this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 59 points 9 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (3 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.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 9 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 38 points 9 months ago (1 children)

For many people the challenge of breaking it is the fun. Just like lots of very wealthy people who don't have to steal will steal for the fun of it.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 9 months 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 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months 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 3 points 9 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

More like to flex their programing skill

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago (2 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 19 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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 5 points 9 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months 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 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Both are bad. One is objectively more bad.

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[–] RubberElectrons 21 points 9 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.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months 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

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months 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.

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