STEAM BROADCAST: VALVE, why you implemented that in such UNSAFE WAY?!!!

[🤍]

I WANT an on/off switch for that feature. A switch that NEEDS providing an administrator/root password to toggle!!!
Broadcast history showing at least last broadcasting date would be also nice!
Or at least a tutorial "how to PERMANENTLY corrupt that feature in my Steam client".

In my opinion Steam Broadcast is A MAJOR SECURITY FLAW!!!

You should NEVER allow someone to use your computer with Steam installed! Even for 10 seconds!!! Even when you have locked USB ports, etc.
Old days one needed to bring a malware on a floppy, pendrive or to download it via browser. Usually one needed an admin password to install a more pro malware.

Now all one needs is to use your installed Steam software! No admin password needed! No skills needed! One toggles some checkboxes and viola!
Your whole desktop and your microphone stream is broadcast to any scammer or troll on the whole world!!!!
You can also hit your upload data limit and get the insane bill! Sometimes it records game area on the desktop after game crash, but this is another story.

Why is it possible? Because that UNWANTED MALWARE IS ALREADY INSTALLED AS AN ADMIN THANKS TO STEAM!!!

Of course there are NO BROADCAST HISTORY! There are no info about your last broadcasting date! So you may be compromised without any trace of that.

You say limited accounts do not broadcast. So he may use it's own account for a one time log-in.

I believe my computer was compromised using Steam Broadcast. Unfortunately, my default network usage logs (port:ip) were cleared.

THERE SHOULD BE A ONE BIG FAT AND FLASHING WARNING *AGAINST* THAT FEATURE ON THE STEAM HOMEPAGE!!!

[Discussions_Acc]

Or maybe you shouldn't give people you don't trust access to your computer.

[🤍]

This is exactly what I stated, but Valve Steam brought the messing to the very next level! I do not remember any application which had such a thing hidden and ready to use. I never saw anything like that before!

I can lock USB ports. I can disable DVD drive. I can set Firewall on with no exceptions. I can check browsing history. I can check whole network activity. I can disable Remote Desktop. I can search for new files installed. I can look for viruses (Steam shows as legit). I can even check Task Manager by hand. And this does not make sense, because Steam has built-in semi-spy feature.

When looking for viruses or rootkits, user usually ignores trusted applications. I can check all running processes and disable unwanted applications, delete malware. But when you go online with "hacked" Steam, you are done. And you even don't know about it, because there is a checkbox to disable the LIVE mark. Moreover, Steam has no f####ing history! Not even last broadcast time. I know they are cutting costs, but this is a nightmare.

I would even patch it manually to break the broadcasting feature, but I believe the next update overwrites all. Moreover Steam may thread it as cheating or something like that.

Another story is a working exploit that enables that broadcast-to-all-feature remotely.

Steam is worse than Facebook or Apple. Apple uploads your photos to your cloud, but Steam uploads your live desktop and mic to the whole world.

Do you remember Celebgate? That was done mainly using personal accounts. This one feature is publicly available...

[Falro the Great]

If you're so worried about computer safety, why is this an issue? They have to have physical access to your computer, plus the password for it. And at that point, you're already screwed either way.

[🤍]

The point is they do not need the admin password or even the user password.

They need some physical access, but I believe it is not the only way to toggle broadcasting (think about simple expoits or scripts).

I believe you can sometimes share your laptop for someone for a short while. This is a normal thing, especially when you are logged in as a plain user. When your "friend" throws your laptop, you can hear that, see that, etc. When he puts anything into that you can see it. On the other hand that option is nearly invisible.

Someone sometimes needs to share a PC for some seconds or for a minute.

For me that option is simply an unwanted nightmare that is glued to Steam. And Steam is sticked to games...

I am waiting for the KeyLogger feature provided to help chatting...

[Falro the Great]

Автор сообщения: ☑ Verified Noob

The point is they do not need the admin password or even the user password.

They need some physical access, but I believe it is not the only way to toggle broadcasting (think about simple expoits or scripts).

I believe you can sometimes share your laptop for someone for a short while. This is a normal thing, especially when you are logged in as a plain user. When your "friend" throws your laptop, you can hear that, see that, etc. When he puts anything into that you can see it. On the other hand that option is nearly invisible.

Someone sometimes needs to share a PC for some seconds or for a minute.

For me that option is simply an unwanted nightmare that is glued to Steam. And Steam is sticked to games...

I am waiting for the KeyLogger feature provided to help chatting...

If you're worried that your "friends" are going to try and hack you, you either A) are a little too paranoid, or B) need better friends.

Though, to be fair, a broadcasting history is not at all an unreasonable request, and something I would definitely support.

[Spawn of Totoro]

All broadcast does is allow the streaming of your game. You can not access someone's computer with it. It doesn't even broadcast the desktop (that was removed) so it only broadcasts the game you are in.

It has never asked me for an "admin password" or "user password", nor does Steam require the ability to run in admin mode. It is actualy recommended NOT to run Steam in adming mode in the first place.

[🤍]

@Falro the Great
I simply HAD to share that computer. I am angry that I did not enabled any fancy recording stuff with some rules. I could also stand near the "guest" with a hammer, waiting for his false move...

I simply not expected it is so easy and that it is not the external virus.

About being paranoid. Let's talk about Steam. Steam IS paranoid with many things. For example you can NOT add message to your friend request. You can NOT also send message without friending someone. When you block someone, there are no notification for him. No chat-log, so no scam evidence. No random communication. And then something like that, streaming to the whole world comes alive...
This is for me something like a one big mess caused by cost cut.

About the broadcasting history, I was even checking Steam achievements. There is "view a broadcast" achievement. But there are no "host a broadcast" achievement. They would add this as an achievement. The one who never did a broadcast, could check this one to see if he was compromised.

But the best solution would be to add the "last broadcast date for the account" on the WWW.

I would also like to see the "last broadcast date for the Steam client" (updates even when using different account), but this is only my wish.

--

@Spawn of Totoro:
There are many forum threads that Steam records desktop after crashing the game, even if you disable "broadcast desktop". Moreover I CAN still see the "broadcast whole desktop" checkbox in my Steam client. So why they not removed that option?

About admin password. I mean that it would be nice to force providing a password (user's, admin's) to TOGGLE (to switch on or to switch off) the "broadcast" feature.
Moreover EVERYONE used an admin password with Steam. You all did that when installing Steam for the first time. So now the "hacker" does not need to do that again. Steam prepared all the stuff for him.

[「Santa Alter」]

Let's face it, the idea of someone needing to have physical access to your computer in order to compromise your security using your Steam account is ridiculous. Who in the world that you know , will want to do that? Your little brother? Your wife? A childhood friend? Your neighbour?
A thief will steal your computer instead, and if you store or manage sensitive information (like financial statements or AIS) or something that can be used to blackmail you in a computer with Steam installed, I have bad news for you.

However, if you found an exploit on the Steam client, you should report it to Valve a soon as possible, especially if you can prove that it is possible to take advantage remotely.

[🤍]

Santa. It was my bad. I do not want to justify myself there.
But I simply want one more lock for that feature. It may be allowed by default, but I want the ability to kill broadcast feature in my client.

Let's look at the time needed to do the trick. Only ~10 seconds to make a joke. What troll needs? Only the info that there is Steam installed. And it is completely silent till the first broadcast.
Imagine, how many trolls may use that feature. Imagine those phishing-like tutorials like the "waterproof iPhone" software update. What about unsigned addons that enable that feature for you?

Moreover it makes using the laptop with people around crazy.
You can lock your laptop session everytime you are not looking at the screen and at the keyboard, but let's get real...

This broadcast option is the security flaw in my opinion. This is for me the same kind of nightmare like sharing whole Users folder in Windows enabled by default. Have you ever tried to unshare the Users folder in Windows 7 or Vista? Are you happy that it is shared by default?

For me this broadcasting option is something like placing a heavy brick on a ledge above your bed.
And I simply want the option to get rid of that. Or at least the option to secure the brick by a chain.

And the last reason. Think about poor translations. I switched my Steam client to English because of poor and AMBIGUOUS translation. But Windows had even worse translation for the "share files and printers to any guest". That translation was so poor that most official tutorials encouraged to choose the wrong option.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Автор сообщения: ☑ Verified Noob

@Spawn of Totoro:
There are many forum threads that Steam records desktop after crashing the game, even if you disable "broadcast desktop". Moreover I CAN still see the "broadcast whole desktop" checkbox in my Steam client. So why they not removed that option?

About admin password. I mean that it would be nice to force providing a password (user's, admin's) to TOGGLE (to switch on or to switch off) the "broadcast" feature.
Moreover EVERYONE used an admin password with Steam. You all did that when installing Steam for the first time. So now the "hacker" does not need to do that again. Steam prepared all the stuff for him.

There is nothing that says desktop in those settings. There is "Record Video from all applications" and "Record audio from all applications". Those are the closest I could find.

Even if there were, there is no way someone can remotely control you desktop through the Broadcast. Either way they would have to enable remote features (or software/virus) on your computer, that are independent of the Steam Broadcast.

Desktop being shown due to crashing is a diffrent issue as well.

Before letting someone else use your computer, log out of Steam. Then they can't change the broadcast settings.

[🤍]

Sometimes you do not need to enable so much: (I hope it is the past)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/2o3jsr/psa_steam_broadcast_will_leak_your_desktop_if/

For me, broadcasting my focused program windows (or static part of the desktop) and my microphone without my knowledge is a spy feature.

About physical access to a computer with opened user session:
To toggle file sharing in Windows I NEED the superuser password. In Linux I usually need root password (and some time to install and configure the server for the first time).
To enable desktop (programs) and mic sharing in Steam I need... nothing...
It is cool you did a new plug & play feature, but please add some security to it.

I would like to have the "last broadcast date" info shown on my profile page (WWW).
It may be even shown to everyone. This is to know if something bad happened.
Aka past-hack routine.

This is only one long value to store for each account (one long type value is enough to store the date/time info). I believe it is not the high price for the better security.
It may be one global value for all games.

I never said Steam Broadcast controls computer inputs.

I believe your last sentence is the best pro-tip for the local account.
Even better is to kill Steam as quick as you finished playing, but this also kills the social stuff.

[Spawn of Totoro]

So the issue is your locat security and personal decisions, not Broadcasting it's self.

I can agree that the desktop showing upon a crash can be an issue, but what you are stating is not.

If you want a feature added, then I suggest posting in the Steam Broadcasting forums as that is where those who work on the feature took to for suggestions.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steambroadcasting/discussions/