Thought on Blizz Process Scanner

[El Fuego]

Would it be worth looking into making honorbuddy.exe change it's name randomly each time it is run? What I mean is; If Blizz is going to scan our PC Process tree (TaskManager) to find instances of illegal programs running, couldn't we prevent them from knowing what the process is simply by changing the name randomly? Obviously other programs do this all the time like malware and viruses. I don't know how feasible it would be to write code to do this, it was just a thought that popped into my head.

Feel free to flame away and tell me how dumb I am, or how ridiculous an idea it is... but I'd prefer constructive discussion.

**Edit to add ToS to 1st post for easier reference**


Blizzard Entertainment:World of Warcraft Terms of Use

15. Acknowledgments.
You hereby acknowledge and agree that:

A. WHEN RUNNING, THE GAME MAY MONITOR YOUR COMPUTER'S RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM) AND/OR CPU PROCESSES FOR UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY WITH WORLD OF WARCRAFT. AN ?UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM? AS USED HEREIN SHALL BE DEFINED AS ANY THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE THAT, WHEN USED SIMULTANEOUSLY OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE GAME, WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF SECTIONS 1, 2 OR 7. IN THE EVENT THAT THE GAME DETECTS AN UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM, BLIZZARD MAY (a) COMMUNICATE INFORMATION BACK TO BLIZZARD, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE ACCOUNT NAME, DETAILS ABOUT THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM DETECTED, AND THE TIME AND DATE THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM WAS DETECTED; AND/OR (b) EXERCISE ANY OR ALL OF ITS RIGHTS UNDER ANY BLIZZARD AGREEMENT, WITH OR WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE TO THE USER.

B. WHEN THE GAME IS RUNNING, BLIZZARD MAY OBTAIN CERTAIN IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR COMPUTER, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION YOUR HARD DRIVES, CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT, IP ADDRESS(ES) AND OPERATING SYSTEM(S), FOR PURPOSES OF IMPROVING THE GAME AND/OR THE SERVICE, AND TO POLICE AND ENFORCE THE PROVISIONS OF ANY BLIZZARD AGREEMENT.​

 

[timotyman]

Correct me if im wrong, but i was under the impression it was illegal to scan our processes?

 

[Xcesius]

Correct me if im wrong, but i was under the impression it was illegal to scan our processes?

In EU yes. Not in the US

 

[Mr_Pibb]

Just rename your HB.exe. It will still work. Remember to do this afer each Update. But if Blizz would do that, every HB User could get banned in one wipe. Since that doesn`t happen... i wouldn`t worry about it.

 

[El Fuego]

Just rename your HB.exe. It will still work. Remember to do this afer each Update. But if Blizz would do that, every HB User could get banned in one wipe. Since that doesn`t happen... i wouldn`t worry about it.

Actually, Blizzard can and will (at some point) do exactly this...

Blizzard Entertainment:World of Warcraft Terms of Use

15. Acknowledgments.
You hereby acknowledge and agree that:

A. WHEN RUNNING, THE GAME MAY MONITOR YOUR COMPUTER'S RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM) AND/OR CPU PROCESSES FOR UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY WITH WORLD OF WARCRAFT. AN ?UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM? AS USED HEREIN SHALL BE DEFINED AS ANY THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE THAT, WHEN USED SIMULTANEOUSLY OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE GAME, WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF SECTIONS 1, 2 OR 7. IN THE EVENT THAT THE GAME DETECTS AN UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM, BLIZZARD MAY (a) COMMUNICATE INFORMATION BACK TO BLIZZARD, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE ACCOUNT NAME, DETAILS ABOUT THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM DETECTED, AND THE TIME AND DATE THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM WAS DETECTED; AND/OR (b) EXERCISE ANY OR ALL OF ITS RIGHTS UNDER ANY BLIZZARD AGREEMENT, WITH OR WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE TO THE USER.

B. WHEN THE GAME IS RUNNING, BLIZZARD MAY OBTAIN CERTAIN IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR COMPUTER, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION YOUR HARD DRIVES, CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT, IP ADDRESS(ES) AND OPERATING SYSTEM(S), FOR PURPOSES OF IMPROVING THE GAME AND/OR THE SERVICE, AND TO POLICE AND ENFORCE THE PROVISIONS OF ANY BLIZZARD AGREEMENT.​

Whether they do it yet or not, I don't know, but this section of the ToS specifically states that you are granting them the ability to do so. Essentially inviting the police into your home to search for something they deem illegal.
Certainly this isn't the only thing Blizz does to try to catch botters, but it is something they could do. I was just trying to think of a way to prevent this one part. I'm sure people that are much smarter than me (who write the HB code) have many more counter measures to Blizz's counter measures.

I didn't know that I could just rename HB.exe myself without breaking it's functionality. It would be cool if it were done automatically, randomly. Like I said, I'm just throwing out the idea.

 

[treeflash]

You can change the name on your own. I recommend Fraps or something like that. The main problem that I have is that damn icon next to it in the process file. Kind of a dead giveaway. If we could get that removed by HB it would make me feel a little better.

 

[GIVEMEANAME]

Correct me if im wrong, but i was under the impression it was illegal to scan our processes?

summit in terms where they can take a dump of your ram processes or something - just rename hb - hb will rename itself to whatever its name was before it auto updates etc