[HL2DM] VAC or Steam Auth failure

[speedvoltage]

This issue is closely related to ValveSoftware/Source-1-Games Issue #1799.

I frequently work on my repository, fixing bugs in HL2DM, but occasionally encounter the following message:

An issue with your computer is blocking the VAC system. You cannot play on secure servers.

Upon checking the server console, I see this message:

STEAMAUTH: Client received failure code 5

As with issue #1799, running the game or server in insecure mode does not resolve the problem.

In my case, I do not typically run the game or server in insecure mode, yet this message appears randomly without any discernible pattern. Only HL2DM is affected, as far as I can tell, since switching to another official Valve Source game (such as CSS) does not trigger the issue.

Additionally, this error affects both dedicated and listen servers.

The error is puzzling, as it doesn't seem to be directly related to my computer; waiting for 5 to 15 minutes generally allows me to reconnect to a listen or dedicated server without issues.

I believe that more information is needed to diagnose this, as I suspect this VAC error is bogus.

Feel free to close this if you believe it is a duplicate.