Valve’s Counter-Strike 2 or CS2 has been plagued by issues since launch, and now a new exploit puts players in danger of losing their Steam account. Although the latest CS2 update brought some quality-of-life changes to the game, it introduced an exploit through which players can use a simple HTML code to change their in-game name to a video or image of their choice. Unfortunately, players who initially discovered this exploit used it to showcase explicit images and videos in-game, compelling the community to speak up.
Although this exploit might seem harmless at first, Valve is quite strict when it comes to players abusing it. Hence, having someone use this method in a lobby puts the other players at risk of losing their accounts. Let’s dive in to learn more about this exploit and how to avoid it, shall we?
Huge security exploit in CS2 endangers your Steam account
Popular CSGO content creator Ozzny took to X (previously Twitter) to warn players about this exploit and the harm it might cause to their accounts. Ozzy claimed that the security exploits inside CS2 allowed players to use a simple HTML code linking an image or video to change their name in-game. Doing so will not only change one’s name on the scoreboard with the linked URL but the actual video or image will show up whenever the player’s name comes up in the game.
HUGE SECURITY EXPLOIT IN CS2 RIGHT NOW⚠️
This image has been going around reddit for the last few hours (very explicit, blurred for obvious reasons). People were saying it’s fake, but it isn’t.
Apparently, there is a security exploit with Steam names inside CS2, which allows… pic.twitter.com/lcQqsAB5Ba
— Ozzny (@Ozzny_CS2) December 11, 2023
However, according to Ozzny, this exploit does more than cosmetic changes. In fact, the content creator claimed players can reportedly use this method along with an IP Logger to steal the IPs of everyone present on the server at that moment. This is especially worrisome as access to one’s IP allows hackers to track people online and steal their IPs.
Moreover, it has also been speculated that people can use this exploit to gain remote access to one’s computer and malicious code on it. Such unwarranted access through CS2 makes it easy for hackers to steal bank account and Steam account details from users. However, readers should keep in mind that this kind of hack hasn’t been witnessed in real life, although data handlers insist they have tried it out on proxy accounts.
Wow, looks like another blatant ‘issue’, to say the least. Apparently WORKSHOP MAPS can apply stickers, open cases, do tradeups and even delete items from your inventory, with no user interaction required.
Really worrying. Did Valve outsource the development of CS2 or something? https://t.co/HRHk3j3YIZ
— coco – BUYING SKINS (@cs2coco) December 11, 2023
Naturally, keeping such an exploit in mind, content creators like Ozzny have implored players to stay away from CS2 until it is fixed. At the same time, popular CS2 trader Coco revealed another exploit in which workshop maps can access a player’s inventory and apply stickers, do trade-ups, open cases, and even delete skins permanently. Incidentally, at the time of writing, the inventory exploit occurs only with maps that have full panorama access.
While these exploits are surely dangerous and pose quite a risk for players, they have been discovered very recently. Hence Valve is surely investigating them although they are yet to issue an official statement on the subject. Nevertheless, CS2 fans can rest assured that Valve will definitely take steps to fix these issues if proven to be true.
