Max Payne 3 multiplayer cheaters forced to play with each other

Given the complexity of modern games, they inevitably ship with glitches and vulnerabilities. Such is the case with Max Payne 3, which has a problem with multiplayer cheaters using invincibility hacks, infinite adrenaline exploits and more. Although most people are honest enough to enjoy the game without cheating, there's a small minority of gamers who can't resist the temptation of boosting their stats by exploiting the game. Most game developers rush to patch the bugs and, if anything, issue temporary or permanent bans. Rockstar, however, istaking a novel approach to sorting the bad apples.

The company warns that folks caught spoiling the multiplayer experience in Max Payne 3 will be condemned to a "Cheater's Pool" with other "confirmed miscreants." This goes for all nefarious players, whether they're gaming the leaderboards or using hacked saves, modded games or other exploits to gain an unfair advantage in Max Payne 3's multiplayer mode. Cheaters will have one opportunity to correct their behavior, though Rockstar doesn't explain how it will go about absolving abusers of their past transgressions. If you're caught a second time, you'll be stuck in the Cheater's Pool forever.

The developer says it's removing invalid leaderboard entries to ensure players actually earn their rank and it's calling for your help to find cheaters. If you see anyone doing something suspicious, email the company at maxpayne3.banhammer@rockstargames.com and include the platform you're playing on (PC, PS3 or Xbox 360), the cheater's screenname, a description of the offense and if possible, solid evidence such as a video or screenshot. Rockstar notes that it only wants to hear about real cheaters, so don't email them whining about folks using legit tactics like camping, however annoying it may be.

SMS flaw discovered in Windows Phone 7.5

Microsoft's mobile platform is coming under increased scrutiny after it was revealed that smartphones running Windows Phone 7.5 are at risk of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks that can disable their messaging functions.

Khaled Salemeh, who has been commenting about it on his Twitter account, discovered the flaw. He enlisted the help of WinRumors on Monday and both parties are in the process of disclosing the issue to Microsoft directly. According to WinRumors, the vulnerability works by sending a specially crafted SMS to a Windows Phone device, causing the handset to reboot with the messaging hub functionality disabled.

The site tested it on several different handset models including HTC's Titan and Samsung's Focus Flash. They also noted that the devices used both WP7.5 version 7740 and the Mango RTM build 7720.

"The attack is not device specific and appears to be an issue with the way the Windows Phone messaging hub handles messages," says the report. WinRumors also found that the bug could be triggered if a user sent a Facebook chat message or Windows Live Messenger message to someone in their contacts list.

The site found that this flaw affects other aspects of the Windows Phone operating system too. In particular, if a user has pinned a friend as a live tile on their device and that friend posts a particular message on Facebook, then the live tile will update and cause the device to lock up. One way to work around this is quickly removing the live tile as soon as the handset loads to the home screen.

WinRumors believes the issue relates to the way the mobile OS handles messages, and doesn't represent a security threat. There is no workaround to mitigate it though and for those experiencing a problem the only way of restoring messaging functions is to perform a hard reset of the handset.