Riot Games' kernal level anti-cheat, Vanguard, has received an update which is allegedly altering system firmware associated with cheating.
Riot Games‘ kernel-level anti-cheat, Vanguard, has received an update that is allegedly altering system firmware to remove the ability of the user to access certain hardware associated with cheating.
Riot Games quoted one post discussing the anti-cheat, replying “congrats to the owners of a brand new $6k paperweight.” But how exactly does Vanguard’s new system make “paperweights” out of hardware?
They’re using the IOMMU page table enforcement hardware (VT-d/AMD-Vi) to block DMA access to specific areas of memory.
This press coverage is largely just Valorant tooting their own horn. It will block the current generation of DMA hardware but there are several ways to bypass the IOMMU enforcement via hardware.
So, they simply rendered the current generation of DMA hardware obsolete. There will be new DMA cheats pretending to be Thunderbolt 4 controller devices (which are trusted to do their own IOMMU enforcement) or a PCI-e ATS device.
if I’m reading this right there’s no hardware damage at all, the “paperweight” comment just means they’ve successfully mitigated against a specific device, rendering it useless for this purpose, but it still works as intended against vulnerable games.
Kind of a nothing burger honestly, if I’m understanding right. Scary that they have that much access tho, which is the real problem, since they’re leaving a whole bunch of other peoples’ front doors wide open
Just another reason for me to avoid these types of games. These systems are notorious of false positives and bricking a users system, cheating or not, is going away too far and why they should never be allowed that level of access.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
No game suggestions, friend requests, surveys, or begging.
No Let’s Plays, streams, highlight reels/montages, random videos or shorts.
No off-topic posts/comments, within reason.
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.)
It doesn’t brick any hardware at all.
They’re using the IOMMU page table enforcement hardware (VT-d/AMD-Vi) to block DMA access to specific areas of memory.
This press coverage is largely just Valorant tooting their own horn. It will block the current generation of DMA hardware but there are several ways to bypass the IOMMU enforcement via hardware.
So, they simply rendered the current generation of DMA hardware obsolete. There will be new DMA cheats pretending to be Thunderbolt 4 controller devices (which are trusted to do their own IOMMU enforcement) or a PCI-e ATS device.
Cheating or not, if they destroy property, it’s illegal and unethical.
if I’m reading this right there’s no hardware damage at all, the “paperweight” comment just means they’ve successfully mitigated against a specific device, rendering it useless for this purpose, but it still works as intended against vulnerable games.
Kind of a nothing burger honestly, if I’m understanding right. Scary that they have that much access tho, which is the real problem, since they’re leaving a whole bunch of other peoples’ front doors wide open
Just another reason for me to avoid these types of games. These systems are notorious of false positives and bricking a users system, cheating or not, is going away too far and why they should never be allowed that level of access.
If they brick your system, is it a fair response to brick their CEO and company property? I feel like that’s the recourse here.
Why the fuck would anyone install kernel level back doors on their systems just baffles me.
I didn’t want to play these games anyway. You dont have to keep convincing me not to, riot.
Isn’t this illegal?