20 votes

The fall of Minecraft's 2b2t

13 comments

  1. [9]
    Bullmaestro
    Link
    A summary for those who can't be bothered to watch the video. I seriously suggest you do though... Backstory: Nerds Inc, also known as the Tyranny, is a notorious group of griefers which include...
    • Exemplary

    A summary for those who can't be bothered to watch the video. I seriously suggest you do though...

    Backstory:

    • Nerds Inc, also known as the Tyranny, is a notorious group of griefers which include notorious players such as Popbob and iTristan.
    • Between 2013 and 2015, iTristan and Popbob helped develop plugins for the server, which they used to backdoor the server and gain admin privileges. This allowed them to openly grief bases, spawn illegal items such as 32K's (overpowered weapons & armor hacked with level 32,767 enchants, in the standard game enchants can generally only go up to level 4, not the 16-bit signed integer limit.), place illegal blocks such as bedrock, etc. Their antics almost destroyed the 2b2t community. If it weren't for the invasion of YouTubers such as TheCampingRusher, Fuze III and later Etika, the server would've died.
    • It's been thought that Nerds Inc had quit the server. Turns out that wasn't the case.

    The exploit:

    • Originally there was an exploit that allowed players to click & interact with blocks that were outside unloaded chunks. Using this, you could basically DDOS the server by forcing it to load thousands of new chunks at once.
    • Hausemaster reported the bug to the PaperMC devs, who fixed that exploit by changing their plugin to only allow blocks to be interacted with if the chunk was loaded by a player. This inadvertently created a new exploit.
    • Nerds Inc anticipated that this fix would happen and sought ways to abuse the fix as a coordinate exploit that would expose players' locations and bases. Problem is, the sheer amount of checks they needed to do was gigantic and their original bots were primitive at best.
    • To make the exploit more efficient, they enlisted the help of Baritone's developer (Baritone is a Minecraft bot.) He used machine learning processes to make the bot identify chunk loading patterns more easily instead of scanning the map in a spiral pattern, compare chunk loading activity with login/logout activity to track players in real time, and to check loaded chunks for any unnaturally placed items, which it would then scan and re-create in a separate instance of Minecraft.
    • In other words, they created a bot that could use this exploit to track player movements and locate bases.
    • This exploit was called NoCom, short for "No Comment"
    • NoCom allowed Nerds Inc to track down thousands of bases and grief them.
    • To cover up its existence, Nerds Inc members used a combination of gaslighting and disinformation strategies along with leaking other "exploits" with plausible explanations as red-herrings.
    • Nerds Inc originally showed restraint in using the exploit, until a few events happened which led to Hause reducing the packet limit, requiring multiple AFK accounts to track players and a rewrite of the algorithm.
    • The Spawnmasons (another major group) were given coordinates by Nerds Inc, no questions asked. They griefed many stashes and acquired over 200,000,000 items.
    • The exploit became public soon after the Infinity Incursion discovered it and used it in a more primitive way to track, stream snipe and grief FitMC specifically. It's the reason why he hadn't logged on his main account in over four months.
    • On 21st July 2021, the NoCom exploit was killed when Hausemaster added a fix to the plugin that enforced a range limit when interacting with blocks.
    21 votes
    1. [7]
      vektor
      Link Parent
      Adding the following segment from wikipedia for context that I was lacking, emphasis mine: Made your bed, now lie in it. Technically interesting, but completely expectable behavior imo.

      Adding the following segment from wikipedia for context that I was lacking, emphasis mine:

      2builders2tools (2b2t) is a Minecraft server founded in December 2010. 2b2t is the oldest anarchy server in Minecraft, as well as one of the oldest running Minecraft servers of any variety. Additionally, 2b2t's world is one of the longest-running server maps in the game, which has never been reset since its creation. As the server has virtually no rules or authority, griefing and hacking are common amongst players, with no risk of getting banned. The server is permanently set to the "hard" difficulty, and player versus player combat is enabled throughout. The server has seen over 639,000 players explore its procedurally generated map, increasing its file size to over 10.3 terabytes. 2b2t has been described in news media as the worst Minecraft server due to its playerbase and culture.

      Made your bed, now lie in it. Technically interesting, but completely expectable behavior imo.

      8 votes
      1. [6]
        teaearlgraycold
        Link Parent
        This isn’t really a burn. On 2b2t hacking and griefing are a force of nature. Once your base coordinates are exposed consider its existence to be on a timer. Players are well aware of this and...

        This isn’t really a burn. On 2b2t hacking and griefing are a force of nature. Once your base coordinates are exposed consider its existence to be on a timer. Players are well aware of this and clearly enjoy the environment.

        15 votes
        1. [3]
          Bullmaestro
          Link Parent
          Allowing hacks fundamentally changes the game. See for example the unique item meta that 2b2t has.

          Allowing hacks fundamentally changes the game. See for example the unique item meta that 2b2t has.

          9 votes
          1. [2]
            an_angry_tiger
            Link Parent
            Fascinating, seems like a very interesting server to take part in.

            Fascinating, seems like a very interesting server to take part in.

            5 votes
            1. Bullmaestro
              Link Parent
              Unfortunately I wouldn't recommend 2b2t just because of its popularity and the community's overall animosity towards new players. Escaping spawn is an incredibly difficult task, even if you're...

              Unfortunately I wouldn't recommend 2b2t just because of its popularity and the community's overall animosity towards new players. Escaping spawn is an incredibly difficult task, even if you're using hacks and Baritone.

              You could pay $20/month for priority queue but even then that doesn't do all that much to drop the several hour long queue times.

              Fortunately, anarchy servers are a-dime-a-dozen now.

              10 votes
        2. [2]
          vektor
          Link Parent
          That's fair enough. I get that it's a deliberate choice not to ban hackers. I also think anarchy-but-no-hacking can be quite interesting, but this definitely isn't that. And if your base location...

          That's fair enough. I get that it's a deliberate choice not to ban hackers. I also think anarchy-but-no-hacking can be quite interesting, but this definitely isn't that. And if your base location can be acquired via hacks, it completely loses any leftover appeal.

          I'm also reminded of the time I built a base somewhat out of the way and completely underground, because I wanted some secrecy and there was a online map for the server. Fun times. That server didn't appreciate hacking though.

          4 votes
          1. teaearlgraycold
            Link Parent
            True. I’m sure the players aren’t super happy with the near omniscience. It’s been patched but most old bases are compromised.

            True. I’m sure the players aren’t super happy with the near omniscience. It’s been patched but most old bases are compromised.

            3 votes
    2. skybrian
      Link Parent
      Thanks for summarizing! I don’t usually watch YouTube videos for this sort of thing.

      Thanks for summarizing! I don’t usually watch YouTube videos for this sort of thing.

      4 votes
  2. [2]
    Wulfsta
    Link
    Imagine having the free time to implement a Kalman filter to track players in Minecraft.

    Imagine having the free time to implement a Kalman filter to track players in Minecraft.

    11 votes
    1. teaearlgraycold
      Link Parent
      Some 2b2t players sell in game items and coordinates for money. So this could be a side gig for these people.

      Some 2b2t players sell in game items and coordinates for money. So this could be a side gig for these people.

      10 votes
  3. lionirdeadman
    Link
    This is an absolutely insane exploit. I'd love to have the data gathered, that sounds so interesting to see the world evolve overtime. I kinda wish I had something to accomplish the same on my own...

    This is an absolutely insane exploit. I'd love to have the data gathered, that sounds so interesting to see the world evolve overtime. I kinda wish I had something to accomplish the same on my own worlds or worlds I host.

    7 votes
  4. DataWraith
    Link
    There is now a more technical textual explanation of the hack here. The most interesting bit, when compared to the video, is the description of their database, scanning process, and the Particle...

    There is now a more technical textual explanation of the hack here.

    The most interesting bit, when compared to the video, is the description of their database, scanning process, and the Particle filter they used to find and track players.

    4 votes