Udit

In the tumultuous history of SarCraft, certain players are remembered for their battles and conquests, while others leave their mark through the systems and infrastructure they build. Udit falls definitively into the latter category - a programmer whose well-intentioned authentication system would inadvertently become the source of SarCraft’s most infamous exploits.

The Authentication Pioneer

Udit joined the SarCraft community not primarily as a player but as a technical contributor. His most significant contribution came during the pre-launch testing phase of Season 5, where he created an experimental Telegram-based authentication system designed to enhance server security.

The “Minegram” system, as it was known, represented a novel approach to Minecraft server authentication. Rather than relying on standard password-based systems, Udit’s creation connected the Minecraft server directly to Telegram, allowing players to authenticate using the messaging platform.

Minegram: The Double-Edged Sword

What began as a security enhancement would soon evolve into an unintentional weapon that shaped multiple seasons of SarCraft history. The Minegram system featured three critical vulnerabilities that would be weaponized by players.

The Technical Deep Dive

For those technically inclined, Udit’s system struggled with its core architectural approach. The Minegram authentication was essentially a wrapper around the Minecraft server that parsed log output to handle authentication. This created race conditions when multiple players interacted with the system simultaneously - the fundamental issue behind most of the exploits.

A core part of the problem lay in how the plugin monitored server logs:

// Parser module
// Parses Minecraft server cli
// log and acts as necessary
func Parser(data utils.ModuleData) {
    scanner := bufio.NewScanner(*data.Stdout)
    go func() {
        defer (*data.Waitgroup).Done()
        for scanner.Scan() {
            m := scanner.Text()
            logFeed <- m
            // ... further processing
        }
    }()
}

This log-parsing approach created numerous edge cases that couldn’t be properly handled, leading to the infamous teleportation bugs and identity confusion that would plague multiple SarCraft seasons.