Hacking Humans – "Anti-cheat software (noun)" [Word Notes]

Podcast Host: N2K Networks
Air Date: December 2, 2025
Episode Theme: Deception, influence, and social engineering in the world of cyber crime—with a focus on anti-cheat software in gaming.

Episode Overview

This episode of “Hacking Humans: Word Notes” centers on the evolving landscape of anti-cheat software in online gaming. The host explores how cheating has advanced from innocent fun in early video games to a major concern in competitive online play, prompting the development of increasingly sophisticated (and controversial) anti-cheat technologies. The conversation dives into the technological, ethical, and privacy trade-offs inherent in protecting games from cheaters and highlights the ongoing debate within the gaming community.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Definition and Context of Anti-Cheat Software

• Definition: "Software designed to prevent cheating in video games."
• Example usage: “The anti cheat software detected a player using aimbotting.”

Speaker D [01:55]:

• Cheating in games is as old as games themselves: weighted dice, card counting, and more.
• Early single-player computer games included cheat codes, often intentionally by developers ("give characters giant heads in the Tony Hawk games").
• Cheating in local games was seen as harmless. Online play, however, turned cheating into a more impactful problem, affecting millions and threatening game reputation and revenue.

2. Cheating’s Evolution with Online Play

• The transition from single-player to online multiplayer made cheating a more serious issue.
• Cheaters can ruin the experience for everyone, leading to player frustration and financial impacts for developers, especially in large franchises like Call of Duty and Destiny 2.

3. Anti-Cheat Software Variants and Their Trade-Offs

• Types of anti-cheat software:
  • Packaged with the game
  • Installed separately
  • Hosted on game servers

Notable Issue: Anti-cheat always comes with privacy trade-offs, crystallized by the uproar when Riot Games introduced kernel-level anti-cheat for Valorant in 2020.

4. Kernel-Level Anti-Cheat: Risks and Controversy

• Kernel-level software: Runs with the highest privileges (ring zero) and can affect the computer's stability and security.
  • Normal user programs run at ring three (least privileged).
• Concern: “Software running at ring zero had better be error free and efficient or the computer itself becomes unstable.”
• Community reaction:
  • "An increasingly vocal subset of gamers are concerned that the software meant to detect and ban cheaters has become overly broad and evasive, posing a considerable threat to their privacy and system integrity." – Attribution: Brian Menegas at Wired [~04:55]
  • Question posed: "Why would we significantly increase the attack surface and the stability of our computers in order to spend a few happy hours every day destroying seven year olds in Fortnite?" [~05:20]

5. The Other Side: Cost of Inadequate Anti-Cheat

• Players are equally frustrated if cheating runs rampant, eroding trust in the game:
  • "If the seven year old you're up against are running circles around you because they're cheating and you're not, why would you pay the 50 bucks for the game if you know that cheating within it is rampant?" [05:45]
• Example: Microsoft declined to use kernel-level anti-cheat in Halo Infinite (2021), leading to an outbreak of complaints about cheating in the game soon after launch.

6. Security Trade-Offs: A Universal Dilemma

• "As in all things, achieving security is a collection of decision trade-offs that either affect the level of security on one end or the efficiency or privacy of the system on the other. This is as true in the gaming industry as it is in any other vertical." [06:39]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the dilemma of anti-cheat software:
  “Why would we significantly increase the attack surface and the stability of our computers in order to spend a few happy hours every day destroying seven year olds in Fortnite? I mean, it's fun, but it's probably not worth it.”
  — Host [~05:20]

• On privacy and security trade-offs:
  “Achieving security is a collection of decision trade-offs that either affect the level of security on one end or the efficiency or privacy of the system on the other.”
  — Host [06:39]

• On player frustrations:
  “…But these anti cheat mechanisms have come with some issues of their own, and notably the solution implemented by Riot Games for their hit shooter Valorant has really ruffled the feathers of many in the community.”
  — E/Techquickie quote [07:25]

• Techquickie’s industry insight:
  “Competing against other players online is a bigger part of video gaming today than it ever has been. So it's no surprise then that Fair Play Online is being taken more and more seriously, both by gamers who view cheating as a huge impediment to their experience, and by developers who are pushing anti cheat software to keep players honest and of course prevent gamers from just quitting a game because they're frustrated with how many cheaters there are on servers.”
  — E [06:59]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:55: Introduction and definition of anti-cheat software
• 03:15: Evolution of cheating from single-player to online play
• 04:30: Emergence of dedicated anti-cheat software and privacy trade-offs
• 05:10: Explaining kernel-level anti-cheat and user concerns
• 05:45: The two sides: player dissatisfaction when anti-cheat is too weak or too aggressive
• 06:39: Security vs. privacy trade-offs in the gaming industry
• 06:59: Techquickie nerd reference and summary of community perspectives

Tone and Takeaway

The episode remains accessible, informative, and lightly humorous, poking fun at the extremes of both cheater frustration and developer vigilance. Listeners are left with an appreciation for the continual balancing act between fairness in online games and the potentially invasive tools required to enforce it: a mirror of broader cybersecurity trade-offs across all industries.