Latest / Open Comms Radio | A Star Citizen call-in show / Finding new ways to cheat in video games | Clip

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Finding new ways to cheat in video games | Clip · Open Comms Radio | A Star Citizen call-in show

• 0:00
  Well, Speaking of unsavory things, Wicket, I you have a.
• 0:05
  Little unsavory, no? No, no, no, no, no.
• 0:08
  But what he's going to talk about is a little unsavory.
• 0:10
  Wicket has a little piece for us about cheaters, specifically
• 0:15
  cheaters in our our favorite video games.
• 0:17
  Wicket did some research and found that there's quite a tale
• 0:22
  to be told right here. So I'm just going to give the
• 0:24
  floor to Wicket for a minute. Wicket what's up with cheaters?
• 0:28
  Well, yesterday I was doom scrolling YouTube, you know, as
• 0:31
  you do, and I'm how in my feed there came this video about this
• 0:36
  guy exposing all these cheaters and what was going on.
• 0:41
  And they went into in depth how this one guy was discovered as a
• 0:46
  as a potential cheater. And then the game they were
• 0:51
  playing, there's like anti cheat or or battle eye on it.
• 0:55
  I don't remember which version of anti cheat they had on that
• 0:59
  particular game, but it doesn't detect anything.
• 1:03
  And the guy was streaming and he was streaming his his, his
• 1:08
  screen. And there was no like, you know,
• 1:10
  the the cheat overlays to show you where all the bad guys are
• 1:13
  and stuff that you're supposed to kill, none of that.
• 1:16
  I mean it, it looked legit except for the fact that it
• 1:19
  clued them in to this guy maybe cheating was he was beating like
• 1:26
  a super high ranked player and team.
• 1:29
  And this is somebody that was like a nobody prior.
• 1:32
  And all of a sudden he's like competing with people that
• 1:35
  should wipe the floor with them. So that's a bunch of red flags.
• 1:39
  It's like, well, wait a minute, that's unusual.
• 1:42
  So they suspected it. And basically the only way to
• 1:47
  detect some of these cheats nowadays is to do an audit of
• 1:50
  the computer. So they use a remote software
• 1:53
  to, you know, they have the the person's permission to remote in
• 1:56
  with him and he's there while they're doing it and they're
• 2:00
  able to check out the system. And they that went down this
• 2:04
  whole rabbit hole of all these disabled devices and device
• 2:08
  manager things that were unplugged and virtual monitors
• 2:14
  that weren't virtual monitors that were supposedly, oh, I sold
• 2:17
  this monitor. That's why it's not connected
• 2:19
  anymore. Anyway, it all boils down to
• 2:23
  nowadays the cheating community, the old cheats that people used
• 2:27
  to run on their computers that like you know, give the gives
• 2:32
  you the little outline of the of the enemy and you know where
• 2:35
  everybody is at on the in the game.
• 2:37
  This is mostly for first person shooters, but it could be used
• 2:40
  for anything really. The cheats are all kind of still
• 2:44
  the same type of cheats that have everybody's been using for
• 2:47
  probably the last 10 plus years. First of all, those cheats have
• 2:51
  become a lot more sophisticated. They run a lot leaner, right?
• 2:55
  And nowadays these guys are using multiple external hardware
• 3:02
  devices and interconnects between the primary computer
• 3:06
  that's running the game and may and, or maybe streaming the game
• 3:11
  if they're a streamer on Twitch or something.
• 3:14
  All the inputs and outputs go through external devices like an
• 3:21
  Arduino, and there's some others, there's some other
• 3:23
  devices. I don't want to disseminate a
• 3:25
  bunch of information. It's already a lot of
• 3:27
  information out there. I'm not going to give the full
• 3:29
  names of everything, but the main thing that happens is this
• 3:32
  thing called DMA. And it's not a drug, it's not
• 3:36
  something to elicit, it's just direct memory access.
• 3:39
  And what happens is what displayed on the screen goes
• 3:45
  through an external device, goes through another external device,
• 3:48
  goes into an Arduino, then ends up on 1/3 device, which is a
• 3:53
  computer, usually a laptop or another computer.
• 3:56
  And the cheap lives and runs there.
• 4:00
  And then the mouse, the keyboard input, everything runs through
• 4:04
  these external devices and then feeds from the secondary
• 4:09
  computer back into the to the third party devices.
• 4:13
  It's like a it's like an octopus of wires and boxes that
• 4:16
  interconnect all this shit and then goes back onto the primary
• 4:20
  machine that's running the game that allows the cheat to
• 4:23
  function. It's crazy and I was just
• 4:27
  befuddled because I knew there was all kinds of sophisticated
• 4:30
  ways of cheating, but I did not know we were at the level of
• 4:33
  this. Because some of this external
• 4:35
  stuff we've used in, in the security field that I work in IT
• 4:41
  for a living and there's certain things that we've used
• 4:44
  externally for pen testing and, and device hardening in
• 4:51
  information technology security and network testing and some of
• 4:55
  the same componentry and some of the same X.
• 4:59
  Well, they're not necessarily exploit when it comes to
• 5:01
  security testing. It's just different ways of to
• 5:04
  try to penetrate into systems. But they're using some of that
• 5:08
  similar type of technology to allow all the stuff to go down
• 5:13
  and it's not detectable by anything.
• 5:15
  The only way you can detect it is be able to go have access to
• 5:22
  the computer because there's some, there's some fingerprints
• 5:25
  that are leftover unless they know how to scrub their system
• 5:29
  very, very well, which it'd be really hard to do because a lot
• 5:32
  of the stuff is actually logged into the Windows logs.
• 5:36
  And Windows logs are millions of lines of, of individual codes
• 5:42
  and logging that happens and it's constantly happening.
• 5:45
  It's like your computer's full getting filled with logs from
• 5:48
  Windows right now if you're running a Windows system.
• 5:51
  But the, the, the, the, the PC auditor can look through that
• 5:55
  and look for certain telltale markers and certain types of
• 5:58
  drivers that might hint towards, oh, this could be an exploit
• 6:03
  being used. The, the problem is, is that
• 6:06
  some of these exploits and some of these markers that are left
• 6:10
  behind even when they disconnect all the external hardware,
• 6:13
  obviously when they let them come and do the audit and they
• 6:15
  do it remotely, all that shit's disconnected and thrown, you
• 6:18
  know, there, it's in the closet somewhere.
• 6:22
  But some of these markers that they find, they're also used in
• 6:25
  legitimate drivers and software and, and hardware
• 6:28
  implementation. So it's not cut and dry that,
• 6:32
  OK, we found this. That means he's guilty.
• 6:34
  So in the long and short of it, it's it's just amazing to the
• 6:39
  first of all the lengths people will do just to win at all
• 6:42
  costs, which is kind of disconcerting.
• 6:44
  But I guess it's, you know, this is the, the world we live in
• 6:47
  now. And then secondly, the stuff
• 6:51
  isn't that expensive. Even your, your, your average
• 6:55
  pleb, if you can afford to do online gaming and have a decent
• 6:58
  enough computer to do to be competitive, it's not that far
• 7:02
  fetched for you to be able to purchase this hardware and then
• 7:07
  purchase the, the, the, the hacks themselves.
• 7:10
  They're, they're like you have to actually buy a subscription
• 7:14
  to get the hacks because they're constantly being updated anyway.
• 7:18
  It was just very interesting and also very disconcerting and just
• 7:22
  fuel to the fire that that every time I do something, you know,
• 7:27
  it's not me, it's somebody hacking.
• 7:30
  I didn't realize that there was a subscription service to be
• 7:34
  able to cheat in video games. Oh yes, that's been a thing for
• 7:38
  decades. Yeah, but that those those same
• 7:41
  subscription services, the software that you got from that
• 7:45
  that used to have to run on the host computer that hosted the
• 7:48
  game. Now they can run that on the
• 7:51
  3rd, on the 2nd and the secondary system that integrates
• 7:54
  into all the the spaghetti and of of hardware and software and
• 7:59
  connectors to to manipulate the game on the primary machine.
• 8:05
  And you know, I mean the, the thing about this is especially
• 8:08
  with using Arduino and having to do all these things, I mean by
• 8:11
  trade, this is what I do I, I, I program ESB 32 machines, I do
• 8:17
  product development and these types of things.
• 8:20
  And if you're capable of doing that and your goal to spend all
• 8:27
  that money is to win at a game, that really doesn't mean
• 8:31
  anything. I mean, like, seriously, this
• 8:33
  game actually doesn't mean anything.
• 8:35
  In fact, it must not be the one that makes it.
• 8:37
  I mean, yeah, The only thing that makes it worthwhile is a
• 8:41
  community that is healthy and helpful and just having fun with
• 8:44
  each other. Even the person you're just
• 8:46
  trying to kill, you know, and he kills you, You know what?
• 8:51
  You had a good time, you know? So if you're spending all this
• 8:54
  money, all this talent, all this brain power to do this, to try
• 8:58
  to cheat, you have a personality disorder and you need to speak
• 9:01
  to a psychiatrist there. There's a.
• 9:04
  Flaw. There's a flaw in what you're
• 9:07
  there's a flaw in what you're saying.
• 9:08
  So the people that are making the, the, the people that are
• 9:12
  that have created this, the system basically, it's like a
• 9:15
  system basically, right? Yeah.
• 9:17
  They're the ones that are making the money.
• 9:19
  They sell the parts, they sell the cables, they sell the
• 9:22
  software. I completely get that part.
• 9:25
  The people who are cheating, they're just bads.
• 9:29
  And yeah, but. These are the.
• 9:31
  These are the same type of people that like in a game like
• 9:35
  Star Citizen where you know, you swipe to win.
• 9:39
  And I'm not saying, you know, I know we're we're supporting and
• 9:42
  blah, blah, blah. But in like in in real, super
• 9:45
  serious pay to pay to win games where all you have to do if you
• 9:48
  want to be the best is swipe those type.
• 9:52
  These are the same type of people that will win at all
• 9:55
  costs. This is a a malignancy that has
• 9:59
  invaded the minds of a lot of these younger gamers.
• 10:03
  And these aren't like, I mean, I guess in some cases it's older
• 10:05
  dudes. I don't think it's age.
• 10:07
  I don't think if you. Can make it a.
• 10:09
  Generational thing. Star Citizen is a millennial
• 10:12
  game. I mean, come on, let's go.
• 10:14
  Well, I'm, I'm not saying that people are Star Citizen, but
• 10:17
  like if it's if, if there's any kind of of most, most of this is
• 10:22
  affecting like first person shooters.
• 10:24
  But I'm just saying that the amount of money that could be
• 10:29
  spent on a game like Star Citizen and the amount of money
• 10:33
  and there's so many whales that have spent so much on this
• 10:37
  title. I would not put it past anyone
• 10:41
  to do, oh, I need a I'm going to have the leg up.
• 10:44
  I'm going to spend a little bit more money and, and, and, and
• 10:46
  buy into all this crap. They're never going to catch me.
• 10:49
  You see what I'm saying? Well.
• 10:51
  Well, no, no. And then that's exactly what I'm
• 10:53
  saying is, is, is why these people who will spend these
• 10:57
  money and, and I know you say it's like, OK, well they'll
• 10:59
  spend the money, but there is some talent involved in this.
• 11:02
  They do the research, they they know how to hook all these
• 11:05
  things up. They know that they have to
• 11:08
  download these APIs and go to this git or whatever and install
• 11:12
  all those things, do the back end things.
• 11:14
  It's all handheld. You know, I get that, but I
• 11:17
  mean, it takes a, it takes a certain amount of talent and
• 11:21
  know how and if they will need to research things and effort.
• 11:25
  And if they are doing that and spending all that money and that
• 11:29
  brain power, they could be putting that to like something
• 11:33
  artistic or refining something. But no, they do it to produce
• 11:38
  fake glory. That is a very, very, very, and
• 11:41
  I'm, I'm just serious about this.
• 11:42
  This is, it is a personality disorder.
• 11:45
  I mean, it, it, it, it is probably indicative of how they
• 11:49
  lead their whole lives and they probably thinks everybody's an
• 11:53
  asshole to them and everybody betrays them and blah, blah,
• 11:56
  blah, blah. And if you're listening and
• 11:57
  you're one of these people that does this, go talk to a
• 12:01
  therapist about how maybe it's not everybody else, it's you.
• 12:07
  Listen that that that might all be.
• 12:10
  That might. All be correct.
• 12:11
  That might all be correct, but they don't care.
• 12:15
  They just want to win, man. They don't.
• 12:18
  I know. Does it feel like I know the?
• 12:20
  Thing is, for that, for for somebody who does that, it does.
• 12:24
  Yeah, that's how sad it is and that's how sad they are.
• 12:28
  Well, because they think that this fake glory that they killed
• 12:33
  someone in a game that didn't matter, that didn't do anything,
• 12:39
  seems to give them such like they build their lives on it and
• 12:43
  it's it is sad and and I know they do that in the rest of
• 12:46
  their life. And I'm just saying.
• 12:48
  Because it's griefing. It's the same as griefing.
• 12:51
  It's the same as like Co club. Yeah, it's it's worse, but it's.
• 12:55
  Worse, 'cause they're going out of their way to set all this up
• 12:58
  to pay for it and it's it's. Just listen, the the setup part
• 13:03
  of this stuff, it's it's once you pay the money, right,
• 13:08
  they're going to give you step by step instructions.
• 13:10
  They even went over some of this in in some of these videos I
• 13:12
  watched. You could this the instructions
• 13:14
  like anybody who can read English can follow this shit.
• 13:18
  It's simple. There's there's no skill
• 13:22
  involved. Listen, you're smart.
• 13:23
  Listen, you're smart. Hold on, hold on.
• 13:25
  You're smart. I need to let you know you're
• 13:28
  smart. That's why it seems easy.
• 13:30
  OK, there's a lot of smart people in this in this room
• 13:33
  right now. There's a lot of if you can
• 13:34
  smart people in stars. But let me tell you something
• 13:38
  good looking that stupid people can't do this.
• 13:41
  Trust me these. People don't even know about
• 13:44
  this. Anybody who uses a computer and
• 13:46
  is a gamer, they know how to plug in a USB stick.
• 13:50
  They know how to plug in a AHDMI cable.
• 13:53
  Execute files. They know how to click on an
• 13:57
  icon, They know how to go to a website to download some shit.
• 14:00
  I'm telling you, you don't have to be a genius to to figure this
• 14:04
  shit out. No, but you do have to have the
• 14:06
  wherewithal and if you don't know the ability to find out,
• 14:11
  and that's a incredible talent, especially right now.
• 14:14
  I mean that that that's basically the talent you need.
• 14:17
  I don't know, but I can make it happen because I'm going to do
• 14:20
  it real quick and I'm going to find out.
• 14:22
  That's an incredible talent. Don't undersell them.
• 14:24
  They are smart. They're just assholes.
• 14:27
  Well, I'm not, I'm not I'm not prosecuting the morals of it,
• 14:34
  which I mean, obviously it's immoral to do to have this type
• 14:37
  of behavior in my mind anyway in in my moral compass.
• 14:41
  It is and cheating and and not playing the game to play the
• 14:45
  game is just terrible. But having said.
• 14:48
  That. Having said that, that wasn't
• 14:50
  the purpose of explaining this. I'm just explaining that this is
• 14:53
  out there. This is some shit I, I came
• 14:55
  across yesterday and I just wanted to share it.
• 14:57
  It's like, it's, it's like it's crazy.
• 15:00
  And, you know, this the, the, the whole, in the last couple of
• 15:05
  years has been the Tarkovs scandal.
• 15:07
  You know, they had this whole idea like everybody did the
• 15:10
  wiggle to let everybody know, Oh yeah, I'm cheating.
• 15:12
  So you're cheating. We're wiggling at each other.
• 15:14
  So, you know, I'll leave you alone.
• 15:16
  You leave me alone kind of shit. That's crazy.
• 15:19
  And that went on all over.