Bots immitating friends show the friend icon next to their name in game? Was I seeing things?

[duckDecoy]

Odd experience yesterday

 

A bot with my friends name joined, not uncommon.  But I swear I saw the friend icon next to his name.  I assumed his account had been haxed but I messaged him and he said no, they are bots from a different account.  But he also said that yes he is hearing friends saying they can see the friend logo as well.   So I don't think I made a mistake.

 

Anyone else seen this?  If so, how are they doing it?

 

 

[Abstract]

Profile spoofing is a Cathook feature that was added not so long ago. This is what bots use.

(Reference: https://github.com/nullworks/cathook/commit/fd9052e0e332fab7d3b192488c77085c658cb8e4 )

[duckDecoy]

13 minutes ago, Abstract said:

Profile spoofing is a Cathook feature that was added not so long ago. This is what bots use.

(Reference: https://github.com/nullworks/cathook/commit/fd9052e0e332fab7d3b192488c77085c658cb8e4 )

I'm not very computery so I have a question.

 

So not only does it copy the name and avatar, but it steals the something (steamID?) that tricks Steam into thinking it is my friend and thus put the friend icon up?.  

 

But if I right click on the friend impersonating bots name in game on the scoreboard and say goto steam profile it goes to the bots page, not my friends (I think I tried this, but I could be mistaken).  If so, is the TF2 scoreboard display using more than one copy of the steamID per player? One drives if the friend icon is present, and another if someone asks to view their profile. [--> but i could be mistaken that I tried this on the bot impersonating my friend and it went to the bot <--]

[Abstract]

2 minutes ago, duckDecoy said:

I'm not very computery so I have a question.

 

So not only does it copy the name and avatar, but it steals the something (steamID?) that tricks Steam into thinking it is my friend and thus put the friend icon up?.  

 

But if I right click on the friend impersonating bots name in game on the scoreboard and say goto steam profile it goes to the bots page, not my friends (I think I tried this, but I could be mistaken).  If so, is the TF2 scoreboard display using more than one copy of the steamID per player? One drives if the friend icon is present, and another if someone asks to view their profile. [--> but i could be mistaken that I tried this on the bot impersonating my friend and it went to the bot <--]

It only really fools TF2 into showing the spoofed profile, if you check past games you'll see it won't show the spoofed profile on Steam (assuming nobody else with the same ID was in that game).

 

[Abstract]

Good news, it has been fixed... for now.