Players rave and rant about the wonders of kernel level anti cheats, and how games like Valorant barely have any cheaters compared VAC secured Counter Strike...
Not only can it be bypassed, but anti cheat with kernel level access can be used to distribute malware or spyware if it is compromised. Whether your personal anecdotes reflect the actual statistics or not, these anti cheats are dangerous and are not impenetrable.
Yes it requires access to the pc but it’s still a huge vulnerability. Many things can gain access to your pc but lack the permissions to do any damage. In this case simply having genshin impact installed put you at significantly more risk.
To your 2nd edit yes it is to do with it being installed. The user or the attack installing the anticheat is still the anticheat being used to exploit.
As mentioned, cheaters can already bypass it, so what’s the point? As for security, by definition it infects your whole system and has access to everything. That’s what kernel-level is.
Actually, a driver can be an infection, just like any other program can be malicious. But I do agree that from a system access standpoint, running the Vanguard kernel driver is not much different than using kernel-level EAC/BattleEye. Except the annoying starting at boot part.
A program without elevated privileges already has access to almost all important things on your computer anyway. Luckily flatpak supports sandboxing which protects from exploits in online games.
Seems like a bad faith argument, seat belts are so that your skull (hopefully) doesn’t detach and fly through the window if you get into an accident - a life and death safety measure. It’s way more dramatic to make a fuss about that. However, in both cases you can choose to just not drive (or play the game) which people are choosing to do.
Then again, none of your comments here seem like they’re in good faith, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
Cars are actually a great analogy here but probably not in the way that user intended. The way we use them and the scale at which we use them are inherently unsafe, but seat belts and air bags are an illusion sold to make us believe that we solved the problem as best we can, even though we didn’t.
Having seat belts is objectively better than not having seat belts. It doesn’t mean that the way transportation is structured around cars in the US, for instance, is safe enough. Having kernel level anti-cheat may result in fewer cheaters or less obvious cheaters, but it doesn’t mean it’s worth giving that company such deep access to your computer, as the video shows.
Honestly a few cheaters in a game is way less of a problem than letting a company, especially one owned by tencent, have root access to my pc. Anyway in my experience with league the cheaters are either mostly nonexistent or subtle enough that it doesn’t impact the games. Also nobody in here’s going to have a rank that’s actually important and I don’t see why they can’t have the fun anticheat in tournaments and ranked but leave it out of the other things.
Not only can it be bypassed, but anti cheat with kernel level access can be used to distribute malware or spyware if it is compromised. Whether your personal anecdotes reflect the actual statistics or not, these anti cheats are dangerous and are not impenetrable.
Do you have any sources on this happening? Or is it a personal anecdote hehe
There was a security vulnerabilitiy in the genshin impact anti cheat awhile ago.
That’s exactly the sort of source I was asking for
Edit: the driver file was used after gaining access to the pc. So quite an involved attack but still really bad.
Edit 2: so actually it’s nothing to do with having it installed. As the attacker installed it.
Yes it requires access to the pc but it’s still a huge vulnerability. Many things can gain access to your pc but lack the permissions to do any damage. In this case simply having genshin impact installed put you at significantly more risk.
To your 2nd edit yes it is to do with it being installed. The user or the attack installing the anticheat is still the anticheat being used to exploit.
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It was already done through genshin impact anti cheat. It will be done in Vangard.
With that the attacker installed that driver after gaining access. So having the driver installed wasn’t the issue.
What do you think ‘gaining access’ entailed?
Nothing to do with the game.
As mentioned, cheaters can already bypass it, so what’s the point? As for security, by definition it infects your whole system and has access to everything. That’s what kernel-level is.
By definition a driver is not an infection.
Actually, a driver can be an infection, just like any other program can be malicious. But I do agree that from a system access standpoint, running the Vanguard kernel driver is not much different than using kernel-level EAC/BattleEye. Except the annoying starting at boot part.
A program without elevated privileges already has access to almost all important things on your computer anyway. Luckily flatpak supports sandboxing which protects from exploits in online games.
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Seems like a bad faith argument, seat belts are so that your skull (hopefully) doesn’t detach and fly through the window if you get into an accident - a life and death safety measure. It’s way more dramatic to make a fuss about that. However, in both cases you can choose to just not drive (or play the game) which people are choosing to do.
Then again, none of your comments here seem like they’re in good faith, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
Cars are actually a great analogy here but probably not in the way that user intended. The way we use them and the scale at which we use them are inherently unsafe, but seat belts and air bags are an illusion sold to make us believe that we solved the problem as best we can, even though we didn’t.
As someone who has been in a few accidents (both as driver and as passenger), seatbelts saves lives. I wouldn’t be here typing this if they didn’t.
Having seat belts is objectively better than not having seat belts. It doesn’t mean that the way transportation is structured around cars in the US, for instance, is safe enough. Having kernel level anti-cheat may result in fewer cheaters or less obvious cheaters, but it doesn’t mean it’s worth giving that company such deep access to your computer, as the video shows.
Yes, agreed
More like my aunt pointed a loaded gun at the back of her seatrest and it went off when she hit the brakes too hard
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Honestly a few cheaters in a game is way less of a problem than letting a company, especially one owned by tencent, have root access to my pc. Anyway in my experience with league the cheaters are either mostly nonexistent or subtle enough that it doesn’t impact the games. Also nobody in here’s going to have a rank that’s actually important and I don’t see why they can’t have the fun anticheat in tournaments and ranked but leave it out of the other things.
Isn’t the whole point of this article to point out that no, in fact, you won’t ?
Less volume perhaps, certainly less obvious, but not “without”.