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Riot Games‘ kernel-level anti-cheat, Vanguard, has received an update that is allegedly altering system firmware to remove the ability of the user to access certain hardware associated with cheating.

Riot Games quoted one post discussing the anti-cheat, replying “congrats to the owners of a brand new $6k paperweight.” But how exactly does Vanguard’s new system make “paperweights” out of hardware?

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[-] roteradler@sh.itjust.works 3 points 19 hours ago

(if you're a cheater) [or if the algorithm gets something wrong]

[-] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 3 points 22 hours ago

Even if I am not a cheater, knowing what powers Riot have over my PC would be unacceptable. Its like saying the government is allowed to look what you are doing on PC, and you I need to worry because I am not a criminal. No game and its company should have this much power over my system. It's just a fucking videogame!

[-] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It doesn't brick any hardware at all.

They're using the IOMMU page table enforcement hardware (VT-d/AMD-Vi) to block DMA access to specific areas of memory.

This press coverage is largely just Valorant tooting their own horn. It will block the current generation of DMA hardware but there are several ways to bypass the IOMMU enforcement via hardware.

So, they simply rendered the current generation of DMA hardware obsolete. There will be new DMA cheats pretending to be Thunderbolt 4 controller devices (which are trusted to do their own IOMMU enforcement) or a PCI-e ATS device.

[-] ZkhqrD5o@lemmy.world 41 points 2 days ago

Cheating or not, if they destroy property, it's illegal and unethical.

[-] vithigar@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago

Good thing they didn't then. Nothing was actually bricked, people are misusing the term.

[-] ne0n@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Still way too much access. Lock them out of the fucking kernel.

[-] vithigar@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

I agree. I'm not saying kernel level anti-cheat is acceptable, but the reporting on this has been a disaster. Making things up to try to make them look worse doesn't actually help anyone.

[-] xep@discuss.online 1 points 17 hours ago

This is what cheaters do, unfortunately. Misreporting about Vanguard happened even on the first day of its release.

[-] omarfw@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

does non-kernal level anticheat work anymore if basically all cheaters operate at the kernel level at this point?

[-] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 38 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Just another reason for me to avoid these types of games. These systems are notorious of false positives and bricking a users system, cheating or not, is going away too far and why they should never be allowed that level of access.

[-] iltoroargento@startrek.website 11 points 2 days ago

If they brick your system, is it a fair response to brick their CEO and company property? I feel like that's the recourse here.

[-] 30p87@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

I'd like a CEO paperweight. Literally just a chunk of its body as weight.

[-] 87Six@lemmy.zip 2 points 17 hours ago

I’d like a CEO paperweight

So just a CEO?

[-] noxypaws@pawb.social 16 points 2 days ago

if I'm reading this right there's no hardware damage at all, the "paperweight" comment just means they've successfully mitigated against a specific device, rendering it useless for this purpose, but it still works as intended against vulnerable games.

Kind of a nothing burger honestly, if I'm understanding right. Scary that they have that much access tho, which is the real problem, since they're leaving a whole bunch of other peoples' front doors wide open

[-] DrMartinu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 2 days ago

I didn't want to play these games anyway. You dont have to keep convincing me not to, riot.

[-] mrfriki@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Why the fuck would anyone install kernel level back doors on their systems just baffles me.

[-] christopher@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago
[-] vithigar@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago

No, because it's misreported. Nothing was bricked.

this post was submitted on 22 May 2026
63 points (88.9% liked)

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