After a controversial coding mistake fed stalkers info on their victim's alts, FF14 wipes the slate clean to try and fix its mistakes

The next update for Final Fantasy 14, version 7.2, is approaching, and that means we’ll soon have preliminary notes about what’s included. Among the various changes, one particularly caught my attention: Final Fantasy 14 is planning modifications to its banned list.

In the most recent expansion of FF14, titled Dawntrail, there have been significant improvements to the blacklisting system that was previously ineffective. Now, players can completely hide anyone they’ve blocked from their game world, which was not possible before, especially when dealing with stalkers.

Despite Square Enix implementing the feature, its execution fell short of expectations. Upon closer examination, this addition led FF14 to transmit your account ID rather than just your character ID, exposing sensitive data to other clients. This ID could effortlessly be harvested by mods such as Playerscope, which was a subject of controversy. Remarkably, some modders suggested that the process wasn’t overly complex. It is worth mentioning that it was utilized by other mods for less malicious purposes as well.

According to the initial reports, Square is taking action to prevent this issue. They plan to start fresh by clearing all account IDs, effectively performing a hard reset.

To ensure hidden account IDs can’t be recognized within the game, data saved on your client has been refreshed in line with changes made in Patch 7.2. We sincerely regret any trouble this may cause and appreciate your patience as we implement these security updates.

Although Square Enix has not disclosed specific actions taken to resolve the issue (understandably so, as providing more information to stalkers is unnecessary), the fact that all client data has been reset appears to indicate that the company has fixed the vulnerability. This step seems unnecessary otherwise.

After Square mentions, there are a few points to remember. While information on the Blacklist is still saved, characters who were blacklisted before Patch 7.2 will appear as “(Character name not available)”. If you’d like these characters’ names to reappear, consider removing them from the Blacklist and re-registering them. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Essentially, your blacklist will remain functional, but characters on the blacklist won’t show up in your list anymore. If Square Enix has modified the account ID system, then this logic applies because any alternate accounts belonging to a blacklisted player would also be kept out of your game universe. If these players were banned by the game using the same system, changing account IDs would effectively hide them from your game world.

The update indicates that characters previously added as contacts before Patch 7.2 can no longer be blocked using the mute feature. This is due to the deletion of mute list data. Initially, it might appear concerning, but what this really means is that you won’t be able to block someone through your mute list because, presumably, their account IDs have been wiped or regenerated.

Time will tell if this solution truly resolved the problem, given that it was an obvious weakness initially and may have already caused harm before being addressed. Regardless of whether it’s fixed, those determined to stalk someone might have already gathered the necessary information for their purposes. I suppose it’s better late than never, but I would’ve preferred if such a situation had never arisen in the first place.

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2025-03-21 18:17

After a controversial coding mistake fed stalkers info on their victim’s alts, FF14 wipes the slate clean to try and fix its mistakes

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