Modern Warfare 2 Hacked servers - is it a security risk?

Question

I noticed that after playing on a hacked server in MW2, I had a ping counter for the rest of my session. This made me a little curious about how the hacks worked, since it would seem that the hacked server in fact injected some code into my game. If that's true, then I am wondering if the hacked servers could in fact exploit the game code to run attacks on my machine. Finally, if that were the case, I would be extremely curious as to what security measures I could take to prevent maliciousness against me. Finally, are the hacks executed on the network level or the software level or both?

Precis:

1. Do the hacks inject code or otherwise insert compromise into my game?
2. if so, is that compromise in any way dangerous?

3. if so, is there anything that I can do about it?

   • and how do they work? (vaguely, out of curiosity)

EDIT: I want to be clear: I'm not asking about security risks if I install the hack. I'm asking about the security risk if I join a game and the server is hacked.

Answer 1

Modern Warfare 2 (in fact all the Infinity Ward / Treyarch COD games) are based on a heavily modernised variant of the Quake 3 engine.

This means that the server (and other clients connected to it) can send config data files to your machine and pass on weird settings.

There was an exploit some dude did on a hacked X360 version of the 1st Modern Warfare whereby he created a a "viral" config that had low gravity, extra weapon damage for certain weapons etc. that would pass from console to console.

AFAIK these transferred config settings are transient and will go when you close the game, but it is entirely possible that they could persist on the PC version.

Also, since this is all accomplisghed just by sending data about it's pretty unlikely (but not impossible) that a hacked server would use this to inject executable code into your PC.