I need some help separating the facts and fiction in regards to the anti-cheat.

[Hell+]

Hi there, so I'm thinking about getting the game but seeing the anti-cheat has me, like many others, a bit wary, but so much of the information in regards to it right now is really conflicting so I wanted to get all of your advice on this to see if any of you who now have some more experience with this can help me answer a few lingering questions that all my searches seem to give inconsistent answers to...

1) Is this any worse on a purely security level than other kernel based anti-cheats such as easy anti-cheat?

2) How is it affecting performance and system stability for you?

3) Is it ever active in any way when not playing the game?

4) Does it fully uninstall when uninstalling the game?

5) Is there any value in waiting to see if people's complaints lead to a reconsideration in any way or do you think this is just a done deal that's never changing?

6) How are you all personally feeling about it?


Do keep things civil, I know I shouldn't have to say that but you know how some people can be xD
Anyway, thanks in advance, interested to hear what you all have to say :)

[CrypticTaco]

There is a very good thread on this towards the top of the sub forum that can help with info 😊

[Saint Marold YT]

Ask a expert (IT security expert, programmer or someone who has already worked with anti cheats) and not random people in the internet.

Or look at the pinned post where everything is explained by the developers.

1) Ask an expert

2) 0,0% - 0,4% CPU usage

3) so far i can tell no. No startup entries, no entries in the services menu, no background processes, No unusual CPU load, no write or read activities on the disks

4) read the pinned post

5) dont care

6) i feel nothing about it

[Wruce Bayne]

Originally posted by Marold:

That's an awful long way to say absolutely nothing, gotta love ppl like you

[CrypticTaco]

Originally posted by future pizza:

Originally posted by Marold:

That's an awful long way to say absolutely nothing, gotta love ppl like you

somehow people like that breath everyday without a leaflet lol

[Ellie]

Originally posted by Hell+:

Hi there, so I'm thinking about getting the game but seeing the anti-cheat has me, like many others, a bit wary, but so much of the information in regards to it right now is really conflicting so I wanted to get all of your advice on this to see if any of you who now have some more experience with this can help me answer a few lingering questions that all my searches seem to give inconsistent answers to...

1) Is this any worse on a purely security level than other kernel based anti-cheats such as easy anti-cheat?

2) How is it affecting performance and system stability for you?

3) Is it ever active in any way when not playing the game?

4) Does it fully uninstall when uninstalling the game?

5) Is there any value in waiting to see if people's complaints lead to a reconsideration in any way or do you think this is just a done deal that's never changing?

6) How are you all personally feeling about it?


Do keep things civil, I know I shouldn't have to say that but you know how some people can be xD
Anyway, thanks in advance, interested to hear what you all have to say :)

Honestly, if you REALLY want the game, and are really wary about the anti cheat, the best thing to do to MAKE SURE the damn thing closes when it's supposed to, is just restart your PC when you've finished playing.
It's an inconvenience, but i assure you - It's worth it. There are many games that use Easy Anti Cheat and that also has high levels of access within the PC. It has a somewhat shady history and people are also wary of it. In my personal experience with it, i have found that SOMETIMES, and i must reiterate that, SOMETIMES the anti-cheat will close on it's own and i am guessing that is what it's designed to do. But not always. Other times it will stay on my PC using up resources in the background. Sometimes not even showing in the processes. Sometimes i can see it in the processes, sometimes not. Eventually it can cause a crash on my PC.

I have 62GB of memory but it eventually sucks everything down that sinkhole and murders the PC until i HAVE to restart, which is why i say, when you've finished playing whatever game it is with these high levels of anti-cheat. Just restart the damn PC and be done with it. That way, it's closed and you KNOW it's closed. It cleans your processes and it gives you a peace of mind.

Regarding GG anti-cheat people have stated it can be fully uninstalled but leaves a "folder" behind but the folder is empty. They didn't state if it left behind registry files or anything. It doesn't uninstall when you uninstall the game, but it comes with it's own seperate uninstaller still, so it's still somewhat "easy" to uninstall. If that makes sense.
If it's something you want to play and don't mind taking extra precautions and inconveniences, some you may or may not already do. Go for it.

[Saint Marold YT]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/19dp2qw/helldivers_2_nprotect_gameguard_anticheat/
This is another overview from one of the developers on how to delete the anti cheat, what it does and whether it is active all the time.

[Khloros]

Originally posted by Marold:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/19dp2qw/helldivers_2_nprotect_gameguard_anticheat/
This is another overview from one of the developers on how to delete the anti cheat, what it does and whether it is active all the time.

I can tell you with 100% confidence that it CAN run all the time even after exiting the game, due to an issue with the game not shutting the instance of GameMon.des down after it exists.

Source: I literally just helped someone with this issue on their discord where when they exit the game it does not stop GameMon.des.

[Saint Marold YT]

Originally posted by Khloros:

Originally posted by Marold:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/19dp2qw/helldivers_2_nprotect_gameguard_anticheat/
This is another overview from one of the developers on how to delete the anti cheat, what it does and whether it is active all the time.

I can tell you with 100% confidence that it CAN run all the time even after exiting the game, due to an issue with the game not shutting the instance of GameMon.des down after it exists.

Source: I literally just helped someone with this issue on their discord where when they exit the game it does not stop GameMon.des.

So for me everything is gone after I closed the game.
Does it continue to run for you all the time? Or just by your friend.

[Khloros]

Originally posted by Marold:

Originally posted by Khloros:

I can tell you with 100% confidence that it CAN run all the time even after exiting the game, due to an issue with the game not shutting the instance of GameMon.des down after it exists.

Source: I literally just helped someone with this issue on their discord where when they exit the game it does not stop GameMon.des.

So for me everything is gone after I closed the game.

Which is good, thats how it SHOULD work, the problem is, its not for everyone.
Arrowhead them selves even admired that 1:150 people have have an issue with that. that's a lot of people when you consider there are over 150k on steam that are playing.

So if they say it SHOULD close, yes it should, but its very much not for some people.
For that individual i was helping it runs until they reboot their computer, they could not even kill the process via a command line elevated as administrator using a taskkill command. Then the ycant launch the game again until they reboot so that the gamemon.des process stops.

[Hell+]

I guess for me it's that 1st question I need help with which is in essence "is this any worse or more invasive than easy anti-cheat?"

I already have games with easy, I know that's also kernel access so if this is no worse than that then fair enough, I'm just wondering as I'm unsure whether the main complaint here is about kernel level anti-cheats in general, or whether gameguard is especially bad in comparison. That's the main thing I'm not yet sure on.

[Khloros]

Originally posted by Hell+:

I guess for me it's that 1st question I need help with which is in essence "is this any worse or more invasive than easy anti-cheat?"

I already have games with easy, I know that's also kernel access so if this is no worse than that then fair enough, I'm just wondering as I'm unsure whether the main complaint here is about kernel level anti-cheats in general, or whether gameguard is especially bad in comparison. That's the main thing I'm not yet sure on.

I would say this one is worse, as invasive? tough to say.

The thing about EAC and battle eye is that they are far better at actually working as intended. They run only when the game is running, dont flag random hooks from other applications like CPU cooling, Discord, Streaming softwhere, anti viruses, all things the devs themselves admit GG can negatively interact with.

GG is just an antiquated program.
EAC and BattleEye are also running on well over 100+ games collectivly so its not like this is anything new to them.

GG run mostly on niche eastern games with super low player counts and or old MMOs, of which the only big one was undecember or what ever its called which had lots of issues with it as well.

[Koopa]

1) Not really, they are both kernel-level, people (me included) simply have more trust in EAC and Battleye then gameguard

2) Without a gameguard-free version we can't really tell but my game does crash every once in a while mid-mission for seemingly no reason, so that may be caused by the anticheat, or it could be a simple overlooked memory leak issue.

3) No, atleast not by design and not in my experience, if you catch it running in the background you can end it with task manager with no consequence.

4) Yes, there's an uninstall tool to remove gameguard completely.

5) Personally, I think its a done deal, it might get cracked at best but I have my doubts that the devs will actually remove it willingly, esp with sony breathing down their neck.

6) I don't like it, I appreciate that its not vanguard-tier where it runs at system startup, but ultimately I think this level of anti-cheat is totally unnecessary and server-side checks could be implemented instead to protect their real interest (the in-game shop) payday 2 had no anti-cheat and it wasn't an issue, simply just kick them from the game, same with deep rock, etc.

[Saint Marold YT]

Originally posted by Hell+:

I guess for me it's that 1st question I need help with which is in essence "is this any worse or more invasive than easy anti-cheat?"

I already have games with easy, I know that's also kernel access so if this is no worse than that then fair enough, I'm just wondering as I'm unsure whether the main complaint here is about kernel level anti-cheats in general, or whether gameguard is especially bad in comparison. That's the main thing I'm not yet sure on.

I would then wait another 1-3 months. If security gaps or private data are sent, it will be made public by then.
Outgoing and incoming network traffic can be monitored, write and read access by individual processes can be logged.

Executables can be analyzed and searched for appropriate functions to send private data or other malicious code.

[Khloros]

Originally posted by Marold:

Originally posted by Hell+:

I guess for me it's that 1st question I need help with which is in essence "is this any worse or more invasive than easy anti-cheat?"

I already have games with easy, I know that's also kernel access so if this is no worse than that then fair enough, I'm just wondering as I'm unsure whether the main complaint here is about kernel level anti-cheats in general, or whether gameguard is especially bad in comparison. That's the main thing I'm not yet sure on.

I would then wait another 1-3 months. If security gaps or private data are sent, it will be made public by then.
Outgoing and incoming network traffic can be monitored, write and read access by individual processes can be logged.

Executables can be analyzed and searched for appropriate functions to send private data or other malicious code.

Well....thats the thing, thats not true with kernel level programs.
They can completely avoid all of that because they are looking directly into memory.
This is actually how rootkit viruses work, they can mask themselves under hte application layer of your computers, they have more authority then god on your system.

Do i think GG is doing this? No, absolutely not.
Do I think its a poorly made program, that opens up the possibility of attack and exploited in the same matter that happened to the shady anti cheat software that genshin impact used and the data breach they had some 2 years ago? Absolutely yes.

[Saint Marold YT]

then you can at least still observe the network traffic or analyze the executable.

A program that runs in kernel mode can also be debugged.

Although it doesn't matter at first because you need a lot of specialist knowledge to analyze an executable.

The fact that a anti-cheat software should not be so easy to analyze is the nature of the software.

There are only two things you can do as a consumer: either you buy the product. Or you don't buy it.

As far as I know, there is no confirmation that the anti cheat software contains potentially dangerous code. Otherwise the developers would not have used the software.

There are just some people who think so it could potentially be dangerous. But this could be any unknown (and known) software on your computer.