StealthMode wrote:
This is a multi-part message in MIME format. -- [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ] Thanks Marten for clarifying that.
But for the average joe hacker, would they think to change their processor id (via spoofing I assume) before installing hacks and running a steam platform hl2 engine/vac2 game? Even the authors would get caught off guard at first. Not everyone would normally run that unless they specifically knew that’s how bans were. If it were kept quiet and not publicly acknowledged as the ban method for steam, it would work me thinks. But anyway, out of our hands, the g0dz of Valve Software will make them 1337 hax0rz be banned one way or another (delete steam accounts on the auth server with a secondary database flag set so that cd key/account could not be registered in the future?¿?).
<snip snip>
Anybody got the ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe mobo with dual nVidea 6800's? I do and let me share with you the concept of advanced cheating and what little chance any anti-cheat system has.
You can enable the load balancing graph for the video system. This draws a nice green horizontal line across the screen in the center. (happens to be the horizontal aim point center too) It has a graph bar on the left side that shows how much work is happening on each video card. If you take a screenshot in game the green line does not show up. Neither do the brightness/contrast/color enhancements set in the video cards that can turn night into day.
The Screenshots grab the Directx video memory right? (I don't know for sure but suspect so). Punkbuster grabs the DirectX video memory as does Vexsecure (former BF Secure).
Standard cheats released to "skillz downloaders" do their thing in DirectX memory by way of several means and usually by WriteProcessMemory() calls to make the game code produce the desired cheat effect itself.
These cheats are easily detectable. Of course the process to toss off a
new cheat ("written" in VB6) is just as easy so the cheat "fingerprints"
change as often as the previous versions are detected.Now the "truly elite" hackers usually have extra hardware and know as much (and on occaision more) about the game workings as the engineers that wrote the code. These high-end software engineers also know everything there is to know about the packet streams involved.
So here is what they can do if they want to.
They siphon off a mirror image of the (so-called net code) bit stream to a second workstation and produce the "cheat overlays" there. Such a system cannot be detected short of standing behind the cheater and watching what they have at their disposal.
Really advanced hackers may also be capable of applying the cheat overlays in the video cards as happens with the load balance graph.
Is this a bad April Fool's joke?
_______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
