this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
29 points (85.4% liked)

PC Gaming

8943 readers
982 users here now

For PC gaming news and discussion. PCGamingWiki

Rules:

  1. Be Respectful.
  2. No Spam or Porn.
  3. No Advertising.
  4. No Memes.
  5. No Tech Support.
  6. No questions about buying/building computers.
  7. No game suggestions, friend requests, surveys, or begging.
  8. No Let's Plays, streams, highlight reels/montages, random videos or shorts.
  9. No off-topic posts/comments, within reason.
  10. Use the original source, no clickbait titles, no duplicates. (Submissions should be from the original source if possible, unless from paywalled or non-english sources. If the title is clickbait or lacks context you may lightly edit the title.)

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
29
Riot Games Now Requires Kernel-Level Anti-Cheat Software for League of Legends, Following Valorant's Implementation (tuta.com)
submitted 1 year ago by Dehydrated to c/[email protected]
3 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10958052

Vanguard, the controversial anti-cheat software initially attached to Valorant, is now also coming to League of Legends.

Summary:

The article discusses Riot Games' requirement for players to install their Vanguard anti-cheat software, which runs at the kernel level, in order to play their games such as League of Legends and Valorant. The software aims to combat cheating by scanning for known vulnerabilities and blocking them, as well as monitoring for suspicious activity while the game is being played. However, the use of kernel-level software raises concerns about privacy and security, as it grants the company complete access to users' devices.

The article highlights that Riot Games is owned by Tencent, a Chinese tech giant that has been involved in censorship and surveillance activities in China. This raises concerns that Vanguard could potentially be used for similar purposes, such as monitoring players' activity and restricting free speech in-game.

Ultimately, the decision to install Vanguard rests with players, but the article urges caution and encourages players to consider the potential risks and implications before doing so.

top 3 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Pie in the sky idea, but anti-cheat feels like something that should be built in to OSs as part of anti-malware. So instead of game devs inventing their own invasive anti-cheats chock full of kernel-level vulnerabilities, you build the kernel-level parts into the kernels and then applications can request assurances such as: don’t allow my program to be debugged, patched, don’t allow anything with these checksums to run or these kernel APIs to be used. The things kernel-level anti-cheat software are supposed to do can absolutely be useful in a wider security context, but it’s hard to trust those building them because they compromise security in another way or are believed to be using them for malicious purposes as well.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

this is actually a pretty based idea

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Never had a desire to play either of these games. Now no desire to play anything from Riot.