Is it time to start a campaign against kernel-level anticheat?

On the contrary, I think kernel level anticheat should be illegal

On areweanticheatyet.com it seems like the percentage of denied/broken keeps getting higher and higher :(

I guess it makes sense, new games come out with anticheat, and rarely do new games come out without anticheat.

While this seems like a trivial issue (Just buy a third SSD for Windows and dual boot)

That's not trivial at all. Don't let anyone let you think otherwise.

It should be said that I'm not against games detecting cheaters and banning them from online play. It's very specifically kernel-level anticheats that I can't stand on principle.

I think it should also be noted that the games industry is not audited for security to the same degree as a lot of other industries. So vulnerabilities may not be found until years after launch and then go unpatched indefinitely because the company has already moved on to the next thing.

Hell, one of the older CoD games had an RCE vulnerability that as far as I'm aware is still not patched.

Plus, major publishers like EA are now pushing to create their own kernel-level anticheat in-house. Why should anyone trust them to create a secure piece of software that runs with the highest permissions possible when they can't even be trusted to create stable, functional games?

I usually solve this issue by... just playing something else.

It sounds hard, but I assure you, nothing is impossible.

Money talks.

Don't buy the game.

It's been time. Game companies have no right to access that level of any system I paid for. If they want to use kernal level anti-cheat on their consoles, that's on them. But my computer? Absolutely not. They don't have a right to that, when I bought the computer I didn't agree to that in a EULA or TOS, and they do not make it apparent that their games carry this level of anti-cheat at sale.

There us no need. CrowdStrike was such a disaster for Microsoft that they are already on the path to locking down the kernel. Noboby but MS will have kernel access eventually. Give it a few years (and 1-2 Windows versions)

With you on this, regardless of the method used, no app has any business running or snooping outside of the container that it was set up in. And this doesn’t just apply to desktop operating systems, mobile and entertainment consoles too.

I’d even take it a step further, that nonsense shouldn’t be on my machine in the first place.

Want to run anticheat stuff? Run it on your own crappy servers at your own cost and processing power. Live detect it through packets that are sent to you and are being processed, be it voice or input.

Whatever happens on my machine is none of your business.

This issue would be solved / non existent if matchmaking was not the only option for playing online game, which wouldn't be an issue if publishers stopped being so greedy and predatory when it comes to player retention, which wouldn't be an issue if the economic system we live in didn't promote this toxic behaviour.

So yeah, kernel based anticheats are mostly just a symptom of a larger problem, the rotten video games industry

competitive multiplayer

I feel it should be added that this is one use of anti-cheat, but it also gets used on noncompetitive single player games, too.

Usually if a game has micro-transactions, but also to "protect our IP" as has been seen with a number of older non-MTX single player games recently being retrofitted with it.

Arguing that buying something means you own it is much more digestible for the general public. Arguing that the video game codes run slightly different on your machine than you would like is esoteric and a non-starter. This is not a matter for the government, just don’t buy shitty games. Literally no game is required to be bought.

Good post thank you.

Totally agree. Went all-in on Linux earlier this year and it was all working pretty good but there is really no solution when all your buddies are playing fortnite.

The multiple "game streaming" services our there wasn't really cutting it either. I recall reading that Microsoft was going to be more strict with allowing kernel level anticheat but I don't remember exactly where in saw that and I'm too lazy to Google. I hope with all the new PC handhelds coming out (steam deck, etc), that major companies start pushing for this or figuring out a workaround.

This will take a rogue agent to send malware or otherwise brick all machines by kernel injection. The crowd strike event poked a hole in the dam. This needs a full exploit to get major traction beyond game studios moving to the next kernel level drm/exploit engine.

Now that Stop Killing Games is actually being taken seriously

600k signatures to go. Link for EU citizens.

We could add the fact that they don't work to the campaign. Why bother using them if there's just as much cheating happening?

I know it's easy to say, especially in your case when its a kid, but just dont buy or play games with kernel AC.

These companies only understand money.

Anti cheat should be server side.

The ship named "software does shit I don't like on my own hardware" sailed the day proprietary software became a thing.

Mind you, it's scary how many people applaud kernel-level anticheat. "This game was just ruined by hackers until they added kernel-level anticheat. Now it's great again!"

How would a campaign against kernel-level anticheat "succeed" exactly? More awareness? More people boycotting kernel-level anticheat? Laws prohibiting the practice?

Like, obviously I'm never running any software that involves kernel-level anticheat, but I'm a Gentoo neckbeard with an EFF-approved tinfoil hat surgically attached to my scalp.

(Hell, I think it would be great if most of the games out there had cheater and bot servers where it was encouraged to run your cheat tools and/or bots. If they allowed that but just kept it separate from non-tool/non-bot players, that'd be a fantastic way to get kids more interested in STEM.)

(Also, if anyone made and sold a boardgame that made players want to cheat (in a bug-not-feature kind of way), it would get negative reviews and no one would buy it. In a way, kernel-level anticheat can almost be considered a type of "externality". The game studio, rather than going to the trouble to tune their game to make cheating less appealing, they break their users' computers and invade their privacy. And the game studio then rakes in more money as a result.)

But how would we get through to normie 12-year-olds who just want to play Valorant and not have their face constantly rubbed in the dirt by "hackers"?

Now that Stop Killing Games is actually being taken seriously

It is? They're still at 39%. Let's not call victory before reaching the start of the race. Getting to 100% will just be the beginning.

Also, kernel level anti-cheat seems like an easy thing to fix: don't buy the game. Be a little bit more principled and selective in your purchasing choices.

CrowdStrike was unheard of outside of the corporate world before the ordeal and tbh nobody has ever heard of it afterwards again.

Maybe you're not coming across them regularly but they're well known outside the corporate world - not to the extent of Microsoft but it's not the last time they'll be in the spotlight.

but I do NOT see how a video game needs to have an anti cheat with a kernel module. How does that benefit me, the customer paying to be able to play said video game?

It doesn't but they don't care. People still buy the game and they make lots of money. They have no reason to stop doing it. Unfortunately, you're in the minority of those who care and will avoid installing a game if it has kernel anti-cheat.

Yes

And while Microsoft fucks up plenty, at least they're a corporation with a reputation to uphold, and I believe they even have a QA team or 2.

Lol. Lmao even

EAC & BattleEye aren't kernel level. They still suck, but kernel level is equivalent to Vanguard from Riot which is unacceptably invasive.

I was boycotting it before it was even in the news.

likely only way this is going to change is if someone starts exploiting the kernel level anticheats and causes noticeable consequences for people who dont care they have it installed. In essence, its just (hopefully) difficult to use rootkit waiting to be used anyway.

Now it’s built in DRM on Windows 11. And it’s already breaking games.

https://www.techspot.com/news/105709-windows-11-24h2-update-breaks-ubisoft-games-fix.html

Drag picked up Helldivers recently, which uses a KLA. Drag's had no problems with it. But drag's dragon also downloaded it, and it completely borked its computer. The voltage regulator chip for the CPU failed, and its computer started crashing on completely different games, even after uninstalling Helldivers.

I'm late to the thread but am I understanding this correctly? The issue is gaming on a Linux or non-windows pc, right? Also, the general sentiment in this chat room is to not buy the games requiring windows, right?

Are you all high or just idiots? What cinpany is going to give a flying fuck if 1% of their customer base stops buying. 100% of all Linux gamers would have to commit to even make the 1% dent. 🤣🤣🤣