A curated list of tutorials/resources for hacking online games!
From dissecting game clients to cracking network packet encryption, this is a go-to reference for those interested in the topic of hacking online games. I'll be updating this list whenever I run across excellent resources, so be sure to Watch/Star it! If you know of an excellent resource that isn't yet on the list, feel free to submit it for consideration via creating an issue or pull request for this repository, or email it to me.
| Title/Link | Description |
|---|---|
| How to Hack an MMO | An article from 2014 providing general insight into hacking an online game. |
| Reverse Engineering Online Games - Dragomon Hunter | An in-depth tutorial showing how to reverse engineer online games via the game Dragomon Hunter. |
| Hacking/Exploiting/Cheating in Online Games (PDF) | A presentation from 2013 that delves deeply into hacking online games, from defining terminology to providing code examples of specific hacks. |
| Hacking Online Games | A presentation from 2012 discussing various aspects of hacking online games. |
| For 20 Years, This Man Has Survived Entirely by Hacking Online Games | A hacker says he turned finding and exploiting flaws in popular MMO video games into a lucrative, full-time, job. |
| Hackers in Multiplayer Games | A Reddit post discussing hacking in multiplayer games. |
| Reverse Engineering Network Protocols | A very helpful comment from a Reddit post inquiring about reversing network protocols. |
| Deciphering MMORPG Protocol Encoding | An informative discussion from a question on Stack Overflow. |
| Reverse Engineering of a Packet Encryption Function of a Game | An informative discussion from a question on StackExchange. |
| Fuzzing Online Games | This is the slide deck used for the DEFCON 20 talk linked in the videos section below. Click here for the main presentation page. |
| Kartograph (Game Hacking Tool) | This is the slide deck used for the DEFCON 18 talk linked in the videos section below. Click here for the main presentation page, and click here for an extended version of this slide deck. |
| KeyIdentity's Pwn Adventure 3 Blog Series | A series of blog posts detailing various approaches to hacking Pwn Adventure 3. NOTE: This series has been taken down! The 9 posts are still cached in Google for the time being, so check them out while you can. |
| Title/Link | Description |
|---|---|
| How to Hack Local Values in Browser-Based Games with Cheat Engine | This video teaches you how to find and change local values (which might appear as server-based values) in browser-based games. |
| Reverse-Engineering a Proprietary Game Server with Erlang | This talk details advantages Erlang has over other languages for reverse engineering protocols and analyzing client files. A live demo showcasing some of these tools and techniques is also given. |
| DEFCON 17: Fragging Game Servers | From hardware interaction to network protocols, this talk presents the inner workings of the Source Dedicated Server (used for games like Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2). Also discussed are some of the weaknesses in these game engines, as well as ways they're exploited in the wild. |
| DEFCON 17: Subverting the World Of Warcraft API | This talk discusses MMO hacks related to the World of Warcraft API. |
| DEFCON 18: Kartograph - Applying Reverse Engineering Techniques to Map Hacking | Using games like Civilization IV, Age of Empires III, and Anno as targets, this talk teaches memory forensic techniques you can use to hack online games. Be sure to watch the accompanying Kartograph demo video. |
| DEFCON 19: Hacking MMORPGs for Fun and Mostly Profit | This talk presents a pragmatic view of both threats and defenses in relation to hacking online games. |
| DEFCON 20: Fuzzing Online Games | This talk discusses interesting techniques you can consider using to fuzz online games. |
| Title/Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Game Hacking | Game Hacking shows programmers how to dissect computer games and create bots. |
| Attacking Network Protocols | Attacking Network Protocols is a deep-dive into network vulnerability discovery. |
| Practical Packet Analysis, 3rd Edition | Practical Packet Analysis, 3rd Ed. teaches you how to use Wireshark for packet capture and analysis. |
| Exploiting Online Games: Cheating Massively Distributed Systems | This book takes a close look at security problems associated with advanced, massively distributed software in relation to video games. |
| Title/Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Guided Hacking | Discussion of multiplayer and single-player game hacks and cheats. |
| UnKnoWnCheaTs Forum | Discussion of multiplayer game hacks and cheats. |
| MPGH (Multi-Player Game Hacking) Forum | Discussion of multiplayer game hacks and cheats. |
| ElitePVPers | Discussion of MMO hacks, bots, cheats, guides and more. |
| OwnedCore | An MMO gaming community for guides, exploits, trading, hacks, model editing, emulation servers, programs, bots and more. |
| Title/Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Pwn Adventure 3: Pwnie Island | A first-person, open-world MMORPG developed specifically to be hacked! You might also be interested in Pwn Adventure 2, which is Unity-based. |
| Minetest | An open source, multiplayer voxel-based game and game engine. (A Minecraft clone, basically.) |
| Xonotic | An open source, arena-style multiplayer FPS. |
| Nexuiz | The open source, multiplayer FPS game Xonotic is based on. |
| AssaultCube | An open source, multiplayer, FPS. |
| List of Open Source Games | A large list on Wikipedia of open source games, both single-player and multiplayer. |
React
Typescript
Django
Laravel
Facebook
Microsoft
Google
Alibaba
D3
Tencent