I agree that a lot of hacks do work based off of modifying memory values, but in this case some of the information I've seen made it appear that some of the current ones are working off of modifying core files instead.Originally Posted by AzzerUK
If this isn't the case, then my mistake. But I know for a fact that at least one of the currently used ones referenced local files.
I'd look for myself, but I value my account.
Ah, you're one of them aren't you. The hackers
Or release a "hack" that does that for them =D
Like others have said if it was that easy to stop bots and hacking every game out there would be perfect, most well used profitable hacking programs that increase aim ability or boost dps do it on the fly in virtual memory they do not interact directly with any defiance file on your HD and some will mask themselves as skype or teamspeak even steam.
Others form an overlay on the screen you configure the bot to do certain actions when that overlay changes.
I am not saying stopping hacking is a lost cause but think of it this way.
On the one game side you have or need a dedicated team watching for statistical changes and models for things like 100% hits high dps etc beyond the ability of a human player also reaction times.
On the other the hacking/bot crew who are motivated mainly by the challenge and money if they charge $20 per month for a really good bot program, they have time on there hands and motivation to beat the system plus if there subscribers are banned from the game they loose income so they work in random events etc so the system looks more like a really good player.
A company only has limited resources it can only put so many people on this team who could otherwise be out there fixing bugs or part of customer service and they have to be paid.
Also stopping hackers is a thankless task, if a coder fixes a bug it goes in the patch notes it is tangible you can point at it and see, the anti hacker and bot team works in the background, no company will do the name and shame for hackers because it opens you up to being sued for breach of data protection, so yes they can say we stopped 20% of hackers and aim bot but what do we as a player see or believe from that?
EVE has a dedicated team and if you talk to the members of that team it can be really enlightening, it is very much a double edged sword, you can't go into details because if you do the creators of the hacks or bots adapt and change, if you are too secret your players think you are hiding something.
We as players choose to play a game within the rules and face the challenges the game presents, personally I have only used god mode etc in single player games to explore once I beat a game, if I can't win at a game without some sort of cheat then I failed lol.
I get how it works... but as they say there is more than one way to skin a cat.
As you mentioned, devs aren't going to chime in on this thread, or any thread, in a way that could expose how things work.
That being said, there have been statements made by some using hack files about how they HAVE edited local files rather than using memory manipulation.
It would be foolish to ignore this simply because the majority of current gen game hacks occur in memory. That would be much like ignoring the potential use of lag switches. There are different threats, and each should be addressed separately.
I think a few things happen for games to be... well... more secure. Programmers need to realize that ALL user input is potentially malicious and plan accordingly. They don't currently (at least a large portion don't). They assume people will use their software as intended.
If they aren't going to get any sort of security cross-training, then game development studios really should consider hiring hackers to pen-test/exploit their game. A periodic check of the game's security could help keep it much more secure than "Eh, it's good enough. We'll address any problems when we have them."
There's a reason that large businesses use these same methodologies... while they don't prevent all threats, they are generally very helpful in identifying the weaknesses currently present so the developers can address them before they are exploited.
That would be pretty cool actually. Haven't played it in a while, but CCP was one of the places I thought about sending a resume into at one point.
Think a big issue is either servers aren't capable, or are just too expensive for the rewards, to make a game be properly "cheat-proof".
To stop wallhacks, you'd need the servers to be calculating line-of-sight of every player, and only sending to the clients data on enemies that should be visible on-screen (rather than clients receiving data of all enemies within a set radius, allowing hacks to then reveal those enemies).
To stop hacks that simply tell the server they've hit XX enemy (client-side-hit-detection, something Battlefield 3, Planetside 2, Defiance, and many other games use), the server would need to be monitoring each player's viewing angle, receiving information that the user had clicked/fired their gun, calculating what the bullet can hit, and acknowledging that hit. For every single player.
Etc. etc. - basically, they've offloaded the work to clients, so each client just does it's own calculations.
You can see WHY they do this - and as I say, it might not even be possible to do all this stuff server side without a ridiculous supercomputer the likes of which only huge research companies/universities/NASA etc. have... but it does mean hacks can be made, and will be made.
Somebody needs to come up with some new, innovative method of doing this stuff server side without taking huge amounts of computations for each player. Client side "anti-cheat" will be broken, and ANYTHING the client sends to the server should be considered "untrustworthy" and need the server verifying that what the client is trying to make happen, is feasable.
Sadly no such think as cheat/hack proof. Security is a process, not a state.
Server-side ray cast might do it. Most times a ray cast is done when firing shots anyway... but many games are using client-side detection with ray casts as otherwise you have hit detection lag. Maybe this one will be more feasible when we've got google fiber everywhere.
There are probably more people that'd like to work on something like this than most people might think. The problem is, without permission to run exploits on a game it's pretty hard to find ways to counter them... and very few companies like the idea of people rooting through their code regardless of the motivation.
In fact, there are quite a people that end up with lawsuits and/or prison time for reporting security flaws directly to software companies to try to help them fix security issues. While I doubt prison time is an issue with games at the moment, if things like CFAA pass that may change.
There is no ONE easy solution to hacks. Trion needs to have (and probably does have) a process to catch and ban hackers/cheaters.
Mac - VBI Operative Proud Member of the Friends of Trick Dempsey Association
The few, the proud, the DEFIANT!
Sad, but true.
In every single game forum people seem shocked that this one isn't the first game in the history of video games to be hack proof.
Hacks suck, and clearly Trion need to stay on top of it... but I in no way expect them to win.
Hacking is like an arms race. The devs block one method and the hackers develop another. So the devs block that and the hackers figure out another method.
I'm all for Punk Buster
http://www.evenbalance.com/
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