From: thor at pivx.com (Thor Larholm)
Subject: Epic Games threatens to sue security researchers

On February 5th, Luigi Auriemma of PivX Solutions released a tightly packed
advisory detailing multiple vulnerabilities in the Unreal network gaming
engine developed by Epic Games. These vulnerabilities affect both clients
and servers who are playing the plethora of games that are using the engine,
and has been readily exploitable for 5 years.

The press release:
http://www.pivx.com/press_releases/ueng-adv_pr.html

The advisory itself:
http://www.pivx.com/luigi/adv/ueng-adv.txt

Following both industry and personal standards, PivX gave Epic Games a
duration of 30 days to (at the very least) respond to our private
notification to them. After nothing had happened during that month we
prepared to release the advisory, yet once the press asked Epic Games for
comments they were suddenly very responsive. Promises to work closely with
us on the vulnerability and advisory were made and we managed to hold down
the press for several months after this. 60 days passed after this, without
any collaberation, honest effort or actual contact from Epic Games.

We released the advisory after 90 days had passed from the original vendor
notification. 90 days, in which we were played like fools, in which Epic
Games had ample time and sufficient opportunity to react and work with us on
a coordinated release. 90 days in which Epic Games, from the best of our
comprehension, had archived our communications in the thrash, during which
we received no serious communication except for crisis handling at the
originally planned release time.

On February 6th, BluesNews (among many others) could cite a quote from Mark
Rein, Epic Games Vice President:

"I won't sugar coat this. We f***ed up on this. Yes this is real and yes
this was brought to our attention and yes we should have fixed it by now."
http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=39954

On February 11th the tides have changed, and TechTV are reporting public
legal threats from that same person:

"This is slanderous," he says. "They've taken this too far. We're getting
our lawyers involved with this."
http://www.techtv.com/news/security/story/0,24195,3417248,00.html

I fail to see how Mark Rein on one hand can publicly announce this to be a
real threat that they should have fixed earlier, and on the other hand can
announce the advisory to be false and malicious statements. There is no
slander or libel in any aspect of this, and the only imaginable outcome that
Mark Rein must have been aiming for by his declaration of layer involvement
is to silence future security research on Epic Games products through the
promise of unfounded barratry. As we know from precedents in the past, this
approach to security is counterproductive at best and encouraging for
underground security research at worst, and I can only hope for an official
retraction of this policy by Epic Games once other employees have had half a
minute to think about the implications and example that Mark Rein is setting
forth.

In the past, I have received better nonresponsive treatment by Microsoft
when their security handling was at its worst. Contrary to the vast
improvements that Microsoft has gone through over the last year and a half,
Epic Games did not even start to acknowledge the problem properly before a
full public disclosure had been made on February 5th.

I believe that Luigi, and all of PivX, has handled this issue in a
courteous, proffessional and ethical manner, and the uncoordinated release
that was its outcome stems from a direct result of a nonresponsive vendor
that at best is plainly ignorant and at worst acts directly against the best
interest and security of its own customers.


Regards
Thor Larholm
PivX Solutions, LLC - Senior Security Researcher

Latest PivX research: Multi-Vendor Unreal Engine Advisory
http://www.pivx.com/press_releases/ueng-adv_pr.html

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