on the Teeworlds icon and the next thing that happened was a blue screen with a lot of writing on it and words about transferring memory. He then turned the computer off with the power button. But he didn't make the link between that failure and the previous day.

Two Sundays ago, on Dec 12, he downloaded Teeworlds on my mom's computer. This was the latest version, 5.2, directly from the Teeworlds site. He also downloaded a custom map, the one on which his friend was, to be able to go and talk with him. The name or category of the map was CTF something.
This was probably around 8.00pm, Eastern Standard Time.

Now, I don't feel comfortable to divulgate my son's identity, even less his friend's, on an open forum. I'd have to ask the friend, and for that probably download a custom map... 8-P

Two days ago, when I came to this forum, I sent an email to the administrators through the "contact us" link, with the story, telling them I'd be glad to provide them with all the details, including both usernames, that could probably allow to identify the source of the problem. I sent another more detailed email yesterday. I didn't get any answer yet. It's been only two days...

My uninformed guess is that the problem might well have come with that custom map. It is the only custom thing he uses, he doesn't download skins. He used to play on custom maps about half of the time.

I'd sure be glad if the trouble maker could be stopped!
I wonder if this person, instead of infecting all of the people who download his stuff all the time, which would allow for a quick discovery, wouldn't instead be infecting only some of the people some of the time, thus making himself much harder to uncover.
Which makes me wonder how that thing evaded up to date reputable antiviruses on 2 computers... Maybe it is just as you say, Ghost, not malicious program but a bug in the Teeworlds client that someone has found a way to exploit...
Who knows, even with Flamin's incidents and ours, it could come from somewhere else, but I guess you'll want to make sure...

About fixing my computer: following Ghost91 and Bu-Leader's suggestion, I'll have to go look for that Windows recovery cd which I made a long time ago. Kind of lost track of it.
I guess as Ghost91 said, the road to follow will be to get a live cd, recover the data and reinstall the system. I don't know how I could get just a bootloader patch, and if after installing that I'd be able to trust my computer with a just couple of scans.

Anyway, after Flamin said he had had the same problem twice and that it was the bootloader that had been invalidated, I did some more research and submitted my problem to the TechSpot forum. If I can't do it alone, I think I can get support from them if I follow their step by step instructions.

At least now, I have a better idea of how we got infected and a bit about what the bug might do. Before the second attack, I was in the fog, half wondering if it could be a hardware problem.

I remain available to confidentially provide the usernames to whom can uncover the bugger...

I'll keep you posted on what exactly is the extent of the damage and the fix.

Thank you so much everybody for the welcome and the help...

Do you know the name (or perferably the IP) of the suspected server(s)?

@Dune: Antivirus programs usually analyze executables when windows loads them in explorer/on the desktop.

Guesses on the causes of the computer not working anymore:
A malware-infected download sounds unlikely. Those might exist but probably wouldn't destroy the OS. Logically.
A vulnerability in the teeworlds client code for malware to get in the system: would be very interesting from a code point of view but very unlikely and nearly impossible if teeworlds wasn't running as administrator.

My guess is that the graphics card fried: Non-graphics-intense stuff might still work but when using more of the graphics card (like starting teeworlds; yes, teeworlds is indeed heavy on the gpu) corrupted memory might be accessed and kill the driver thus make it go bluescreen and maybe even destroy something on the file system and make it not boot anymore.
If the fan is too dirty or it's bad passive cooling or the fans are just installed wrong it can easily cause overheating.

You could take it apart piece by piece and try if it starts working again. I'd go with replacing the graphics card first (use an old one instead or put it in some other computer to try). Further things to try are: removing harddisk and trying with a (Linux) Live-CD; trying the harddisk on another computer (that on might be hard with windows).

This probably won't help much and I'm sorry there's nothing more we can do.

MMmh... I have been repeatedly offered modified clients that supposedly do that... random servers, unfriendly players with nicks I've never seen before... and they got quite angry after I rejected. I thought they just wanted to get me some spam sent and be rid of me while I repeatedly check my emails for the "awesome gift", so I didn't bother to give them a fake address to take a look at the offering...

If there's a small group around with a modified client that bricks windows machines, they wouldn't necessarily draw much attention as long as that thing doesn't spread to players other than the ones they target directly. Also they should only be able to hit the most inexperienced people and many of those don't even "complain" (unless you count inconsistent swearing) or tell the truth because they know they did something "stupid".

So maybe, even if the "rainbow comment" by flamin seems not very likely to be related, it might make sense to pursue this train of thought a bit further - just to be on the safe side.  I mean - come on - it definitely sounds like something that some people that roam the tee world might try to inflict upon others. And some people that might just fall for something like that and not even realize enough of what hit them to tell the story are around too.