One of the largest Minecraft server hosting providers has a serious security issue

Craig Hale
·3 min read
best crossplay games: Minecraft character stand on top of a cave that creepers spill out of
best crossplay games: Minecraft character stand on top of a cave that creepers spill out of

One of the biggest Minecraft server hosting providers has reportedly leaked access to its website source code, potentially putting gamers at risk.

Australian company Shockbyte, which amasses annual revenues of as much as $10 million, provides hosting for a range of popular games, including Minecraft, Counter-Strike, and Assetto Corsa.

But according to the Cybernews research team, the website’s source code private repository location, its credentials, and Shockbyte’s Git index file, were all leaked.

Minecraft server provider leaked source code

Cybernews says that attackers exploiting the vulnerability could not only have manipulated the company’s website, but also moved laterally to the game servers hosted by Shockbyte, thus manipulating code running on the Minecraft servers and affecting gamers directly.

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Other concerns are that attackers could modify the code to skim payment information or to install malware.

The leaked token was already expired, but attackers can use this and the other leaked information to ascertain how the website operates, potentially getting access when the website undergoes an update.

Shockbyte told Cybernews that measures had been taken to address what it admits to as having “mistakenly deployed .git directories.”

Cybernews said: “Considering the rapid growth of the gaming industry and the increasing reliance on server hosting providers, the security and privacy of users should be a top priority for companies operating in this space.”

The company confirmed in an email to TechRadar Pro:

  • "On June 22, 2023, Cybernews published an article regarding a Shockbyte web server that contained a public git config and index file.

  • Although these files were publicly accessible, there was no security risk posed to any party.

  • The config file contained an already expired, read-only access token to a git repository. As the token was not valid, it was impossible to exploit.

  • Cybernews originally reported this to Shockbyte on 15th May 2023, however, Shockbyte had already investigated the files and verified that the token posed no risk prior to this date.

  • The token in question was used by an automatic deployment pipeline which temporarily creates the read-only token to deploy code changes, then immediately invalidates the token upon completion. This means the read-only token was only valid for a matter of seconds.

  • In the article, Cybernews falsely alleges several risks this may have posed.

  • The web server in question does not communicate with Shockbyte’s billing system or game servers. Therefore, it still would have posed no risk to customers’ services or data even if the token was valid, and even if it was a fully-privileged token (it was not - it was read-only, and already expired)."

Those likely to have been affected are being urged to access their accounts exclusively in secure environments, where cookie attacks are unlikely to happen. More generally, the advice to use strong passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA) still stands.