Yeah, I'm not going to cry over anyone who plays that game.
I tried to play Valorant (I think that's the one, some Riot BS game) around six months ago. It bitched about secure boot or TPM or something and wouldn't play at all. Yeah, I'm not changing BIOS settings for an online game.
(source) nProtect Gameguard is an anti-cheat root toolkit developed by INCA Internet. GameGuard hides the game application process, monitors the entire memory range, terminates applications defined by the game vendor and INCA Internet to be cheats (QIP for example), blocks certain calls to Direct X functions and Windows APIs, keylogs your keyboard input, and auto-updates itself to change as new possible threats surface. It's known to cause pc instability which includes common BSoDs, deletion of harmless files and drivers, such as one for gaming keyboards/mice(example: Logitech G510 and G710+), anti-virus and firewall programs.
nProtect GameGuard is not like other anticheat programs out there. If you decide to remove the game, Gameguard will stay in your system as there is no uninstall feature.
Also an informative thread on Reddit (archived) is worth a read. Giant risk.
Some of the .dlls will be removed with the game but some will be hidden in your system. You have to manually uninstall them which includes editing the registry. Being there is in fact .exe files left in your system it can run when INCA decides to and it can still scan your system memory and keystrokes.
Not that this diminishes a lot of security concerns though. I'm just highlighting it because some people might jump to thinking that their computers are permanently infected after just one run, which isn't likely to be the case.
That could become a potential risk if a person keeps playing the game anyway and the software ends up being compromised (or used as an attack vector by a third party).
So just stop playing such games if you already have, remove the game and thoroughly clean out the anticheat software, and just avoid such games in the future. That should be sufficient for most people.
Oh, and there is still some possibility that there was at least a little bit of network/system snooping that's been shared to who knows where. A fairly legitimate privacy concern, though I'm not sure how much depth that data collection goes and whether or not most of the concern is during the game's runtime (keystroke-wise in particular).
Privacy aside, nprotect is so shit users have reported it causing significant hardware issues from stuff like disabling their fans all the way up to bricking their harddrives in extreme cases.
Incorporating anticheat or DRM software is almost always a stupid move to make from both a technical and sometimes even a gameplay standpoint, and I have fairly minimal tolerance for most modern implementations of it.
Unless you only want to play with friends then your choice for multiplayer is 1) cheaters and game is total shit or 2) some method to limit cheating.
The easy solution to rootkits is only use your PC for gaming. Then you get to play without cheaters and there's no worries about them spying on you.
I don't have any problem with rootkits - dual boot to play multiplayer games or use a separate PC - for me the only problem is transparency They have to tell you it's got one. In fact I'd rather Team Fortress 2 had a rootkit; I'd like to play it from time to time, but it's total shit being full of bots. Dual boot to play TF2 with no cheaters? Sign me up.
It can be used in conjunction with something like Chimpeon or AHK if you have the technical know how.
This is but a tip of the iceberg when it comes to circumventing Kernel level Anti-cheat. I recommend that you watch this video so you have more insight on the topic:
Several user posts on the purported Vanguard issues have also been shared to the main League subreddit but they have since been deleted.
One Riot reply suggested some of today’s alleged issues “wouldn’t be related to Vanguard” and offered up a simpler solution—restart impacted devices and run PC troubleshooting.
The same Riot staffer also suggested any aggrieved players could upload Riot Vanguard logs to the League support page to help “isolate what the issue is.” All the Reddit comments from that Rioter have since been removed.
I uninstalled LoL when upon opening Riot's launcher I was greeted with a 80% screen box gleefully telling me my PC was ready for Vanguard in the upcomming update.
And thus it also kicks out any chance for Linux not that I care. Used to play it until Dota2 came out and even that I no longer play, the genre isn't healthy for me.
Aren't the cheats that people are using kernel level anyway? Maybe it's just me but I don't see the difference between downloading cheats from a random Russian that is kernel level and downloading a game that uses kernel level anticheat to detect the kernel level cheats.
Could it possibly be the people who aren't cheating at all also don't trust companies who would install sketchy software with root access to their computers?
Yeah, I'm not going to cry over anyone who plays that game.
I tried to play Valorant (I think that's the one, some Riot BS game) around six months ago. It bitched about secure boot or TPM or something and wouldn't play at all. Yeah, I'm not changing BIOS settings for an online game.
That reminds me, I need to get SPT-AKI running, or maybe AlteredEscape.
They voted for... err bought into it!
Rootkits as anti-cheating measures really need to be the death knell of a game. It's utterly unacceptable.
Reject malware.
Return to hosted games.
That shit is why I won't play helldivers.
I haven't looked into that one yet. What does it install?
nProtect GameGuard
Also an informative thread on Reddit (archived) is worth a read. Giant risk.
You missed another important bit from that post:
Not that this diminishes a lot of security concerns though. I'm just highlighting it because some people might jump to thinking that their computers are permanently infected after just one run, which isn't likely to be the case.
That could become a potential risk if a person keeps playing the game anyway and the software ends up being compromised (or used as an attack vector by a third party).
So just stop playing such games if you already have, remove the game and thoroughly clean out the anticheat software, and just avoid such games in the future. That should be sufficient for most people.
Oh, and there is still some possibility that there was at least a little bit of network/system snooping that's been shared to who knows where. A fairly legitimate privacy concern, though I'm not sure how much depth that data collection goes and whether or not most of the concern is during the game's runtime (keystroke-wise in particular).
Privacy aside, nprotect is so shit users have reported it causing significant hardware issues from stuff like disabling their fans all the way up to bricking their harddrives in extreme cases.
Oh I very much agree.
Incorporating anticheat or DRM software is almost always a stupid move to make from both a technical and sometimes even a gameplay standpoint, and I have fairly minimal tolerance for most modern implementations of it.
Same, which is a shame because it seems like a real good time.
Unless you only want to play with friends then your choice for multiplayer is 1) cheaters and game is total shit or 2) some method to limit cheating.
The easy solution to rootkits is only use your PC for gaming. Then you get to play without cheaters and there's no worries about them spying on you.
I don't have any problem with rootkits - dual boot to play multiplayer games or use a separate PC - for me the only problem is transparency They have to tell you it's got one. In fact I'd rather Team Fortress 2 had a rootkit; I'd like to play it from time to time, but it's total shit being full of bots. Dual boot to play TF2 with no cheaters? Sign me up.
Your conditions are acceptable. I only want to play with friends.
Then you have nothing to complain about. Don't buy internet multiplayer games.
Couch multiplayer has always been the best multiplayer.
Fight me.
UT2004 multiplayer was so much fun. That kind of game is not possible these days without a way to prevent cheaters.
LAN party is couch co-op for PC. You keep someone from cheating by walking over and punching the guy who's doing it.
Wow you have 32 people you can call up and get them to bring their computer to your house LAN at a moment's notice. Bully for you.
First world problems I guess.
The hilarious part of the rootkit anticheat meta is it's long been defeated by using a second PC to run/inject cheats.
Is there anything written about this “using a second pc”?
Back in the day I used autohotkey on warcraft because I couldn’t be bothered spamming the keys.
I always ran it as administrator and was never banned.
I think HallucinatoryBeing reffers to game streaming to another PC with cheat software.
1st PC is playing the game and streaming the video output to 2nd PC.
2nd PC with cheat software is sending mouse position, mouse clicks and key inputs to 1st PC.
The anti-cheat on 1st PC only detects precise input which can not be differentiated from expert play.
But how is the screen streamed to another PC?
Via hdmi? (and capture on the cheating pc? - which would be slow)
or via streaming software (which could be detected.)
And then how is the keyboard and mouse inputs simulated by the cheating pc?
Splashtop is one good example.
It can be used in conjunction with something like Chimpeon or AHK if you have the technical know how.
This is but a tip of the iceberg when it comes to circumventing Kernel level Anti-cheat. I recommend that you watch this video so you have more insight on the topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwzIq04vd0M
DMA Cheats, AHK Pixel and Hardware Pixel Bots are the sections that focus on this.
lol - at 36minutes - “these arduino boards can even come with a waifu pattern”
Thank you for that link. I guessed from my own research that ahk keyboard inputs would be undetectable.
And like she says - the screen capture calls are used by many legitimate computer applications.
But amazing to see there is a whole community of experts that figured this out!
LoL addicts getting bricked by rootkits? kek
How much you wanna bet there are arbitration clauses in the Riot ToS?
topkek even
I uninstalled LoL when upon opening Riot's launcher I was greeted with a 80% screen box gleefully telling me my PC was ready for Vanguard in the upcomming update.
Fuck your malware.
And thus it also kicks out any chance for Linux not that I care. Used to play it until Dota2 came out and even that I no longer play, the genre isn't healthy for me.
I don't understand anything about this lol. Guess it's the positive to sticking to old offline games.
Aren't the cheats that people are using kernel level anyway? Maybe it's just me but I don't see the difference between downloading cheats from a random Russian that is kernel level and downloading a game that uses kernel level anticheat to detect the kernel level cheats.
Could it possibly be the people who aren't cheating at all also don't trust companies who would install sketchy software with root access to their computers?
The meat puppet players should just shut up, bend over and take it up the kernel. Whether they russian or not.
Bold strategy Cotton.
LoL lololololol
The biggest L here is that there are people that still play LoL