Would Blizzard consider this to be "malicious"?

[Creamo]

I have developed an open-source project which reads through WoW's process memory space. I originally developed this project for the sheer ability to read (NOT write) when certain variable values in an addon exist, as an extended "event handler" application. I have read the ToS and EULA, and at the time, this appeared rather harmless. However, the EULA and ToS has changed with the new 1.10.1 patch, which was released overnight. Reading the recent changes has made me unsure of whether or not Blizzard would do more than simply "frown apon" an application which searches for explicit addon variables.

My guess from the beginning was that they would find my project to be harmful or malicious. For example, a way to extract account information, etc. To counteract these thoughts, I decided to release my project as open-source, hoping to prove that it only searches and reads from the specified addons memory space, and nothing else.

So I was wondering, what are the community's thoughts on this?

[tardmrr]

Regardless of your intent, reading directly from WoW's memory is against the ToS.

[Creamo]

I don't suppose anyone could point me to (and possibly explain) which section(s) of the ToS/EULA state that reading from process memory is considered a violation? Seems like such a harmless thing to do, unless the intent is to retrieve classified information, such as account information, or perhaps to attempt the editing of memory values, etc. -- none of which this project supports nor is intended to be implemented in the future. In addition, proof of this project's non-malicious intent should be easilly visible with the provided open-source.

The application merely loops through an addon's memory space, searching for changes in specific strings predefined during project build-time, and executes LUA scripts accordingly. The basis for this application could be for limited MySQL extensibility, for example. Something that the community has been wishing for since the implementation of the WoW API.

I suppose I could always use the alternative SavedVariables method, however it would greatly limit the dynamic capabilities -- and void the security -- that could have been achieved otherwise. In other words, SavedVariables are only read by WoW at the start of WoW.exe, and therefore, whatever information is altered in the SavedVariables.lua scripts would be pointless until the restart of WoW.exe... And aside from that, saving information (such as MySQL database connection information) onto a user's computer in plain-text is entirely unsafe for the owner of that information. But if everything was predefined and securely managed by the owner/addon developer, then everything could easily fall into place... That's why I started this project, that's why I wish to release it as open-source, and that's why it would be rather sad to see Blizzard give the thumbs down to something like it.

[Esamynn]

I think the most relevent section from the Terms of Use is the one quoted below from section 2. More specifically part (iii).

Section 2 C:

C. You agree that you will not (i) modify or cause to be modified any files that are a part of a World of Warcraft installation; (ii) create or use cheats, "mods", and/or hacks, or any other third-party software designed to modify the World of Warcraft experience; (iii) use any third-party software that intercepts, "mines", or otherwise collects information from or through World of Warcraft; or (iv) allows players who are playing characters aligned with the "Alliance" faction to chat or otherwise communicate directly with players who are playing characters aligned with the "Horde" faction, or vice versa. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you may update World of Warcraft with authorized patches and updates distributed by Blizzard, and use authorized Third Party User Interfaces as set forth in Section 13(g), below.