About the nProtect GameGuard debacle...

[thefutilevariable]

Can someone explain to me the concerns over using this anticheat over other options, such as BattleEye or easy anti cheat? I'm not getting a definitive answer online. I don't wish to be ignorant on the matter, and want to understand if I should be genuinely concerned over this or not.

[Osama Bin Trippin]

Hi folks. I've been doing a little bit of research on this for a week now. I'll just sorta fill you in on what I've found and you can choose to do with what you will. (and no I don't have a real solution, this is just information)

The common thing among all this is Maple Story. More specifically gameguard. Gameguard by nProtect is somewhat well known as a rootkit. ( Don't freak out just yet, cuz rootkits aren't exactly evil all the time. All it does is hide processes in this instance) If you've done a bit of digging, you'd know that gameguard sort of hijacks your kernel processes. Ok I don't know if hijacking is actually accurate, but what it does is kill your kernel and replaces it with one of it's own. Allowing it to have pretty much full access to your system. Now this new fake kernel pretty much has say over what can and can't be done on your system somewhat (this is to prevent hacks in short).

When gg starts up, it will create a temporary file (what everyone sees as dump_wmimmc.sys) sets up its hooks and then boot the game. If for any reason gg sees something it considers "threatening" it will call for a reboot.

The crash you experience when quitting the game I believe starts out when the temp file is cancelled, yet the hooks remain.

There's not really anything you can do as it's pretty much up to nProtect to fix this problem. Its not so much maple story as it is gameguard. I've had this problem for a long time just that it didn't get serious until the BSODs. I think what clued me in was when my device drivers started crashing like crazy (bluetooth stacks etc.) Even with yesterday's latest patch, nothing is to be done. In fact, gameguard now thinks my logitech game profiler is malicious and will force a shutdown of the game.

I know not everyone is experiencing this, but from some of the systems I've tested, it seems to be affecting specifically windows xp sp2. I've tried this on windows 2000 with sp2, sp3 and sp4 installed as well as windows xp with sp1 and sp2 installed.

Well that's what I've discovered so far and if there are any corrections to be made, please correct me.

Oh and just so you know, there is a known vulnerability involved with nProtect gameguard which does allow malicious code to be injected into your system.

As great as "free" games go, maple is one of them. But there is no way I am going to continue with it anymore because of nProtect software. Or any game using nProtect. (this was supposed to prevent hacking, but has been nothing short of failure. What is the point when gg can easily be circumvented by hackers?) I suppose the intent was good, just the execution was horrendous.

Companies like wiznet and nprotect seem to only care if it affects their bottom line (try contacting them and you will see what I mean). So your cries will go in vain until a large portion of their paying players start quitting. I spend what most people consider way too much money on games etc. and I can tell you, these guys aren't going to get my money.

[Osama Bin Trippin]

While this may be a history lesson, it is still relevant operating policy for nProtect. SEGA had to specifically request GG to allow various programs to be whitelisted along with various patches in order for PSO2 to work.

[Terotrous]

One of the most crucial differences is that although both EasyAntiCheat and NProtect monitor running processes for signs of things they don't like, if EAC finds something, it shuts down the game it's trying to protect. If NProtect finds something, it shuts down the service it thinks is suspicious instead. Obviously, the latter is vastly riskier, as shutting down processes willy-nilly can cause all kinds of issues for your system.

[★ ace ★]

I have lots of 3rd party software installed, like I'm sure plenty of others do, but none of them are causing any issues, maybe i'm lucky. I use pretty standard accessories, Logitech, Corsair, stuff like that.

Same goes for monitoring software, I have GPU Tweak II, AURA, iCUE, Armoury, NZXT CAM. Those all seems to be working as intended and I also have multi-monitors going. Seems to be working just fine for myself but others seem to having issues that a lot seem to be resolved with installing the proper software packages.

Others seem to have other issues and that might be related to the anti-cheat if it just shuts these processes down that it doesn't like. I'm not sure how the anti-cheat functions if it's just as simple as adding the application to a "whitelist" that might solve some issues but I think a lot of people are scared of the whole kernel-level thing.

They have no issue with using a Microsoft product that's had plenty of issues with data-breaches in the past but for some reason the "buzzword" for the week is kernel-level so we're suck in a loop until people find something else to talk about.

For myself and plenty of others it runs just fine, but be warned you might encounter some issues, they might require some technical voodoo to get working, or it could be just as simple as a package install. good luck.

[★ ace ★]

nice free points, thanks you, the jester is the best one.

[★ ace ★]

thanks again for the points

[Calv]

Publicado originalmente por Osama Bin Trippin:

Oh and just so you know, there is a known vulnerability involved with nProtect gameguard which does allow malicious code to be injected into your system.

A potential vulnerability that was raised nearly 20 years ago and has zero record of ever being used.
Someone would already need to have full access to your system in order to make use of this, at which point, there isn't that much to gain from this.