News has come to light that some Steam games were subject to security vulnerabilities that could have left gamers' machines open to hackers.

Valve Patches Steam Security Vulnerabilities

Fortunately, Check Point Research located the Steam security issues and alerted Valve to the problems, as it confirms in a recently published article.

The cyber-threat intelligence researchers uncovered four vulnerabilities in the Steam Sockets networking library. These vulnerabilities left certain Steam games open to attack, alongside gamers themselves.

What Were the Steam Vulnerabilities?

As mentioned, there were four vulnerabilities that hackers could expose and then use to target certain games and individual players. Games under threat included Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, and CS:GO.

The first allows a hacker to crash an opponent's game remotely, meaning that they can force their opponent to lose the game.

The second allows hackers to force an entire opponent team's games to crash. This, referred to by Check Point as a "nuclear rage quit", ensures the hacker's team wins.

The third vulnerability allowed hackers to exploit third-party games. Not only could the hacker perform both of the above actions, but they could also infiltrate and assume control of the game server itself to do so.

The fourth allowed the hackers to gain access to the server and execute code of their own, potentially opening up new threats, aside from kicking opponent players off the server.

What Do You Need to Do About the Steam Vulnerabilities?

You don't actually need to do anything. Valve has already patched these vulnerabilities within two days of learning about them. This, thanks to the dedicated work of security experts, Check Point Research.

Check Point has this to say on the subject:

We encourage all gamers of 3rd party games (non-Valve games) to check that their game clients received an update after September 4th 2020, as this is the date in which the library was patched by Valve.

So, if you play any games on Steam, that Valve didn't develop, then you need to check the Downloads section at the bottom of a Steam game page. This will inform you if you have an update.

If not, Check Point goes on to suggest that you should reach out to the developers of any third party games who have issued no updates and gently ask if they plan to.

Stay Safe on Steam

steam logo on a blue backgroud

Steam is generally a safe place to buy and play games. It is a trustworthy platform which Steam evidences by its quick response to these security threats.

If hackers or threats of any kind concern you, you should always ensure your computer has the latest updates installed and that you have good anti-virus protection from a reputable source.

Staying safe on Steam is the same as staying safe anywhere else online. As long as you take the correct precautions, you shouldn't encounter many problems.