Day: November 22, 2017

SL project updates week #47: server, viewer, No Copy exploits update

Posted on by Inara Pey

Gallant Estates; Inara Pey, November 2017, on FlickrGallant Estates – blog post

Server Deployments

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest updates.

  • On Tuesday, November 21st the Main (SLS) channel was updated with server maintenance package #17.11.11.510664, previously deployed to the RC channels. This comprises internal fixes and a user-visible fix for BUG-139176, “Issue with OBJECT_REZZER_KEY reporting incorrectly after linking and delinking prims.”
  • There will be no deployment to the RC channels on Wednesday, November 22nd, also leaving them on  server maintenance package #17.11.11.510664.

SL Viewer

  • Current Release version 5.0.8.329115, dated September 22, promoted October 13 – formerly the “Moonshine” Maintenance RC.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • Martini Maintenance RC viewer, version 5.0.9.329906 November 17.
    • Alex Ivy 64-bit viewer, version 5.1.0.510354, November 2 (still dated Sept 5 on the wiki page).
    • Voice RC viewer, version 5.0.8.328552, October 20 (still dated Sept 1 on the wiki page).
  • Project viewers:
  • Obsolete platform viewer version 3.7.28.300847, dated May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

No Copy Exploits

One area of concern / upset for content creators has been the use of server exploits to generate copies of No-Copy items. While a long-standing problem, the issue has gained a lot more coverage of late due to the frequency with people have been using various exploits to illegal copy and then sell gacha items.

It is also a problem the Lab has been very aware of, and in my SL project update from week #43 (October 24th, 2017), a set of server-side updates were deployed grid wide in an attempt to address some of these problems – and work is continuing to address more of them.

However, the work does take time, and some creators are feeling frustration with the time being taken, and responses to things like Abuse Reports  (which can take time to investigate). On the technical front, and speaking at the Simulator User Group on Tuesday, November 21st, Simon Linden said:

I know you all want more info and details but I’m sorry that I just can’t get into what’s been done, what’s going on now or the future. I can say, however, that we really take it seriously and are actively working on the problem. Please do keep filing the reports with any info you have. I know support tickets don’t give much feedback on what’s going on, but these are taken seriously.

To which Oz Linden added:

Other considerations aside, it would be difficult to talk about details without giving hints about what we do and don’t know about what bad guys are up to. We know quite a lot, and are working hard on it, but there’s no reason to leak information we don’t need to.

So, to repeat Simon’s comments, if a creator notices that their items have been exploited, a JIRA Bug report an / or an Abuse Report should be raised.