VPN is 'cheating software' now?

[A Literal Potato]

EDITED: It has also tried to shut me out of my gaming drive and has bricked my AI testing platform. Wow.

UNEDITED: As the title says, running a VPN or Discord in the background is enough to get networking or framerate issues. A friend wanted to know what the game looked like, so I offered to stream it for them so they could see. Can't get above 4 FPS when streaming to Discord.

I had to play with all my other software to find out why I couldn't connect to HD2 servers. Turns out my VPN I use for cybersecurity is flagged as 'cheating software', even if HD2 and Steam aren't the targets of my VPN. I have to fully turn off my VPN in order to even make it to the main menu screen, much less to even play the game.

Aside from that, I (luckily, it seems) haven't run into the overheating or bricking issues others have had with GG, but it certainly is an issue. My guess is that GG is flagging a lot of base-level software as cheats because its flags are outdated.

[Thomas Anderson]

Welp, that totally counts me out from ever playing the game because I've installed a VPN on my router to encrypt ALL network traffic. I also use a pihole as a DNS to assuage some tracking/spying.

This means Arrowhead has made a game people who care about privacy cannot play.

[A Literal Potato]

Originally posted by Thomas Anderson:

Welp, that totally counts me out from ever playing the game because I've installed a VPN on my router to encrypt ALL network traffic. I also use a pihole as a DNS to assuage some tracking/spying.

This means Arrowhead has made a game people who care about privacy cannot play.

It's an issue I've been trying to find a workaround for, but it seems to be causing other people to brick and BSOD, which is incredibly unfortunate. Someone I know found out his ANTIVIRUS was flagged by GG.

[★ ace ★]

I have 3 different VPN services on my PC and they all seem to work just fine with the game and it's components, OpenVPN GUI, OpenVPN Connect, and Cisco AnyConnect.

[A Literal Potato]

Originally posted by ★ ace ★:

I have 3 different VPN services on my PC and they all seem to work just fine with the game and it's components, OpenVPN GUI, OpenVPN Connect, and Cisco AnyConnect. :cupup:

NordVPN and ExpressVPN seem to not.

[★ ace ★]

yeah that's weird, i'm not sure how exactly the anti-cheat works if it detects a running process or an appid, i'm not that knowledgeable with that actual logic.

[A Literal Potato]

Originally posted by ★ ace ★:

yeah that's weird, i'm not sure how exactly the anti-cheat works if it detects a running process or an appid, i'm not that knowledgeable with that actual logic.

GG is a Kernel-level anti-cheat, meaning it scans processes that change the way certain things run on the system. In Linux, GameGuard(GG), cannot access the kernel and therefore cannot influence the system. Some other programs that are unable to be flagged at kernel-level might be immune to GG attacking that process, but a multitude of processes have been listed as non-cheating software that has gotten a false positive. Notably, most processes that change your system's netcode (I've been told MANY VPNs are getting this lockout), overclocking software, cooling software, and even Discord can get flagged.

It's the same SNAFU R* had with ITS anti-cheat flagging Overwolf(a Teamspeak plugin that added an overlay to gameplay for chatting with friends) and banning Teamspeak users from Grand Theft Auto 5, for instance.

These kinds of anti-cheats are easy to bypass, so the only people really getting pegged by GG are legitimate players. It's been brought up, but some apologists for the devs (who have done a great job, with the bugs and anti-cheat notwithstanding) are trying to suppress the obvious security and user problems with strawman arguments and personal attacks. I just want the devs to address the security concerns and at least admit there IS a problem so it can be fixed. Easy Anti-Cheat isn't perfect, but better than this. BattleEye would be even better.

[Doctor Zalgo]

Can gameguard access the kernel if you run it as root?

[A Literal Potato]

Originally posted by Doctor Zalgo:

Can gameguard access the kernel if you run it as root?

Unsure. I have MILD experience in how these things work, but I'm far from advanced enough at troubleshooting to know precisely what it does or needs. I'm relying on a great amount of information from other users on other systems, which is part of the problem of isolating the precise issue.

[A Literal Potato]

It is now 3/6/2024, and I still cannot use my VPN and play the game. Even when it doesn't target the HD2 process.

So why is GG deliberately shutting my VPN down? It is only encrypting my browsers. To make matters worse, it bricked my AI testing platform and tried to lock me out of my gaming hard drive.

Will the devs at all do anything about this? Pretty please? With sugar on top.

[GatoMancer]

Originally posted by Doctor Zalgo:

Can gameguard access the kernel if you run it as root?

Game guard is a windows app, Running through Wine / Proton doesn't grant it any admin or SU rights and even then its a WINDOWS program, and doesn't speak Linux. The windows app is basically a tourist in a foreign country in a tourist trap.

further, why would you give it admin rights to begin with? "For science"?

[iggySPLOSION]

+1 as I'm also unable to run VPN while playing HD2. Even if I enable split-tunneling and make HD2 an exception, I cannot join or be joined by anyone while NordVPN is running. I have to entirely quit NordVPN for HD2 to network with anyone.

GameGuard is such a useless, unnecessary vulnerability to users' systems. I can't wait for it to be exploited by some hacker, so then they have kernel-level access to every machine with HD2 installed.

[★ ace ★]

that's the point, according to Steam using a VPN is a bannable offense. Well the rules and guidelines says a proxy and doesn't actually mention a VPN. So if anything Steam can ban you just for mentioning the word VPN, well according to steam support anyways.

[Navy Seal.pt]

same here, i use surfshark

[Cole]

Originally posted by Thomas Anderson:

Welp, that totally counts me out from ever playing the game because I've installed a VPN on my router to encrypt ALL network traffic. I also use a pihole as a DNS to assuage some tracking/spying.

This means Arrowhead has made a game people who care about privacy cannot play.

Well if you don't play it then it's not a big loss for the thousands of others who play.

[Jamesterxc]

im lazy so ai
Yes, using a VPN can potentially get you banned in games, depending on the game and its individual rules. While some games, like Monster Hunter: Rise and Warzone, do not have strict policies against VPN usage, most multiplayer games do not allow the use of VPNs.