Are anticheats safe?

[MootEndymion752]

Anticheats tend to make PCs crash, at least from what I heard. Is this true, because lots of crashes happen a game is loading.

[DRKGMR-A]

no they can be used to spy on you and know everything from the computer... they have kernel access , especially riot vanguard (VALORANT)

[Spotty]

20 minutes ago, MootEndymion752 said:

Anticheats tend to make PCs crash, at least from what I heard. Is this true, because lots of crashes happen a game is loading.

Do they? That's not a problem I've ever experienced. Performance issues/crashes seems to be more commonly associated with DRM software (like Denuvo) than anti cheat software. 

Anti cheat software like battleeye and easy anti cheat don't really seem to have any significant impact on performance or stability, at least not that I have ever noticed. They're used in so many games that if it was a problem it would be pretty well known (and probably fixed). In situations where the anti cheat is actually preventing the game from launching, it's probably intended behaviour such as when detecting cheat software running (or false positives).

[jaslion]

By design of the current ones no.

 

They are pretty much rootkits and trojans that have kernel level access to your pc and can basically get ANY info they want.

 

All it would tale is a single bad actor and they could have all the information they could ever want from you.

 

A lot of them also are not properly removed or removed at all on uninstall of the game and can be so tangled into the os that you need a fresh windows to be entirely rid of them.

 

As for crashing that they dont do.

[whispous]

I've not had any notable issues with anticheats causing my PC to crash in over 20 years. I think you made that bit up in your head.

[Mark Kaine]

43 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Do they? That's not a problem I've ever experienced. Performance issues/crashes seems to be more commonly associated with DRM software (like Denuvo) than anti cheat software. 

Anti cheat software like battleeye and easy anti cheat don't really seem to have any significant impact on performance or stability, at least not that I have ever noticed. They're used in so many games that if it was a problem it would be pretty well known (and probably fixed). In situations where the anti cheat is actually preventing the game from launching, it's probably intended behaviour such as when detecting cheat software running (or false positives).

huh, no? lots of people having performance issues, specifically with the rootkit type ones (ie Valorant, etc)

 

I'd say the impact is a lot bigger overall in my impression than that of drm like denuvo - which i personally never had issues with btw... ironically i still have the denuvo version of several games installed because they run *better* than the version that has it stripped off (now if those games still work today idk because i haven't played them in a year or so, Resident Evil 3 is one of them iirc) 

 

 

[Millios]

41 minutes ago, jaslion said:

By design of the current ones no.

 

They are pretty much rootkits and trojans that have kernel level access to your pc and can basically get ANY info they want.

 

All it would tale is a single bad actor and they could have all the information they could ever want from you.

 

A lot of them also are not properly removed or removed at all on uninstall of the game and can be so tangled into the os that you need a fresh windows to be entirely rid of them.

 

As for crashing that they dont do.

What about using proper removal software like revo unistaller? Doesnt that remove any and every functional trace of it?

[jaslion]

13 minutes ago, Millios said:

What about using proper removal software like revo unistaller? Doesnt that remove any and every functional trace of it?

No.

 

Some are kernel level. As in basically no program can legitametly get that access from windows. They HAVE to do sketchy shit to even achieve that. It also means that you can end up in a situation like with riot vanguard that even with specialized removal tools it doesnt fully go away and can even still recover and run without knowledge of it doing so.

[Doobeedoo]

There are those that are kernel level which are more intrusive. But it's still not 100% be able to defend vs cheaters. So example Riot Vanguard nonsense. It always needs to be running from the boot. Quite bad. I don't play their games anyway. Some others are not as intrusive like Acti Blizz their Warden and Ricochet and in general you may see online games like other shooters use EAC aside CS VAC from Valve.

But no crash, it can crash if you are using a program that is not allowed or supported on game launch. Be it even some overlay programs or inject performance view tools.

[MootEndymion752]

6 hours ago, whispous said:

I've not had any notable issues with anticheats causing my PC to crash in over 20 years. I think you made that bit up in your head.

I meant that because anticheats (at least many of them) run on the kernel level and maybe they're not made well thus thinking that a critical Windows service is cheat software and trying to block it which could very likely BSODs or major issues. That's something that I'm worried about.

[Stahlmann]

I mean if you want to play these games you have no choice but use their anti-cheat. Since I mostly play singleplayer games, I rarely run into them personally.

[Mark Kaine]

On 5/25/2024 at 4:04 PM, MootEndymion752 said:

I meant that because anticheats (at least many of them) run on the kernel level and maybe they're not made well thus thinking that a critical Windows service is cheat software and trying to block it which could very likely BSODs or major issues. That's something that I'm worried about.

only way to be safe is literally not playing those games. its not really hard to find out which games use rootkit ac and thus are inherently unsafe to use. (ie valorant, etc, etc)

 

^ and nah im not gonna list them all because i don't even play these games, you need to be like next level tech illiterate to play these. 

[goatedpenguin]

On 5/24/2024 at 11:27 PM, DRKGMR-A said:

especially riot vanguard (VALORANT)

Not correct, many anticheats are similar to vanguard like EAC etc. But the reason vanguard is frowned upon is becuase riot games is owned by a chinese company, tencent which means CCP can steal ur shit. 

 

For spyware, well yes they can since most nowadays have kernel level/ring 0 access meaning it can do whatever it wants in the kernel space and not user space but this has proven to be ineffective as cheat devs still find ways to circumvent the measures put in place. 

[goatedpenguin]

On 5/25/2024 at 12:58 AM, Millios said:

What about using proper removal software like revo unistaller? Doesnt that remove any and every functional trace of it?

Some can have prestitence. IDK about Vanguard.