Thanks to social distancing, gamers are spending a lot of time with online games, as they seek ways to kill time, and interact with other gamers. Unfortunately, some fans are advising against playing some of Valve's online games right now, as the source code for Counter-Strike Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2 has apparently been shared on 4chan, and players are warning that viruses could end up spread just by joining a game with a cheater. Valve has since issued a statement asserting that the code looks to be from an old build, and has no reason to believe that players are at risk, as long as they are playing on official channels. Despite this, social media has been abuzz about the situation, and many fans remain concerned.

We have reviewed the leaked code and believe it to be a reposting of a limited CS:GO engine code depot released to partners in late 2017, and originally leaked in 2018. From this review, we have not found any reason for players to be alarmed or avoid the current builds.

— CS:GO (@CSGO) April 22, 2020

The source of the leak isn't currently certain, but according to SteamDB the code is dated from 2017-18, and was previously made available to Source engine licensees.

Valve News Network's Tyler McVicker, who regularly reports on leaks and rumors at Valve, claimed in a Twitch stream that the code originally came from a "member of the Source engine development community" in 2018. According to McVicker, members of Source Engine modding team Lever Softworks took steps to "contain" the leak after he warned Valve and received no response. The person who leaked the code today was not the same person who originally leaked it, he said, but a disgruntled former member of Lever who had recently been booted from the group.

"I did not leak this source code, and in fact I never had it," said McVicker. "I was very aware of it, and in fact the warning signs of the original leak—it was very apparent, and then it did leak sometime in late 2018, and then my little group of Source Engine developers, all on this Lever Softworks Discord server, were discussing the leak and how to contain it, how to keep it from hitting critical mass.

"Because unfortunately if it had hit critical mass, it wouldn't really hurt any one individual in particular. It would hurt the Source engine development community as a whole, because if Source code leaks, Valve then pulls the ability to have that source code to develop off of."

Source code for both CS:GO and TF2 dated 2017/2018 that was made available to Source engine licencees was leaked to the public today. pic.twitter.com/qWEQGbq9Y6

— Steam Database (@SteamDB) April 22, 2020

As always, playing on the official servers is recommended for greatest security.

— CS:GO (@CSGO) April 22, 2020

hey guys so an update on the Source code leaks.

Anything connected to Valves source engine from games they made Like Gmod,tf2,csgo,and anything running off source will be affect including SFM which infects your PC by
it being opened period. so don't open anything made by valve.

— Zengo (Commissions OPEN)(Open to art trades) (@MBH3757) April 22, 2020

The leak of Team Fortress 2 appears to be the most current version of the game, being the 2017 build that came with Jungle Inferno. Since there has been no confirmation from Valve otherwise, Team Fortress 2 is STILL RISKY. I call it unsafe, but play at your own risk.

— 𝕵𝖔𝖘𝖊𝖕𝖍 𝕸𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖇𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖘 (@MeatballsDMW) April 22, 2020

Posted: Apr 22, 2020 6:15 pm
Last Updated: Apr 22, 2020 6:17 pm
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/valve-source-code-leak-has-counter-strike-and-team-fortress-players-worried/#8