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Hacking into Kernel Anti-Cheats: How cheaters bypass Faceit, ESEA and Vanguard anti-cheats (www.youtube.com)

submitted 10 months ago by mr_MADAFAKA@lemmy.ml to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.ml

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[-] ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca 65 points 10 months ago

Amazing video! I like how it explores the history of cheating and how anti-cheat software hasn't gotten rid of cheaters, but only made them less obvious.

Wall hacking is obvious to other players, but a program that pulls the trigger when crosshairs are over an enemy isn't. That leads to people thinking that cheating doesn't exist because nobody is flying around the map only getting headshots. People are willing to install this rootkit to their machine because their lobbies don't have cheaters. But they still do. It's that their lobbies don't have obvious cheaters.

Also an interesting point that Riot has done little to deal with smurfs in their games. Now players are more likely to think they got matched with a smurf rather than a cheater.

[-] ampersandrew@kbin.social 9 points 10 months ago

From my experience with fighting games, people are also prone to mislabeling others as smurfs when they just know one or two more things about the game that give them an edge. I've observed replays in Street Fighter 6 that people claimed were smurfs, but they were absolutely playing at the level their rank said they were.

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[-] dan1101@lemm.ee 54 points 10 months ago

It's frustrating how much trouble people will go to to cheat in a game that's supposed to be fun.

[-] Perfide@reddthat.com 38 points 10 months ago

Most of the fun for the people breaking anti-cheat is the actual breaking of anti-cheat, not the cheating itself. It's the script kiddies who use the already completed work with little to no effort involved who are doing most of the actual cheating.

[-] trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Most of the fun for cheat devs (that sell cheats) is the thousands they get off of children and neckbeards paying stupid amounts for their cheats.

[-] littlebluespark@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Ironically enough, those that sell cheats are more often cheating the cheat devs that wrote the script in the first place, not being able to do so on their own.

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[-] 30p87@feddit.de 13 points 10 months ago

It's much more frustrating to see "anti cheat" and game developers forcing us to install a bad OS and a rootkit, for the benefit of fewer 10 year olds cheating. How about you develop server side anti cheat, instead of slowing down games by 25%?

[-] filcuk@lemmy.zip 4 points 10 months ago

Cheats are too sophisticated for that. Server doesn't have enough data. It's getting to the point where even the client might not, by using a 2nd device with image recognition for example.

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[-] ColdWater@lemmy.ca 7 points 10 months ago

More like to flex their programing skill

[-] narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee 26 points 10 months ago

Client-side anti-cheat doesn't make any sense. The player will always control the client if they really want to (and they have every right to do so).

AI-supported server-side cheat detection should be where it's at. I doubt it'll be much worse than the half-baked "solutions" we currently have.

Running essentially part of a game in ring 0 is completely unacceptable. Vanguard even runs when the game does not. It's just cocky the publishers pretend like their anti-cheat is secure. Someone finding an exploit in the anti-cheat can use it to own systems running it.

[-] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

If a CCP-comtrolled company wants kernel-level access, the game should be banned. Full stop.

[-] matcha_addict@lemy.lol 14 points 10 months ago

But if a non-CCP controlled company wants kernel level access, then I would love to give them that control!

[-] WetBeardHairs@lemmy.ml 4 points 10 months ago

Both are bad. One is objectively more bad.

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[-] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 3 points 9 months ago

The real solution is designing around the problem. Pretend everyone has an aimbot and make aim matter less.

Players want to pull the trigger the moment their crosshairs touch the enemy? The game could just... do that. It's only an instant-win button if, for some reason, bullets are perfectly accurate when you just whipped your mouse around to land on a guy.

These games already add inaccuracy for movement. Why not for mouse movement? If you're holding an angle and someone walks into it, yeah, you should definitely hit them; you correctly predicted what they'd do. If you're smoothly tracking to align with someone, you should have great odds. If you did a 360 no-scope, get real. Why would that be any more accurate than leaping around wildly and hip-firing a submachinegun? A rifle bullet will be more accurate out the barrel, but you've expressed no precise control over where the barrel is pointed.

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[-] Fizz@lemmy.nz 23 points 10 months ago

I watched this video yesterday. Holy fuck it was so good for someone who only had 3k subscribers.

I actually believed that kernal level anti cheats stopped all cheating. I had never considered the lengths people would go to.

[-] rdri@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I actually believed that kernal level anti cheats stopped all cheating.

This is what allows AC devs to continue working on their useless code that only makes a mess out of everyone's PCs and getting money with it. Same with DRM devs.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 6 points 10 months ago

All software has bugs, so you'll never have a 100% effective anti-cheat. It's going to be an arms race between cheaters and game devs, and the cheaters will always find a way.

All kernel-level anti-cheat does is introduce security vulnerabilities to your system and delay the inevitable.

There will also always be external methods to cheating, like screen recording based.

[-] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

MSI is releasing a monitor, with cheating built in... Granted it only "highlights" things but still.

[-] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 20 points 10 months ago

Fascinating. I work with FPGAs and previously with openCV on a Pi-based platform. The DMA hacks are a technical tour de force.

[-] Duke_Nukem_1990@feddit.de 13 points 10 months ago

Incredible video. I wish the creator much success in the future :)

[-] sulunia@lemmy.eco.br 11 points 10 months ago

So, what's next? Mouse and keyboard DRM? Also, not sure how'd cheaters would cheat in lan games nowadays. Great video btw

[-] jvrava9@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 10 months ago

We got a solution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne9bmMX82iY

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this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024

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