Report: 1.7M Steam keys for Dirt 3 compromised
Lists containing at least 1.7 million Steam promotional codes for the off-road racer Dirt 3 were compromised over the weekend.
A Codemasters/AMD promotion which awarded new video card purchases with a free code for Dirt 3 was compromised over the weekend. Although this sort of promotion isn't unusual, the promotional codes were apparently stored on an unsecured webserver, meaning that for the past few days, anyone who found the address could view (and pilfer) them.
An initial report on Kotaku estimated that somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 million codes were compromised. The report was later updated based on the findings of a Kotaku comment poster who claims to have seen eight separate lists of the Dirt 3 promotional codes, totaling 1.7 million.
Kotaku also reports that Codemasters is trying to "'block' hackers' access to the game," though (at least on the surface) referring to those who accessed information displayed on a public webserver as "hackers" seems like a bit of a stretch.
AMD Graphics has since issued an official statement about the issue, clarifying that the compromised codes were being hosted on a third-party fulfillment agency website, not by Codemasters or AMD. The statement reads as follows:
This past weekend, activation keys associated with free Dirt 3 game vouchers shipping with select AMD products were compromised. These activation keys were hosted on a third-party fulfillment agency website, www.AMD4u.com, and did not reside on AMD's website. Neither the AMD nor Codemasters servers were involved.We are working closely with Steam, Codemasters, and our fulfillment agency, to address the situation. AMD will continue to honor all valid game vouchers, however the current situation may result in a short delay before the vouchers can be redeemed.
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Jeff Mattas posted a new article, Report: 1.7M Steam keys for Dirt 3 compromised.
Lists containing at least 1.7 million Steam promotional codes for the off-road racer Dirt 3 were compromised over the weekend.-
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It's not even like that. The video card comes with a code, and you go to their site and enter the code and your email and you get the steam key. That whole list of valid promo codes and associated steam keys was accessible. If Steam and/or AMD gave up some data, they could possibly check redeemed steam codes that were part of the promotion where the promo code was not registered through that site. However, there could be issues there is someone had problems using the site and had to email support to get their steam key.
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Ironically enough, they don't keep track of what key went to which box. So effectively, they have to kill all codes that shipped with cards. Which means that everyone who bought a graphics card with the knowledge of "LOLFREEDIRT3LOL" are now boned. Either Codemasters is going to have you call with a product code/proof of purchase to verify that you actually bought the game or AMD is going to reimburse with something else.
It doesn't matter which way you spin it. Codes were stolen, now everyone has to pay. It's how "piracy" works.-
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I'm not so sure of this. I recently bought 2 cards, and one of the codes didn't work. I sent an e-mail to support and received this reply:
There was a typo in the code given to you.
Your Unique ID is actually: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
Regards,
AMD Support
There's manual entry at some step in the process. A capital "i" and a "1" were mixed up.
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