In this first of a two-part edition of BASH with uber-modder {PST}*Joker, we talk about the bizarre and somewhat frightening discovery that one of the community's rising stars, the 16 year-old wunderkind from the U.K., KILL3R hid a backdoor Trojan in his CoD4 mod K3. With this hidden Trojan hidden deep inside his mod's code, KILL3R could steal server passwords and own the server his mod was loaded on. We say "could" because it was never proven he ever did anything nefarious with this hidden code.

The community reaction to this has been swift and furious.

Check out the threads at these community sites:

InfinityWard Forums: http://www.infinityward.com/community/f ... ic=36639.0

CODUtility: http://www.codutility.com/index.php?fil ... ad_id=2441

PBBans.com: http://www.pbbans.com/mbi.php?action=5&ban_id=70504
 

While nothing has ever definitively proven that KILL3R did anything disruptive with this hidden access, the mere fact that he stepped over the line separating ethical and unethical software...got himself tagged with the label of "community pariah". His mod has been removed from all the "white-hat" websites in the world of CoD, his game GUID banned from CoD4 by anti-cheat sites like pbbans and his membership revoked from CoD-PC sites like InfinityWard forums.

Did the CoD community go overboard in their indignation over KILL3R's loose interpretation of morality in programming? 

Does his age influence your answer?

One typical member of our community had this to say about KILL3R's behavior:

"He was a pretty well known modder. He had mods/maps for UO and CoD4 - all of which owned. His most popular one was the zombie mod, which he even sold for $50. When we had a server with the zombie mod, he always seemed to have the rcon to it. He would tell us someone gave it to him. Serves him right tho."
-BASHandSlash.com forum goer

Others were, shall we say, a little more indignant:

"i advise you to stop playing the maps and mods kill3r put this crap in..what he has done is total bullsh*t that a really gifted modder and mapper would turn around and do something like this. This part is for mappers and modders: If ANYONE else does something like this like putting an rcon stealer or anything into ANY map that you release, they i hope you burn in hell you #@%*er..this is one of the lowest #@%*ing things you can do. this brings shame to mappers, to modders, to pretty much the entire community because it makes us modders look like the bad guy. i hope we can all learn from kill3r doings and avoid this mistake that could get us exiled from gaming and mapping all together. kill3r wont get a second chance, what makes you think you will."

-ryanuo11 (Xfire)

While KILL3R declined to come on the program, claiming that he had mic issues, he *did* take the time to clear his name by answering our written questions. Here are those answers:  

BS: Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

KILL3R: Well, im 16 and live in England, Norfolk and ive been gaming since i was about 8. I didnt get the internet until 2 or 3 years ago. A clan i was in introduced me into mapping about 1 and a half years ago which lead me in to wanting scripted stuff in my maps like planes and sounds and that then lead me to modding.

BS:  I see that you play a lot of CoD UO, i'm assuming you are a big CoD fan...is CoD4 tho, the first time you tried your hand at modding?

KILL3R: No, i had been modding and mapping for CoD:UO right until the CoD4 mod tools came out.

BS: Did you learn to mod from someone or all by yourself?

KILL3R: Most of the stuff i learnt myself, though Bell's AWE mod for UO helped me understand about
spawning stuff and using bulletTraces.

BS: Could you tell me a little history about K3 and what the mod is all about?

KILL3R: I started on the mod when i saw that 402 had a video of my ion cannon mod on his web site and said something like (cant remember exactly what he said) - I'd love to see a kind of futuristic mod. So yeah, that got me working on K3.

BS: A few days ago some folks spotted that you had, what people have called, a "Backdoor Trojan" in K3. This gave you access to RCON but you never publicized this coded access. What was it there for? How were you planning on using it?

KILL3R: It was there to tell me the rcon password of that server, i *could* then login and maybe change a few dvars if there was any problems - i would NEVER damage or change anything harmful to do with the server or players.

BS: Have you ever used it to gain unannounced access into someone's server?

KILL3R: No, i have never logged in to anyones server using it.

BS: Additionally, there was an aimbot found in K3. You only had access to it. What was the aimbot for?

KILL3R: It was used to get the bots to aim at my head while testing, they say that it only worked for one guy when someone tested it, thats because its called from the rcon thread, if he commented out the checking part it would have worked for all the bots.

  

BS: When you coded the aimbot did you ever think that one day you'd set it up so that you could go on servers running your mod and get a cool aimbot to use? Frankly, sounds like a gamer's dream come true (...sarcasm!).

KILL3R: Yes, it does sound like a good idea for someone of my age, but i have no need to use aimbots, i know how to use my mod and its features better than anyone.
 

BS: But that's what people are saying - I know you have denied this...but, it sounds fairly suspicious lol. Are you categorically denying you ever even thought of doing something like that? After all...we've all been at your age and I have to admit, that sounds like an awesome prank.

KILL3R: Aimboting does sound like fun, getting constant headshots and stuff, but i
dont like hackers either.

BS: The upshot of this is that

a) the trust of the modding community has been lost somewhat due to all this and
b) you seem to have been universally banned by pbbans, cod utility ...the list goes on and on...

Did you expect this reaction and do you think it was fair of the community to essentially kick you out?

KILL3R: Of course not, a few lines of the wrong code and im banished from CoD, maybe IW.com and the mods with the code taken off the sites. But geeze, every map and mod of mine has been taken off.

BS: If you had a chance to make your case to be re-instated into the cod modding community - and i think you have the medium for that here...what would you like to say to everyone?

Are you sorry about this incident in any way?

KILL3R: Yes, i am sorry, i would like apologize to everyone, i never thought that it would cause such an uproar within the CoD community, i am truly am sorry.

BS: The truth is that you have quite a lot of talent but people have accused you of everything from theft of original ideas ...to being a hacker.

If you could do this again would you change anything?

KILL3R: Well, for one i would never put in any extra code that involves cheating or any backdoors in my mods, and that if i ever want to use something from someone elses mod i would ask the author first.

BS: What is going to happen to the K3 mod? Will it still be available. I'm assuming that not too many folks will download this mod given its history. However, it has so many cool features and ideas - would you agree to have it checked out by the modding community and be declared free of hidden viruses/trojans?

KILL3R: Yes, i am still continuing with K3 and i suppose i would have to have it declared free of hidden backdoors and cheats as some admins and players no longer trust the mod.

BS: What will you be working on next...and will you keep using your gamer tag of KILL3R when trying to popularize it?

KILL3R: I do have plans for another mod, and yes, i will be keeping my current gamer tag, if i change it
it wont be long before people notice and start asking questions.

While he may have infested K3 with a Trojan and trust in him has been broken, he sure had some awesome ideas. Check out this video of his CoD4 modding ideas:

Our guest this week, {PST}*Joker, brings us the inside scoop on these explosive issues as he was one of the first people to know about the Trojan and one of the first to slap a ban on KILL3R. Joker, who is ready to release the next version of his popular mod X4 in just a few weeks, talks to us about the level of confidence in the CoD4 community with the modders and what they can do to re-instill our trust in them.

You can listen to the webcast with {PST}*Joker right here:

One can only hope that KILL3R - this young, brilliant modder from Norfolk - studies his next moves carefully and wins back everyones trust in the hopes that he can re-establish himself in the community.

In episode two of this two-parter with {PST}*Joker, we find out if young KILL3R straightens out and flies right. 

The force is strong with this one...let's hope he doesn't turn to the darkside.