The highly-anticipated Helldivers 2, released less than a week ago, is receiving negative reviews from some gamers over concerns that its anti-cheat tool could pose security and privacy risks.
The anti-cheat software — nProtect GameGuard — operates at the core kernel level, granting it direct access to users’ files. Over the past few weeks, gamers have taken to the r/Helldivers subreddit and the Steam community forum to voice their fears about GameGuard.
“If someone would gain such a level of access through Gameguard, they could mess at the innermost level of your system and do damage quick – that is why I personally avoid similar programs like the plague,” a Steam forum member said on Wednesday.
In response to these concerns, Peter Lindgren, technical director of Helldivers 2, shared a lengthy post on Reddit addressing the concerns over GameGuard and emphasizing the necessity for comprehensive measures to combat cheating and preserve the game’s integrity.
“Yes, GameGuard is a “kernel-level”, aka rootkit, anti-cheat. Most anti-cheat run at “kernel-level”, especially all of the popular ones,” he wrote. “It’s unfortunately one of the more effective ways to combat cheating.”
“GameGuard does not collect any personally identifiable information (PII). And doing so would be a GDPR/ADPPA nightmare as well. I can speak from experience that we’re all bending over backwards to be compliant with these regulations,” Lindgren explained.
Community Backlash Over Helldiver 2’s Anti-Cheat Tool
GameGuard detects cheating by monitoring gamers’ systems and how they interact with the game. Among other capabilities, the software can scan a player’s hard drive for cheating tools.
While this makes it an effective anti-cheat solution, gamers say there’s a potential that malicious actors can misuse it. Moreover, it’s unclear exactly what data and files GameGuard accesses on users’ devices.
Meanwhile, some say the continuous scanning and monitoring for cheats may inadvertently consume significant system resources, affecting the game’s performance.
“Reputation aside nProtect Gameguard also includes capabilities to do things like kill other processes among other things, essentially letting it take action BEYOND the scope of the game that it is protecting, whether you plan to use those features or not that alone is reason to keep it as far from any sane person’s system as possible,” a Reddit user said.
Some gamers are calling on Arrowhead to adopt less intrusive anti-cheat solutions, like Valve’s VAC, or for the game to implement server-side checks and player moderation tools to maintain fair play.
“In my opinion this whole situation and community uproar could have been avoided if Arrowhead chose a different anti-cheat instead of Gameguard,” the Steam community forum member added.
Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) operates with less invasive access, relying on game-specific heuristics and user reporting to identify cheating behavior. While kernel-level, anti-cheat solutions may offer more comprehensive cheat detection capabilities, they also introduce significant risks.
How to Stay Safe When Playing Games Online
The fears about GameGuard aren’t unfounded. In 2022, security experts warned that threat actors could exploit the anti-cheat drivers on Genshin Impact to spread ransomware and bypass antivirus software.
In light of these concerns, we strongly recommend using trusted antivirus software to protect your device from malicious software and other insidious threats. We also recommend using a top-rated VPN for gaming to cloak your connection and improve your online security.
Consider running games in a virtual machine (VM) or setting up a dual-boot system for gaming, keeping your primary OS separate and secure. However, there’s a chance that this may get you disconnected or banned from the Helldivers 2 game server.
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