RCON disconnects and exits CSGO and some password weirdness

[iam.thecap]

I setup a passworded VAC enabled dedicated server on Debian 10.

I have the rcon_password defined in the startup command (and in server.cfg)

server.cfg listed below.

// server configuration


hostname                "Server name"
rcon_password           "an_rcon_password"
sv_password             "a_server_password"
sv_contact              "[e-mail]"
sv_lan                  0
sv_cheats               0
sv_region               1
log                     on
sv_logbans              1
sv_logecho              1
sv_logfile              1
sv_hibernate_when_empty 1
sv_hibernate_ms         5000
host_name_store         1
host_players_show       2

// execute ban config
exec                    banned_user.cfg
exec                    banned_ip.cfg
writeid
writeip

Problem 1:
When I add the server to my server list in the steam client, it asks me for a password when I double click it. I enter the password specified under sv_password it does not connect. When I go the console The password var has what appears to be a hash. I can however enter the password manually and then retry gets me into the server.

Problem 2:
I set the rcon_address to the ip:port and set rcon_password to what is defined in the server.cfg, and when i type rcon status I get disconnected and the csgo client exits (possibly crashes).

As far as server logs go, it just tells me that I have disconnected and timed out. If I do not enter the rcon password I can continue to play on it.

This is a clean server, fresh install and zero plugins. Any thoughts/ideas on how to fix this ?

[Jessie]

do you have the -usercon flag on the startup command line?

if you can, check the banned ip file after you are disconnected from rcon, it might be automatically ip banning you (which may make it look like you timed out in the logs - and will make the server non-responsive and non-visible from the server browser appearing as if it crashed)

[Blaquicat]

First off, do not use rcon, as it has several exploitable issues, and also people can lag the server using TCP protocol glitch, it is best to disable rcon completely (by using blank password)
Then you need to block any TCP incoming on the game port (for gaming is just udp)

Then you install some admin tools, like sourcemod, and use it instead, it uses udp and have more security than rcon as it can auth by steamid.

[Jessie]

Originally posted by Blaquicat | Łøs Ᵽᵾŧøs:

First off, do not use rcon, as it has several exploitable issues, and also people can lag the server using TCP protocol glitch, it is best to disable rcon completely (by using blank password)
Then you need to block any TCP incoming on the game port (for gaming is just udp)

Then you install some admin tools, like sourcemod, and use it instead, it uses udp and have more security than rcon as it can auth by steamid.

You cannot remotely manage the server without rcon,
If you are worried about rcon exploits, use a firewall to block incoming tcp connections and have a whitelist of excluded ips

[Blaquicat]

Originally posted by Jessie:

You cannot remotely manage the server without rcon,
If you are worried about rcon exploits, use a firewall to block incoming tcp connections and have a whitelist of excluded ips

You can do it with sourcemod or even ssh..

Direct access to server console is better than any rcon app.

[[N]ebsun]

Originally posted by Blaquicat | Łøs Ᵽᵾŧøs:

Originally posted by Jessie:

You cannot remotely manage the server without rcon,
If you are worried about rcon exploits, use a firewall to block incoming tcp connections and have a whitelist of excluded ips

You can do it with sourcemod or even ssh..

Direct access to server console is better than any rcon app.

How do you use sourcemod for remote rcon without being connected to the server ?
iirc sourcemod does not have rcon access unless you are already in the server - it does not allow remote management, unless you have a game client and connect already.

I use rcon for remote monitoring applications and web apps. I wouldn't trust these servers with a ssh key, there is much more damage that could be done with that than just an rcon password, and if I wanted to manage multiple servers on different machines it would be a pain to setup ssh for each one.

Originally posted by zeroCOOL:

I setup a passworded VAC enabled dedicated server on Debian 10.

Problem 1:
When I add the server to my server list in the steam client, it asks me for a password when I double click it. I enter the password specified under sv_password it does not connect. When I go the console The password var has what appears to be a hash.

Problem 2:
I set the rcon_address to the ip:port and set rcon_password to what is defined in the server.cfg, and when i type rcon status I get disconnected and the csgo client exits (possibly crashes).

do you have any unicode / non-ascii characters in the server password ?
did you set rcon_address to "ip:port" with quotes around ?

[iam.thecap]

Originally posted by Nebsun:

Originally posted by Blaquicat | Łøs Ᵽᵾŧøs:

You can do it with sourcemod or even ssh..

Direct access to server console is better than any rcon app.

How do you use sourcemod for remote rcon without being connected to the server ?
iirc sourcemod does not have rcon access unless you are already in the server - it does not allow remote management, unless you have a game client and connect already.

I use rcon for remote monitoring applications and web apps. I wouldn't trust these servers with a ssh key, there is much more damage that could be done with that than just an rcon password, and if I wanted to manage multiple servers on different machines it would be a pain to setup ssh for each one.

Originally posted by zeroCOOL:

I setup a passworded VAC enabled dedicated server on Debian 10.

Problem 1:
When I add the server to my server list in the steam client, it asks me for a password when I double click it. I enter the password specified under sv_password it does not connect. When I go the console The password var has what appears to be a hash.

Problem 2:
I set the rcon_address to the ip:port and set rcon_password to what is defined in the server.cfg, and when i type rcon status I get disconnected and the csgo client exits (possibly crashes).

do you have any unicode / non-ascii characters in the server password ?
did you set rcon_address to "ip:port" with quotes around ?

No non-ascii characters, and set rcon_address as "server:port" . The moment I type rcon status I get kicked from the game. The server console log says Failure code 6

The password issue is also weird. The first time I connect it tells me bad password. I put password "the password" in console, and a retry allows me to connect.

I am using the OSX version of csgo. I will try it again in Windows and see.

The startup command is

./srcds_run -game csgo -console -usercon +game_type 0 +game_mode 1 +mapgroup mg_active +map de_dust2 +sv_setsteamaccount THEID -net_port_try -tickrate 128 +rcon_password "rconpassword" +exec server.cfg -debug -nowatchdog

banned_ip.cfg and banned_user.cfg are both blank, I can always reconnect without issues. No iptables rules are blocking and I tested with an open ruleset. (This is meant to be a private server accessed by a few friends).

[Blaquicat]

Originally posted by Nebsun:

How do you use sourcemod for remote rcon without being connected to the server ?
iirc sourcemod does not have rcon access unless you are already in the server - it does not allow remote management, unless you have a game client and connect already.

I use rcon for remote monitoring applications and web apps. I wouldn't trust these servers with a ssh key, there is much more damage that could be done with that than just an rcon password, and if I wanted to manage multiple servers on different machines it would be a pain to setup ssh for each one.

True, but ssh is widely used and updated for security reasons..

Rcon on the other hand is open source, anyone can make an app capable of communicating with the server..
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_RCON_Protocol
Dont even need to sweat on it, as valve itself already publish library for that on several different languages, you can even choose.
With a little spoofing you can brute force rcon password, pretty easily, dont even need much thinking into that as those algorithms are plenty around..

Not even mentioning exploits we don't know about, remember that one posted on reddit? Remote code exploit? It was posted here almost a year before the reddit thread, so we know how long valve takes to fix those things, cant rely on them..

you can pretty much create a linux user to have access screen and use iptables to protect yourself, pretty standard procedure.

[Jessie]

Originally posted by zeroCOOL:

The startup command is

./srcds_run -game csgo -console -usercon +game_type 0 +game_mode 1 +mapgroup mg_active +map de_dust2 +sv_setsteamaccount THEID -net_port_try -tickrate 128 +rcon_password "rconpassword" +exec server.cfg -debug -nowatchdog

banned_ip.cfg and banned_user.cfg are both blank, I can always reconnect without issues. No iptables rules are blocking and I tested with an open ruleset. (This is meant to be a private server accessed by a few friends).

Try adding the ip into the startup line, or bind to all ips with 0.0.0.0 - also add the port there

-ip 0.0.0.0 -port 27015

[Blaquicat]

For reference this is my startup parameters for csgo server

./srcds_run -maxplayers 12 -ip 192.168.0.10 -port 25595 -game csgo -console -usercon +game_type 1 +game_mode 0 +mapgroup mg_armsrace +map ar_shoots +sv_setsteamaccount *IDHERE* -net_port_try 1

Its a armsrace ffa server.

[Jessie]

Originally posted by Blaquicat | Łøs Ᵽᵾŧøs:

For reference this is my startup parameters for csgo server

./srcds_run -maxplayers 12 -ip 192.168.0.10 -port 25595 -game csgo -console -usercon +game_type 1 +game_mode 0 +mapgroup mg_armsrace +map ar_shoots +sv_setsteamaccount *IDHERE* -net_port_try 1

Its a armsrace ffa server.

hmm, try ip 0.0.0.0 and see if it fixes the rcon issue

[Blaquicat]

Originally posted by Jessie:

Originally posted by Blaquicat | Łøs Ᵽᵾŧøs:

For reference this is my startup parameters for csgo server

Its a armsrace ffa server.

hmm, try ip 0.0.0.0 and see if it fixes the rcon issue

i don't have any problems, i even dont use rcon, for security reasons.

Anyway, just posted that for reference..

[[N]ebsun]

Was a solution found for this? I actually have this same issue but for CSS now..
Debian 10 srcds - rcon crashes the server

[Metal_Warrior]

This installer works for Debian 11 (and should work for Buster too):

https://github.com/M3tal-Warrior/installers/blob/master/cssource/install.sh

How do I know? I fixed the couple of bugs that happened with Debian 11 after installing CSS with it last christmas.

Of course, you don't need to use it. Just look at the systemd service file and pick the startup line from there, and if you're on it, take a look at the config template too.