[JohnXina55]

My server has VAC enabled and is a dedicated server, I have run it for a year or so about now and have had no issues, but lately with a few cross players that were banned, i've had an incident where the chat was spammed.

It said things like:

Console:WWWWWWWWWWWWW

This was in the regular text box at the bottom.

How would they have done this? Is there a security issue? Or was it just simple hacks?
I'm quite disturbed it said Console:

From inspection of the logs the only command I saw used was sm_chat and I only saw this used once and saw no other traces.

[Sreaper]

You should change your rcon_password asap as someone is remotely calling commands.
It's also possible that the map you are playing on is causing those messages to appear.

I suggest installing SMAC.

[JohnXina55]

Ah I complete forgot about the rcon password, will do.

Any idea how they could have figured out what it was? Really bothers me.

[VJScope]

Can't figure out any other ways to get your rcon password but just hack it... You could get HLSW so you might see IP of the person who wrote those things via console (you can see these things in your logs but HLSW sees them immediately). Then just IP-ban him. Not sure if ip-ban blocks those console-messages but give it a try.

Tips:

Your rcon password shouldn't be any real word (nothing like cucumber245) and it should include numbers and capital letters like sdfDE93OIu87Pswrd. Don't know if you can use other marks like @¤# or something like that.

Then go to launch options and write +rcon_address xx.xx.xxx.xxxxxxx +rcon_password xxxxxxxxxxx (that IP-address is your servers address) so you don't have to remember your password everytime you connect to server.

[minimoney1]

This may be because of a hacked rcon but this also may not be rcon at all. Ive seen players try to trick others by using a bind that says something like this in the chat:
"hi




Console: WWWWWW"

[MasterOfTheXP]

Ah yea, good point; are you using Chat Fixer? IIRC, one of the things it fixes is being able to make lots of newlines in the chat. If the name Console was in a standard text colour, they might have been using that exploit. Keep an eye on RCON though, too. Have your rcon_password set on the server's command line, not stored in any config.

[Dr_Knuckles]

If you're renting the server someone from there might have done it on accident as well.

[JohnXina55]

Naw, i'm sure it was rogue users, as my Admins and Moderators reported it as, it was a rogue group.

[Ade]

Originally Posted by minimoney1 This may be because of a hacked rcon but this also may not be rcon at all. Ive seen players try to trick others by using a bind that says something like this in the chat: "hi Console: WWWWWW"

this lol

or what if they were named Console