Web3Gaming — It's About Securing Your Community & Players Above All Else!

5 min readFeb 22, 2024

In the burgeoning world of Web3 Gaming, a unique set of opportunities and risks has emerged, forever changing the landscape of the gaming experience. With the potential for users to earn, collect, and trade in-game assets as valuable cryptocurrencies or non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the stakes have never been higher. However, this new paradigm also introduces a web of challenges that can significantly impact players, projects, and partners alike.

Web3Gaming Triangle of Risks

For players, the risk of losing their hard-earned in-game assets due to scams, hacks, or technical issues can be devastating. Not only do they stand to lose their virtual treasures, but the trust and enjoyment of the gaming experience can be shattered, potentially driving them away from the platform and discouraging their followers from joining.

From the project’s perspective, the consequences of these risks are equally severe. A single high-profile security breach or scandal can tarnish a Web3 gaming platform’s reputation, leading to a mass exodus of users and a cascading loss of revenue. Moreover, the social impact of such incidents can be exponential, with negative word-of-mouth and publicity deterring potential partners and investors.

Partners, too, face their own set of risks. Collaborating with a Web3 gaming platform marred by security issues or scandals can reflect poorly on their brand, potentially damaging their own customer base and credibility. As a result, the stability and security of web3 gaming platforms are of paramount importance to all parties involved.

In this new era of Web3 Gaming, the interconnected nature of risks necessitates a comprehensive and proactive approach to security. By understanding and addressing these risks, players, projects, and partners can work together to build a thriving, secure, and enjoyable web3 gaming ecosystem that benefits all.

Escalation of Software Risks

Acknowledging the escalating concerns of software supply chain threats, which had surged a staggering 1300% from 2021 to 2023, the team recognized the need for a comprehensive security approach that went beyond traditional application security testing (AppSec) tools like software composition analysis (SCA), static application security testing (SAST), and dynamic application security testing (DAST).

The team understood that recent software supply chain attacks, such as those affecting Launchers, Platforms, and the Games themselves SolarWinds, 3CX, CircleCI, and Codecov, highlighted the importance of securing commercial and proprietary software assets. Malicious actors were deploying malware, tampering with source code, and exploiting exposed development secrets without relying on known vulnerabilities.

Defense in Depth: Advanced Software Security for Everyone

To address these challenges, the web3 gaming project adopted a multi-layered approach to software supply chain security (SSCS), incorporating the following key components:

1. Expanded Application Security Testing (AST):

The team integrated SCA, SAST, and DAST tools into their development workflows, ensuring that vulnerabilities in open-source components, source code, and running web applications were identified and addressed early in the development lifecycle.

2. Binary Analysis and Artifact Scanning:

To detect threats like malware and tampering that traditional AST tools were not designed to find, the team employed advanced binary analysis and artifact scanning techniques. These methods allowed them to examine compiled software binaries and uncover hidden threats that might otherwise go unnoticed.

3. Software Bill of Materials (SBOM):

The team adopted a comprehensive SBOM approach that covered not only open-source components but also commercial and proprietary software packages. This holistic SBOM provided complete visibility into individual binaries, artifacts, and packages, enabling deeper investigations into advanced attack methods.

4. Third-Party Software Risk Assessment:

To reduce material third-party risk, the team instituted their own security testing regimen on commercial applications. This approach allowed them to make more informed, risk-based decisions within their vendor evaluation process and maintain continuous visibility into new threats that might emerge from patches or updates.

5. Critical Release Exam:

The team implemented a critical release exam for their gaming platform, testing applications as they were deployed in production. This comprehensive analysis helped identify any significant changes or threats that might have been introduced during the development process.

By combining these strategies, the developers and security-conscious enterprises can create an engaging, immersive, and secure web3 gaming experience. Their proactive and layered approach to protecting their platform, players, and partners from an ever-evolving landscape of software supply chain threats. Through your unwavering commitment to security and innovation, set a new standard for the web3 gaming industry, demonstrating the power of a comprehensive and forward-thinking approach to software supply chain security.

You should quickly find and fix problems in your software or encourage your partners to do the same to reduce software security risks.

Analysis of a very popular Web3Gaming Launcher

This type of analysis does not take weeks or months, not even a day. It only takes minutes for initial results like these to be populated in minutes and hours to get a feel for your top risks and required changes. This saves your teams time and helps to prioritize remediation efforts by your top developers to handle the High level risks and be able to also leverage your lower level developers to handle the Medium and Low level risks if they make sense for that iteration. But at least your decision makers now know the risks they are carrying and can align Cybersecurity monitoring to create triggers if certain aspects are being targeted to help operationalize their remediation strategies.

Protecting your community with cybersecurity practices is important for showing partners that you take security seriously while delivering the best game.

No longer can you just rely on legacy antivirus to help protect you against threats!

Checkout how we look at Software Security:

https://cyberstrategyinstitute.com/secure-my-games-code/

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