Vanguard takes screenshots of your PC every time you play a game
Vanguard takes screenshots of your PC every time you play a game
Vanguard takes screenshots of your PC every time you play a game. Every time you play a game a function is called to screenshot your PC's screen, in case Vanguard thinks you might have something suspicious, it screenshots your ENTIRE PC screen (all monitors).
Edit: Not trying to spread false info this was shared to me via a friend and there is other data to back up that this is real https://www.unknowncheats.me/forum/anti-cheat-bypass/634974-vanguard-taking-screenshot-pc.html
https://www.unknowncheats.me/forum/valorant/484475-vanguard-screenshots.html
There should be laws against this everywhere (with other forms of data collection included). There's no way preventing cheating is more important than the fundamental rights to security and privacy.
There is, this could have the potential to collect PII and its %100 they're not storing this as encrypted data on their side. So it is %100 illegal to do, now if they're fined for it is a different story.
Which is why I'm almost certain it's not happening. So far the only source is a cheat forum. I wonder what their motivation is.
Even in corporate dystopia where they monitor you every 15 seconds screenshots are frowned upon. You never know what kind of sensitive data that can reveal.
There's no way Riot is doing it. The backlash would be immense, and they absolutely know it.
This agitprop stems from the makers of cheat software who are mad that the risk of using their hacks will go through the roof. Sure, you can still get around it. But now if you screw up it's a hardware ban.
They're gonna lose a lot of accounts that they sell at $10/pop.
I wouldn't mind talking more about security, but I'll save that for another comment.
Just last year I was at a security conf and they said the biggest threat to security right now is anticheat software, especially that owned by state actors. The venn diagram for people with anti cheat installed and people with admin priveliges and SSH keys for work installed is almost a circle.
Anti cheat software. In other words a fucking virus.
It's not really any different than any other application you run on Windows.
User level access is all that's needed to upload the majority of your files. And we're all trained to push yes to the admin access button all the time.
If you really want to be secure, you need to have a different OS/hard drive for your games, and not allow that OS to access your secure drive. I haven't yet gone this far, but it's reasonable. Lethal Company on Steam is much more of a risk than anything Riot, including Vanguard. Tarkov was enough of a risk that I wouldn't install it at all.
In the future this is a change I might make, but Riot isn't in the top five of reasons why.
Time to switch to Fidelity
Bruh
I thought it was weird when my investment portfolio started investing heavily into Bad Dragon. I'm remember to close those tabs next time I log in.
This was my first thought. Why is Vangaurd interested in what games I play and how are they doing this when I don't think they have anything to install on my PC?
Every time you play a game that uses vanguard or every time you play any game?
Both are bad, but one is way worse
I don’t play Valorant, so I can’t say. I do know, however, that it runs as a Windows service, so it’s always on and always keeping an eye on your system.
Yeah BC why shouldn't they know you enjoy Asian ladies with big titties!
You aint got nothing to hide, or do you?!
the code posted in the forum is only pointing out the capture and send to server function exists, but not what calls those functions, so still don't know if it affects other games until they posted the full article as promised. Btw, taking screenshots as anticheat is not new, they use this to catch overlays/cheat application UIs
I've tried to see if this is real but I fail to find any source code leaks for Vanguard or if it has ever been leaked. The poster himself also doesn't seem that credible unless your definition of credible is "THE TERROR OF RIOT GAMES".
Am I missing something or is this post likely just bullshit?
EDIT: It's does seem to be real, though in the same thread other people with higher reputation did chime in that it doesn't take screenshots of your other monitors, just the one Valorant is on.
I've tried to see if this is real but I fail to find any source code leaks for Vanguard or if it has ever been leaked.
The variable names suggest it's a decompilation.
Imagine being treated like this just to play a fucking game...
Also any time you open a webpage in Windows, a nude photo is taken of you (whether you're currently clothed or not) and posted on your mom's Facebook.
My source for this is the same as OP's.
Its like, State Law, or sumthin...
Use Linux and say no if a package requires su.
Intriguing.
I don't have any games that use Vanguard, but if I did, I'd be queuing them up for some TLS interception and analysis.Lmao I still cant believe the suckers who play this.
Many people criticize that, but I can't really think of any non invasive solution to draw away cheaters, except making specialized device to play the game (sort of PS4 to play one single game only?), but pretty sure it won't take long for cheat providers to crack it as well... Sadly.
but I can't really think of any non invasive solution to draw away cheaters
Server-Side Anticheat. The Minecraft community has been doing it ALL ON THEIR OWN for YEARS, effectively.
Yep, there are mods for Minecraft that warn you that certain of their functions will trigger anticheat if used on a server (so only use those features only in single player, where your server doesn't care if you cheat)
Yep, This is the way.
Pretty sure it's crazy expensive on a large scale, I don't think that people will pay monthly fee to keep playing apex/val/insert game. And more than sure these companies will try to force players to pay for it :/ Previously I had a small chat with aimlabs devs about application of neural networks for it (detecting weird patterns and irregularities, that what NNs are good at as well) but as I understood it would be expensive as well since obviously you want to run the model on your backend's side... It's and endless war between both sides without silver bullet ATM and I don't really understand why people are so mad about my comment lol
server side anticheat is the only ultimate solution.
all client side anticheat measures will have vulnerabilities that will be found and people will cheat. (look at DMA pci cards, for instance)
Also there's a fundamental fog of war of what your anti-cheat can see. Valorant cheaters are using hardware cheats, that literally takes in a video output, analyzes it, and sends in mouse inputs, on a different computer, the anti-cheat straight up can't see it, they only see there's a video out and a mouse in. Ultimately, having physical access of a hardware and you can just tell the software whatever you want it to see.
Kernel anticheat also doesn't work, Valorant is full of cheaters, and Apex Legends players had their game remotely hacked installing cheat software mid tournament match. And an increasing number of cheats bypass the computer/console all together, and replace inputs to the computer to allow macros or aim-botting. Recently a monitor was announced for league of legends that will track enemy players movement and location for you from the video feed alone.
The best way to prevent cheating are with good server side anticheat. Another possibility is that companies can offer secure computers through a live streaming service like Geforce Now, which would be more secure than kernel anticheat without any of the privacy issues.
As far as I know there is no evidence to support the fact that the hack was installed remotely. It's much more likely that it was a targeted attack where they gained access to the compromised system some other way, then waited for the tournament to act.
But I agree with you that there is also plenty of evidence pointing to cheaters getting past kernel level anti cheat in games like valorant and continuing to cheat.