How most Flash games insert highscores and why it's not smart

http://www.miniclip.com/php/HS/hs.php?version=2&timer=123110120761385&key=20f1a1a23007871ed6a5e84b347039b0&location=xD&score=1337133713&username=HackerNews&gamename=bubbletrouble&formaction=gethighscores&dwm=2

by bashzor • 14 years ago

2 3 14 years ago

miniclip.com

benologist• 14 years ago

How you post the data is a small portion of protecting a score - kids also use Cheat Engine to modify values in-memory which will be submitted properly. There's a community where they share instructions on how to modify games as well as a handful of sites where modified versions get published.

MochiDigits are really worth checking out for protecting in-memory values:

http://code.google.com/p/cunitescore/source/browse/trunk/as3...

For the submission process ... Flash is a very weak and open product, aside from browser debuggers and whatnot you can just decompile most games and see first hand what the source is. I lean towards obfuscating it just enough to not be "change this parameter in the URL", if you need more security than that you really need a user system + consequences for cheating ala Kongregate.

mooism2• 14 years ago

  The "Hoff" says "NO"!

Was there supposed to be something other than an image macro at the end of the link?

bashzor• 14 years ago

Actually, yes. I forgot to test the link afterwards...

Apparently, anyone having "hacker" in the username gets blocked, if you change that to "HN" it works. I made a different link without hacker in it, then got distracted, and when posting it apparently copied it from the wrong browing tab. Let's resubmit, this kinda sucks...

How most Flash games insert highscores and why it's not smart

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