A glitch in the online poker platform’s software allowed a user to game the system
The phrase “superuser” was first coined during a 2005-07 poker cheating scandal to describe online poker accounts that could view their opponent’s cards. Much of the same dispute was seen on Friday after GGPoker divulged that a player using the nickname “Moneytaker69” was banned from the site for using a similar method.
Members of the poker community informed GG, which said it identified distinctive game routines and “abnormal game client packets” implicating the player. The site also seized $29,795 in dishonest winnings, with tournament winnings to later be decided. “Our technical security team investigated the issue, identified a client-side vulnerability, and fixed what caused these unusual circumstances,” said GG in a statement.
GG described some of the issues related to the security matter. ‘Moneytaker69’ was able to customize his own game client under certain cases linked to the ‘“Thumbs Up/Down Table Reaction” game feature, which allowed him to decompile the Windows game client, intercept network traffic, and alter game packets.
GG stressed that the problem only influenced the Windows client and that the player never had access to servers, server data or cards held by other players. “Through this customized game client, he was able to deduce all-in equity by exploiting a client-side data leak vector,” GG cited. “Our engineers detected this vulnerability and issued an emergency update on December 16th to disable the Thumbs up/down table reactions.”
The superuser was discovered after a post on the 2+2 Forums on Thursday alleged questionable conduct from ‘Moneytaker69,’ displaying his abnormal win rate and irregular hand histories to reinforce the allegations.
This is GG’s most recent action to ban players. The site also barred players accused of “bum hunting” and other violations of its terms of service in 2020.
