Hacking into Kernel Anti-Cheats: How cheaters bypass Faceit, ESEA and Vanguard anti-cheats : linux

[–] ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca 56 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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.

[–] pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.cafe 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The only way to stop it is to stop letting people play with strangers and to go back to local LAN sessions, or for games to be private only with temporary invite codes that have to be shared manually, with a maximum number of users allowed.

Online anonymity really has ultimately harmed us as a species and conferred little if any benefit.

[–] ampersandrew@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

There are plenty of ways to curb cheating. It still happens in fighting games too, but the way the genre works makes it far less prevalent. FPS games these days are largely designed around things that are hard for humans but easy for computers to do while looking like humans. Just spitballing, but if aiming was less of a concern, like it might be in the likes of old James Bond games or Metroid Prime, there are other ways to build competitive strategy around an FPS besides how well you can get your tiny crosshair to line up over a tiny target. Otherwise though, I'm with you on it being inevitable. There's no way to truly stop it.

[–] shasta@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago

I'm a fan of projectile-based objective-based shooters like Tribes. It's a shame they are not more popular. Just the nature of the game design makes aimbots nearly useless.

[–] dan1101@lemm.ee 46 points 2 years ago (4 children)

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

[–] Perfide@reddthat.com 36 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

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 2 years 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.

[–] dan1101@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago

Yeah I could see the appeal of breaking the anti-cheat code. But the actual cheaters find the cheats, often pay for them, install what could easily be malware, and take the risk of getting banned for using them. I don't get the appeal.

[–] 30p87@feddit.de 12 points 2 years ago (3 children)

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 2 years 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.

[–] ampersandrew@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

They've all got server side anti cheat too.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Server side AC is there to stop people doing actions that are impossible, not to stop possible actions from being automated. Server AC can stop people from moving too quickly, for example. The server knows your position, velocity, and the amount that velocity can change in a tick. It can prevent anything from going above this. It can't tell if you clicked on someone's head really quickly, or accessed memory you shouldn't be allowed to access.

[–] vintageballs@feddit.de 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Which, as this video shows, client side AC can't either. So there is absolutely 0 benefit to these invasive solutions, effectively making Server side AC the only sensible solution to game developers who are actually interested in safety (instead of syphoning of user data)

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 years ago

Pretty much every game has server side AC. They aren't mutually exclusive. I'm certain Valorant is varifying data on the server and not accepting any packets a user sends without question.

[–] ColdWater@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 years ago

More like to flex their programing skill

[–] narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee 22 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

[–] matcha_addict@lemy.lol 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

[–] WetBeardHairs@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Both are bad. One is objectively more bad.

[–] matcha_addict@lemy.lol 2 points 2 years ago

Which one is objectively more bad and how?

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 20 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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 17 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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.

[–] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years 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 9 points 2 years ago

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

[–] sulunia@lemmy.eco.br 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 1 points 2 years ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://www.piped.video/watch?v=ne9bmMX82iY

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 5 points 2 years ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/watch?v=RwzIq04vd0M

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] xilliah@beehaw.org 0 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I've always wondered why not just ban their key from the platform entirely? Or is it free to play?

[–] Cqrd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 2 years ago

The anti-cheats are there to detect the cheats, not necessarily stop them (though they usually do that too, at least the basic ones). When they're detected, they can ban accounts or whatever. They usually do this in waves to prevent cheat developers from knowing exactly when their cheats were detected and what triggered the anti-cheat.

[–] Jako301@feddit.de 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Most games suffering from cheaters are at least partially free. LOL, Valorant, COD, CSGO, Fortnite, Overwatch, Various MMOs.

Getting a new bot-leveled account for any of these games costs somewhere from 0.30€ to 5€. Ban one account and they just use the next one for pretty much free.

Most of these games do account ban waves every few weeks to months, but if its this easy to create new accounts that's useless. IP bans aren't possible anymore since public IPs are dynamic and change every few days to weeks. Hardware bans, while technically possible, can still be circumvented easily by spoofing your mac-address and serial numbers.

The only way to minimise cheating would be linking your Social security number (or the equivalent for your Country) with your account, which leads to a lot of privacy issues. And even that isn't foolproof. LoL in Korea already uses this system and still has issues with a lot of trolls, scripters and wintraders.

[–] lorty@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

Because having a low barrier of entry and smurfing is part of the business strategies of these sort of games.

[+] kadu@lemmy.world -22 points 2 years ago (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] ZeroHora@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

Man if the only way to break the condom was with the expensive DMA cheat and shit like that I could agree with your logic but a $10 arduino and 2min google search is enough.

[–] Cornelius@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

My sweet summer child, I will see you in 5 years when Valorant cheating is as bad as CS:GO cheating at its peak.

Kernel AC circumventation will only improve, as there's many cheaters putting money in this technology. In 5 years this stuff will be commonplace and mean that these solutions will be ineffective.

Linux Gaming