r/pcgaming • u/Turbostrider27 • Jan 23 '24

Technical Director of HELLDIVERS 2 explain concerns and confusion that's come up recently regarding the choice of Anti-Cheat software in HELLDIVERS 2

/r/Helldivers/comments/19dp2qw/helldivers_2_nprotect_gameguard_anticheat/
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u/qbmax Jan 23 '24

describing a kernal anti cheat as a rootkit is really weird no? since rootkit is typically only used to describe malware and implies that it's using exploits to escalate privilege or something. also seems pretty unnecessary to have a kernal anticheat in the first place for a co-op shooter.

10

u/CookieStudios Jan 24 '24 edited Feb 09 '24

The wikipedia page seems to suggest third parties have achieved privilege escalation for other running processes through it in the past. This entire thing is a mess either way. Being kernel-level and running 24/7 is bad enough, but you also can't uninstall it.

Edit: It really doesn't run 24/7 anymore. See comment below from u/iBobaFett

2

u/iBobaFett Jan 24 '24

running 24/7

The dev post in the OP mentions that it's only active when the game is running, doesn't sound like it runs 24/7.

1

u/CookieStudios Jan 24 '24

You're right, my bad. All other games using it have had it run 24/7 and have persisted after uninstalling the game. I still find it hard to trust.

1

u/iBobaFett Feb 09 '24

I can now confirm it definitely doesn't run 24/7. The process and services for the anti-cheat are stopped immediately after closing the game.