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Counter-Strike 2 HTML injection bug exposes players’ IP addresses

BleepingComputer
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Lawrence Abrams
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Published Dec 11, 2023
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Updated

Valve has reportedly fixed an HTML injection flaw in CS2 that was heavily abused today to inject images into games and obtain other players' IP addresses. While initially thought to be a more severe Cross Site Scripting (XSS) flaw, which allows JavaScript code to be executed in a client, the bug was determined only to be an HTML injection flaw, allowing the injection of images. Counter-Strike 2 uses Valve's Panorama UI, a user interface that heavily incorporates CSS, HTML, and JavaScript for design layout. As part of the design layout, developers can configure input fields to accept HTML rather than sanitize it to a regular string. If the field enabled HTML, any inputted text would be rendered on output as HTML. Today, Counter-Strike users began reporting that users were abusing an HTML injection flaw to inject images into the kick voting panel.

While the flaw was abused mostly for harmless fun, others used it to obtain the IP addresses of other gamers in the match. This was done by using the <img> tag to open a remote IP logger script that caused the IP address for every player who saw the vote kick to be logged. These IP addresses could be used maliciously, such as launching DDoS attacks to force players to disconnect from the match. This afternoon, Valve released a small 7MB update that reportedly fixes the vulnerability and causes any inputted HTML to be sanitized to a regular string. For example, once the patch is installed, instead of injected HTML being rendered by t...

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Affected Software

1 affected component
Valve Counter-Strike 2

Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the main topic of this article?

The article discusses a security vulnerability in Counter-Strike 2 that allowed players to exploit an HTML injection flaw to expose others' IP addresses.

2

What security implications are discussed in the article?

The article highlights the risks associated with exposing players' IP addresses, which could lead to harassment or DDoS attacks.

3

What specific vulnerability was identified in Counter-Strike 2?

The vulnerability was an HTML injection flaw that enabled the injection of images and retrieval of IP addresses from other players.

4

How did Valve respond to the identified vulnerability?

Valve reportedly addressed the HTML injection vulnerability by implementing a fix in a subsequent update to Counter-Strike 2.

5

Who is affected by this security bug in Counter-Strike 2?

Players of Counter-Strike 2 are affected, particularly those who were targeted for their IP address exposure during gameplay.

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