Riot Games found a motherboard security flaw that helps PC cheaters
Riot Games says a security flaw in many recent motherboards could be exploited by cheaters without being detected, and now companies like Asrock, Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI have released BIOS updates to address the issue. According to Riot, “if this issue had gone unnoticed, it would have completely negated all DMA detection and prevention technologies currently on the market – including those from other gaming companies – due to the nature of this class of cheats operating in a privileged zone that anti-cheats typically do not.” »
Therefore, Riot’s Vanguard anti-cheat software may prompt you to update your system to a patched BIOS so that you can play Valorantand we wouldn’t be surprised if other anti-cheat systems also add similar checks.
According to Riot, DMA (direct memory access) hardware devices that plug into PCIe slots could exploit the flaw and bypass IOMMU (input-output memory management unit) protections that were not initializing immediately, even if they appeared to be. “Essentially, the system’s ‘bouncer’ appeared to be on duty, but he was actually asleep in his chair,” Riot explains.
“BIOS updates aren’t as exciting as looking at ban numbers, but they’re a necessary step in our arms race against hardware cheaters,” Riot says. “By closing this gap before startup, we neutralize an entire class of previously untouchable cheaters and significantly increase the cost of foul play.”
