GLOBAL PunkBuster GUID BAN

[Smeeeeg]

Hi,

Have been happily playing BF2 for over a couple of years with no problems. I come back from Easter holidays, try to join an online game and get kicked saying I have a GLOBAL PunkBuster GUID BAN.

So I contact Even Balance to ask why this has happened. They say:

'The supplied GUID has been associated with hacking or interfering with the normal operation of our PunkBuster software and has therefore been compromised resulting in a global ban from PunkBuster enabled game servers. We have no way of knowing who was actually playing with this GUID at the time the violation was triggered. We also have no way to know if the violation was triggered on your specific computer. Our system does not collect personal information and furthermore we have no way to attach a cheat/hack violation to a specific person. This ban will not be lifted as then the person who did trigger the violation would again be able to join PunkBuster Servers using this GUID.

To be clear: we are not saying that you cheated as we have no way to know who triggered the violation. If it is certain that no one playing on your computer ever had a cheat/hack violation triggered by PunkBuster, then your GUID (cdkey and/or game account password) has been stolen by or leaked to someone who has used it on a different computer to trigger the violation. We do not have the means to help you find out who is responsible for compromising your GUID.'

So they are not saying I have cheated but they are preventing me from using the game anymore, that's not a lot of use to me. They wont even tell me any information about what the ban was for or on what date it occurred.

So I contact EA and they say:

'Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do since Punk Buster has already rendered its decision on your issue.'

I know I have not hacked or committed any violation. My BF2 manual with the CD key is collecting dust on my bookshelf so I know no-one else has got the real key. There is no-one else in my house the could have caused this problem.

So what this points to is a hacker getting my CDKey/GUID via some mechanism or even randomly and then committing a violation with it. The hacker probably goes on his merry way finding another CDKey/GUID to abuse while the PunkBuster system bans innocent users. Neither EA or Even Balance seem willing to do anything about this.

Surely there is a better way of tracking this. I know that I only rarely change the PC I play BF2 on so why can't there be some mechanism to validate the machine as well as the software (assuming that also can't be compromised).

I've now no way to play BF2 online (no point joining non-PunkBuster servers) without buying another copy of the game (maybe that's why EA doesn't do anything about this ). But even if I buy a new copy what's to stop this happening again soon after?

Anyway rant over. Guess I'll have to play a different game now.

Cheers

Nigel

[Monkeyfiend1]

hi, if you pm me the banned guid/username/ip address out I'll see what I can find. thx

[Sirri0n]

We are all in real trouble if a hack can spoof a GUID and get us a Global ban, the hackers will have the upper hand, they will decide who plays this game and who doesn't, not EA and not PB.

[=VTA=MANFACE]

EA don't give a toss.

[Unpleasant]

Hi, sorry to hear about this...

EA make & support the game they allow EB to monitor it for cheats.

this is just my opinion....

If EB and/or EA can't prove it was YOU that was cheating beyond all reasonable doubt, they should ban the guid and give you a free CD key as a replacement, the fact they arn't is in my opinion a violation of your rights, and you should have rights to sue.

You pay to use the software, you pay for a license to use it, you dont pay for the game itself, you paid for a license and your not getting what you paid for because allegations have been made against the license you purchased, if they can't prove its YOU, then replace your license with one that isnt compromised...

P.S. If you even tried to hack I think you should be given a global hardware ban, no questions asked...

[Slowshifter5]

Smeeeg, I have exactly the same thing. PB won't do a thing, so I'm stuffed on that also. Anymore going on with your account?

Just checked mine, sergeant rank. No sign of cheating as the scores are still very low.

[Monkeyfiend1]

I've sent you a PM, slowshifter

[Slowshifter5]

Thanks to the scrote who stole my key and got me banned.

Big thanks for the help I was given in finding out why since EB are totally useless in this department.

[Kamakzee]

ok

I have seen people get there bans removed but its rare. go to punksbusted.com post your ban ID and explain in a calm and polite manner the reasons behind all of this. Maybe doing an IP check would be of some benefit here. EG you have a UK IP and that Ban was a USA IP would prove that it was not you hacking cheating.


Hope this helps thx Kam

[Ustanotbesoham]

Slowshifter, how do you expect EA to earn money if you are still playing a game released in 2005? You should forget about this game and hurry down to your local retailer. There you can select from dozens of new EA titles, all at the full retail price.

Be one of the cool kids. Buy EA today.

[Slowshifter5]

Originally Posted by Ustanotbesoham

Slowshifter, how do you expect EA to earn money if you are still playing a game released in 2005? You should forget about this game and hurry down to your local retailer. There you can select from dozens of new EA titles, all at the full retail price.

Be one of the cool kids. Buy EA today.

What? I have bought EA for a long time, after this mess, I doubt I will again. They still make money from BF2 because they are still selling it.

Someone hacked my account, made no changes to the stats of it and got me banned. I have already passed on to EB the info I was given, I doubt I will get unbanned.

It's quite clear that EB do not have the ability to prevent this from happening or they can't be bothered. Any game that has EB as an association I will not be buying. I do not want to buy another EB supported game and then find out after any amount of time that it has been hacked and banned. I'm not taking the chance.

[Monkeyfiend1]

@Kamikaze; the ban in question was a PB GUID global ban, not one from a banlist repository (like punksbusted, or the much superior pbbans etc.,) so appealing to Evenbalance would be the only option.

Ultimately though, removing cheats lies in the hands of EA, not evenbalance.

EA should be pursuing the hacksites themselves through the courts. Legally pursuing the creators of the hacks and hack-selling sites is the only viable option for dealing with the abundance of hack using kiddies.

An analogy would be: You can't solve a societies drug addition problem by locking up the drug addicts, you target the suppliers of the drugs.

As long as EA sit back and allow hack selling sites to generate profits unhindered, then talented coders will always jump in to fill that niche and will always be one step ahead of the EA dinosaur.

I also think that GUIDs based on cd-key are all too often proved fallible (as above) - hardware bans (although these too can be circumvented) would provide a hell of a lot more security.

[Slowshifter5]

The only way I can play BF2 now is either through my own server with bots or on an unranked/non PB server. It's a sad state of affairs when you get lamers hacking games just because they decide not to play fair and get up the rankings the honest way.

I wonder how many EA forum admins will be reading this and passing the info on? My guess right now, none. I have never been interested in cheating and actually only found 2 glitches in 2142 and passed those on to the admins.

Would evenbalance know the IP's between the offender and the victim in this situation?

[Monkeyfiend1]

There isn't much I can suggest.

Evenbalance would be able to see the different IP's but there isn't anything they can do about it - they don't possess new bf2 keys to issue.
They won't be able to reinstate your existing key as this would be mean it could be used again by yourself AND the hacker noob(s) that got their hands on it.
This basically means you'll need a new key... the only option I can think is ask EA for a replacement (unlikely) or buy a new one (which is just rude)

--- On a technical note regarding keys ---

Also did it occur to anyone in EA that it would be easy enough to use a keygen outputting generated keys to a table, hashing the keys, populate the keys/hashes to a database (good old rainbow table*) so that people's original key info could eventually be extracted from their fairly easily obtainable hash (stored on every server you visit).

*And bear in mind this isn't pure brute force as the mathematically created nature of validated bf2 keys drastically reduces the number of possible permutations. Especially since the cd-key is a fixed length.

I just hope someone developing bf3 things of something a little more secure than a straight hash of the key. /rant

[Slowshifter5]

At least for me it proves I have not cheated. They could reinstate my key after a period of time, the culprit would have moved on by then, but they won't. EB and EA remind me of the tax man. They take so much and give very little back.

[Splash-Damage]

Well something is wrong cos iv got one

haven't

played in ages but seeing the the master server was/is playing up off i went and loaded and patched BF2

up,join

a server and get the ban message

[Slowshifter5]

Nothing changed on my account, it just got hijacked.

It's almost as if someone is going around hijacking accounts to get us to buy another copy of the game to keep playing and both parties know about it.

Rumour, game reviewers apparently get paid/bribed to give a game great reviews and ratings.

I want my account reinstated NOW!!!!

[skutaboy]

Originally Posted by Monkeyfiend1

hi, if you pm me the banned guid/username/ip address out I'll see what I can find. thx

Oh Dear,

This looks like a common thing. We have a member who has recently been banned and another regular to our server that has too.

Our clan believe their innocence but nothing is happening.

Monkey, me bestest mate in the whole widest world, I have sent you a PM already on your own forum before I read this post.

[Slowshifter5]

Originally Posted by skutaboy

Oh Dear,

This looks like a common thing. We have a member who has recently been banned and another regular to our server that has too.

Our clan believe their innocence but nothing is happening.

Monkey, me bestest mate in the whole widest world, I have sent you a PM already on your own forum before I read this post.

Clan players are normally honest players. Because they work in groups they have no need to cheat. Like them, I was doing this the honest way but PB really don't give a damn.

I doubt even the mods here could shout hard enough to get things changed by those muppets.

Skutaboy, you won't get any joy from the muppets but you will find answers.

[skutaboy]

Skutaboy, you won't get any joy from the muppets but you will find answers.

Anything is worth a shot.

Our member sent me this message and wondered if it could cause issues...

"I do have two last "grasping at straws" ideas of how this ban may have occurred:

1) Remember me mentioning that I'm running BF2 on a laptop with no hardware 3D? I'm using a pre-release experimental driver from Intel that emulates some of the 3D hardware, such as vertex shaders, etc. It could be that some of the code in this driver looks/smells/etc like a known hack. This is pretty likely, in fact. The only part that doesn't make sense is why it would let me play for over a month on this config with no problem, then issue a ban out of the blue.

2) Possible but unlikely: A timing issue between when the interloper did whatever bad thing he did, and when I connected. I was on the server playing, was disconnected with some weird network error message that I'd never seen before, and when I reconnected about 5-20 minutes later (guessing, I didn't keep track of time), I was able to play for about 10-15 seconds (again, guesstimate) before getting disconnected with a ban. I'm guessing that someone could have connected as me while I was on, which I would assume would kick me, and when I connected as me again, it knocked him offline but the PB machinery was already working on kicking me off. Again, this is just a hypothetical situation."

[Slowshifter5]

Number 2 seems very plausable.

The PB protection system just simply does not work and their systems (or someone elses) lets 2 different users in different locations use the same keys and I bet in some cases at the same time.

It's a protection system (read as extortion racket) that needs a serious rethink and overhaul. If EA plan on using EB for BF3, I would stay well away from it.