Source-1-Games
Source-1-Games copied to clipboard
ValveSoftware
[CS:S] UNPLAYABLE: Server list filled with spam
The entire server list in CS:S is filled with fake servers that have someone's phone number as map and game name, plus tags and server name is basically some variation of "I will do X slutty thing to you, call me" in Russian. Manually refreshing each server or quick refreshing server list also removes all of these fake servers, but refreshing everything makes them appear again. It appears that all their IPs start with 169.254.x.x
Real servers can still be found in Steam server browser or if you scroll down in-game really deep, but since this happened the number of servers in list went down drastically (from several hundreds/thousands to about ~60), even missing those that are in my history that I found on the server browser and that are still up.
I really hope this won't go ignored as basically every other issue on this repository, because it LITERALLY makes the game unplayable.
I also reported this to the mailing list: https://list.valvesoftware.com/hlds_linux/msg/23092845/
Issue is also discussed here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/11pm1u7/literally_the_entire_community_server_browser_is/
I also sent out abuse reports to the involved networks.
EDIT: As per 11th August 2023 TF2 is also affected (see here).
Team Fortress 2 – at first sight – not, as the server browser looks normal:
They could force the usage of a Gameserver account token and limit to only display gameservers with associated token (or add a toggle filter on/off). I'm sure this would clear out a lot of these fake servers while at the same time track whoever owns these servers as only non-limited accounts can generate a token, and since CSS is a paid game this wouldn't be a barrier as the owner has the game usually.
https://steamcommunity.com/dev/managegameservers
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is affected by the same or a similar exploit:
CS:GO and TF2 look fine in those screenshots.The Skial and FACEIT servers are actual servers to my knowledge and they just have that many servers.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is affected by the same or a similar exploit:
CS:GO and TF2 look fine in those screenshots.The Skial and FACEIT servers are actual servers to my knowledge and they just have that many servers.
I see, removed it to prevent any confusion. So right now it seems that only CSS is clearly and highly affected by this issue.
EDIT: As per 11th August 2023 TF2 is also affected (see here).
This will affect all Source multiplayer games with a server browser and some non-Source games. This abuses the A2S protocol to mimic a server along with sending heartbeats to the Master Server List. The protocol for this has been available on the ValveWiki for a long time.
All that's needed to appear in a game's server list is just the Steam AppId. All information about the server except for ping can be faked, including VAC status.
All that's needed to appear in a game's server list is just the Steam AppId. All information about the server except for ping can be faked, including VAC status.
Ping can also be faked, something I noticed when searching for TF2 server. <20 ping on "US" server in server browser while I'm being located in Europe, and when joining, in-game ping is around ~200ms.
Just tested - for example UGC.TF US servers with 7 ping
After joining ~150ms ping
Ping can also be faked, something I noticed when searching for TF2 server. <20 ping on "US" server in server browser while I'm being located in Europe, and when joining, in-game ping is around ~200ms.
That is related to #4484, it's a different tool that proxies you into a different server. The ping between you and the proxy is real, but the ping between the proxy and the server is hidden until you're in-game.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is affected by the same or a similar exploit:
CS:GO and TF2 look fine in those screenshots.The Skial and FACEIT servers are actual servers to my knowledge and they just have that many servers.
Addendum to this: I wish FACEIT servers would at least add a tag so I can filter them out. When I am looking for actual community servers that aren't FACEIT servers I can't really filter them out at all.
All I have been able to do is add all the fake servers to my blacklist as they appear. I have over 5000 on my blacklist now... causes a bit of extra load time as the file gets read in.
IF you do select them all the click add to blacklist your game locks up for minutes as it writes all the info to the blacklist file. I opened the game windows and selected all the fake servers and clicked add to blacklist and then just minimized the game until it finish several minutes later.
I play CS:S weekly usually and will update this as they servers pop up in my browser.
https://github.com/Ballganda/css-server-blacklist/
I am working out a solution for that, stay tuned. We will fight back!
Soon, see repository: Malicious Server Blocker
same in every version of cs. PLS JUST ADD STH TO BE ABLE TO PLAY CS WITHOUT RUSSIANS. that shit has been out of control for far too long
Hi guys!
I've just released an alpha of Malicious Server Blocker for demonstration purposes.
Currently I encounter the problem that the filtering is way too slow and I am still looking for the reason. It processes only about 50 packets all few seconds for me. I am not sure if it is the WinDivert driver itself.
This makes it unusable yet for production because it leads to some servers not displayed, perhaps due to packet drops, as we need to filter about 10,000 packets within a relatively short period of time.
I am not sure if this problem is only present on my machine, so I would be grateful if you could test it. Currently I tested it only on Counter-Strike: Source by simply openeing the server browser and then clicking "Refresh all".
The compiled alpha can be downloaded here under Releases. I am quite sure it will trigger anti-virus software. You can always use the source code to compile it by yourself. Please note that I am not primarily a Windows developer, so the code is still a bit dirty (and placing the console within the main window is something I might need to change).
Log files by the way are stored here:
C:\Users\[USER]\AppData\Local\MaliciousServerBlocker\logs
I localized the reason for the performance issue now, but I did encounter another issue. It seems that the spam is so intense that the master servers reach a limit and so many legitimate servers are not even broadcasted to the client. That means, even if the firewall eats all the spam severs, the client still might end up with missing legitimate servers.
We therefore likely need try out something different.
I localized the reason for the performance issue now, but I did encounter another issue. It seems that the spam is so intense that the master servers reach a limit and so many legitimate servers are not even broadcasted to the client. That means, even if the firewall eats all the spam severs, the client still might end up with missing legitimate servers.
We therefore likely need try out something different.
If you load up this server browser it has some hits to max requests to the steam master server
https://github.com/PredatH0r/SteamServerBrowser
It seems that the spam is so intense that the master servers reach a limit and so many legitimate servers are not even broadcasted to the client
yes, that's what I mentioned in my original post:
since this happened the number of servers in list went down drastically (from several hundreds/thousands to about ~60), even missing those that are in my history that I found on the server browser and that are still up
I don't think we can do anything with this client-side, this has to be fixed server-side (on Valve's side)
I am so angry guys 😣😓
The firewall would definitely work – I was able to filter almost all fake/spam servers out –, but since they fill up the master servers with so much spam, filtering does not really make sense because still many legitimate servers aren't displayed. What is not sent to the client at all due to the limit can't be passed.
Please open support tickets with Counter-Strike 2 and report them that issue again and again: https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithGame/?appid=730
If they fix it for CS2 maybe it will be also fixed for other games.
Replying to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Source-1-Games/issues/5101#issuecomment-1852008651
The same thing happens in L4D2, every source engine game 🤬
server browser on cs source and tf2 as of 13/03/2024 is still filled with spam
this is europe only, is there a server browser for asia/oceania servers for css
Until this is fixed, I would suggest using this guy's server blacklist, which worked to remove almost all the spam in my case. https://github.com/Ballganda/css-server-blacklist
If you wish to remove these on your own, right click on any of the offending servers, click Show server info, then copy the IP (not the port.) Open the Blacklist tab and paste in the IP, and then add it to the blacklist. After a refresh, all servers hosted by that person should be gone.
