Tag Archives: Bandai Namco Holdings

Elden Ring Publisher Hacked, Ransomware Group Claims

Image: FromSoftware / Bandai Namco

Bandai Namco, the Japanese publisher behind the Ace Combat, Dragon Ball Z, and Dark Souls games, appears to be the latest major gaming company to suffer a major hack. The ransomware group BlackCat added the Elden Ring publisher to its list of victims earlier today, though it’s not yet clear the extent of the damage or how much money the group is demanding.

“ALPHV ransomware group (alternatively referred to as BlackCat ransomware group) claims to have ransomed Bandai Namco,” vx-underground, a group that monitors malware source code on the web, posted on Twitter Monday. Attached was a screenshot of the ALPHV ransomware blog where the group tracks its targets, with Bandai Namco listed under the threat of “data soon” as of July 11.

Bandai Namco did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Vx-underground has previously reported on other hacks, including the infamous Lapsu$ one, before the companies themselves have confirmed them. The ransomware watch group DarkFeed also shared a screenshot of BlackCat’s claimed hack earlier today. Vx-underground and DarkFeed didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment either.

BlackCat, members of which were believed to also be involved in the Colonial Pipeline hack last year, have been ramping up ransomware attacks, according to some computer security analysts as well as the FBI. Most recently, the hacks have resulted in BlackCat posting private employee data online if the victims refuse to pay up. In the past, the group has demanded millions, and targeted school districts and other public entities in addition to for-profit companies.

If legitimate, this would be just the latest in a longline of recent hacks at major gaming companies. Capcom was hit in late 2020, with several of its upcoming unannounced releases like Dragon’s Dogma 2 leaking at the time. A now famous hack of graphics chip manufacturer Nvidia ended up leaking tons of other big gaming projects like Kingdom Hearts 4. CD Projekt Red, the Polish studio behind The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, had employee data and the source code for one of its games stolen in early 2021. Even FIFA publisher Electronic Arts was hit, with the alleged perpetrators trying to get media outlet Vice to blackmail the company on its behalf.

It’s unclear how much of the seeming uptick in security breaches is due to new techniques deployed by hackers vs. the greater challenges companies faced when moving to working from home during the global pandemic. Capcom blamed part of its vulnerability on remote work. At the same time, the blockchain network hosting crypto gaming juggernaut Axie Infinity suffered one of the most expensive hacks in history earlier this year, reportedly all because an employee fell for an elaborate phishing scheme.

Earlier this year, Bandai Namco took the servers for Dark Souls I, II, and III offline after a dangerous remote code execution (RCE) exploit was discovered.

    



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Bandai Namco Races To Prevent Dark Souls Hacks In Elden Ring

Image: FromSoftware / Bandai Namco

All PC versions of the Dark Souls games will remain offline for the foreseeable future, according to a new tweet from series publisher Bandai Namco, in order to fix at least one major security vulnerability. Further, the developers are working to ensure that the same serious vulnerability does not persist in FromSoftware’s upcoming game Elden Ring, due out on February 25.

While that may sound like bad news, some players are actually pleased that FromSoftware and Bandai Namco are finally taking time to fix at least some of their games’ most dangerous exploits.

The publisher took all its Souls-series PC game servers offline on January 23 “to allow the team to investigate recent reports of an issue with online services.” This was an oblique way of referring to the numerous security vulnerabilities a number of technically gifted players had been trying to get the developers to acknowledge and fix, some for years. (Note: It appears that the lion’s share of the current exploits only affect PC players. Servers for all console versions of the games remain up.)

The most serious reported security vulnerabilities, referred to as remote code execution (RCE) exploits, could allow hackers to take full control of players’ PCs. The story finally broke out into the open about two weeks ago when a person with knowledge of the most recently discovered RCE exploit, frustrated over Bandai Namco’s reticence to fix the issue, demonstrated the exploit live on an unwitting Twitch streamer’s broadcast.

Read More: Dark Souls Servers Down Due To Exploit That Could Give Someone Control Of Your PC

In new reporting from Video Games Chronicle, one member of the Dark Souls community asserts that there are over 100 cheats and security vulnerabilities in Dark Souls III that affect PC players, and the source states that the presence of these serious problems in Elden Ring is “inevitable” due to the Souls series’ shared network infrastructure.

“While it’s not much, I have modded a few other games with an online component and nothing came close to how ‘broken’ Souls networking is,” the player who found the most recent RCE exploit told VGC.

Back in December of last year, that player, who wishes to remain anonymous, reached out to Bandai Namco to alert it of the severe risk posed by the new RCE exploit, going so far as to provide two PDFs demonstrating the RCE and suggesting how to fix it. According to VGC, a representative from the Bandai Namco support team acknowledged receipt of the emails, saying the information was “sent to the dedicated teams so they can investigate and take the necessary measures.”

But after over a month without further action, the player decided to take matters into their own hands with that livestream stunt, with an eye toward bringing public attention to the severe flaw and hopefully lighting a bonfire under Bandai Namco’s ass.

“It really seems like the online is ‘pasted’ over a single-player game and no thoughts are given about security,” the exploit-finder told VGC. “It’s staggering how many game structs are memory-mapped into network packets and sent to other players, then used by the receiving player’s game directly. There are almost no data sanity checks.”

That doesn’t bode well for PC Elden Ring being safe to play online, does it? So you can see why some players are relieved that FromSoftware and Bandai Namco are finally taking action on an unspecified number of the reported issues.

Kotaku reached out to the publisher for comment.

Elden Ring comes out on February 25 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.



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Japanese Internet Reacts To Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop Cancellation

As previously reported, Netflix is cancelling the live-action Cowboy Bebop series after one season. You might know what you think of the show, but here’s what viewers in Japan thought of it—and the ensuing cancellation.

Below is a cross-section of comments from some of Japan’s most popular sites, including 2ch, My Game News Flash, and Yaraon Blog. The remarks should give you an idea of what people in Japan, at least those online, thought was good and bad about the show, as well as their opinions on live-action anime adaptations in general.

“Expected.”

“Live-action adaptations aren’t necessary.”

“It’s because there was an old dude cosplaying. There was nothing appealing.”

“I wonder why because it was enjoyable…”

“Netflix original anime and dramas are not interesting. However, I do like Amazon Prime.”

“Well, in the first place, you’d say watch the anime instead of watching the live-action adaptation.”

“Japan’s anime isn’t designed for live-action adaptation.”

“I had no idea they made this. Looks interesting.”

“It seemed even foreigners mocked this.”

“Why did they think of doing live action?”

“Eh, it was actually pretty good. I guess international fans weren’t into it.”

“It would be better to make a new anime.”

“There was a respect [for the original anime]… You can’t take an anime as is and adapt it into live action because there are all these uncomfortable feelings when an anime is adapted into live action.”

“They should’ve stopped doing a live-action adaptation when the one with Keanu got away.” (Keanu Reeves was once attached to play Spike in a now-abandoned Cowboy Bebop live-action movie for Fox.)

“It looked like a game of cosplay.”

“The was zero sense of speed in the action scenes.”

“Netflix is where productions go to die.”

“It felt crude, like [the adaptation of] Ghost in the Shell.”

“To be honest, I’ve always thought about half of Bebop’s popularity was because of the ‘Tank!’ opening.”

“This is a shame because all the little details were amazing.”

“It was enjoyable (I didn’t actually watch it).”

“Foreigners sure are quick at cutting their losses, huh.”

“It’s because the original anime wasn’t really that popular.”

“Actually, I want to see it……Yeah, no thanks.”

“I wanted to see the scrapped Bebop with Keanu Reeves.”

“There are things that can only be done in anime. There are also things that can only be done in live action.”

“Did anyone want to watch this?”

“The only good thing was the opening.”

“I watched it because the original anime is so popular, but got bored and turned it off.”

“The main star seemed too much like a regular person.”

“To be honest, Korean dramas are more interesting.”

“That was decided quickly!”

“The recreation of the anime opening was so shoddy it was laughable (T_T)“

“And it was so hyped up and yet, this.”

“Keanu would’ve been good.”

“Make something original with this budget.”

“Is there any reason to do a live-action adaptation of an anime that has a good vibe?”

“It seems uncomfortable when the language is changed from Japanese. The actor who played Spike wasn’t bad, but he just wasn’t very Spike-like.”

“It looks like a big production put on by high school.”

“Do Be-Bop High School instead of this.”

“Woah! I was playing on watching this during the New Year holidays. Is it better not to watch this?”

“I liked it. But from the beginning, I went in with low expectations.”

“This is how the [live-action] One Piece is going to turn out.”

“I didn’t see it, but Spike is in his 20s, and it seemed like the actor was much older.”

“I saw it, and it seemed like this was created by people who didn’t understand Cowboy Bebop and just, for the time being, slapped the name on it. “

“Eh, it really wasn’t that bad. I quite enjoyed it.”

“Remake it with Keanu.”

“Respect the original work. The director doesn’t need to interpret or change things.”

“I liked it okay, but perhaps I enjoyed it because of the dubbing.”

“Maybe if they made in Japan it would be better…right?”

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Live-Action Cowboy Bebop Finally Casts Radical Edward

Screenshot: Sunrise/Funimation

Cowboy Bebop fans have been waiting for the live-action Netflix adaptation to reveal the fourth member of the Bebop crew (well, fifth if you count Ein the Data Dog). It took until today, the day Cowboy Bebop premieres on Netflix, for the streamer to do so, but it has finally announced newcomer Eden Perkins has nabbed the role of the ship’s hacker, Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivruski IV.

The NetflixGeeked Twitter account gave us the first tiny snippet footage of Perkins, who uses they/them pronouns, as Ed:

Although the clip is all of six seconds long, Perkins’ skipping, theatrical walk is very reminiscent of the Ed from the anime, as is the outfit and extremely red hair. Also, while Ed is explicitly labeled as a female in the anime, she’s portrayed as extremely gender-neutral, so it’s very cool that Netflix cast a gender-neutral actor in the role. There’s more to know, but first:

We can confirm that Ed appears at the end of the final episode of Cowboy Bebop, which means that Netflix has very likely commissioned a second season of the series. Whether that’s good news depends on your reaction to the series, which our own Charles Pulliam-Moore said, “vacillates between modes so sharply, and often multiple times within the same episode, it has a way of feeling like it’s always just a few beats out of sync with both its own plot and Yoko Kanno’s sumptuous soundtrack.” Having seen Ed’s scene, we can unfortunately confirm that they look so anime-accurate their appearance is awkward and distracting, much as John Cho’s Spike Spiegel and Mustafa Shakir’s Jet Black outfits. However, Perkins has Ed’s loony personality and manner of speech down perfectly, so that’s cool.

Also on the plus side is, the finale also “set up the potential for more promising installments down the line,” so there’s hope for next season, whever it appears. For now, both the live-action Cowboy Bebop and the original anime are currently streaming on Netflix.


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