3 ms·

> banning having reverse engineering tools open, or having used them recently on game files Seems like a smart way to catch inexperienced/up and coming cheat d

> banning having reverse engineering tools open, or having used them recently on game files Seems like a smart way to catch inexperienced/up and coming cheat devs. How many non-cheat devs really have IDA on their gaming PC? I did and it was for developing cheats

G4E 2y ago
I'm sorry, but that's a really narrow minded take. There are a lot of good reasons to have IDA or Ghidra installed on your computer, if only for fun and learning reverse-engineering. This should NOT prevent you to play others games. ( To everybody reading this : if you like computer and puzzles, you should absolutly try to reverse-engineer a simple binary at least once. It's fun !)
- lmz 2y ago
  If you installed it to learn RE and the game refuses to run because of it, now you have a project to try your skills on.
  - drdaeman 2y ago
    I assume this is a joke, but still... I have had Ghidra open in the background for a while (weeks), as I worked on some IoT projects for my cats. While I'm biased and I hold some unpopular opinions... I think not just me, but most people definitely would get offended if suddenly some game would refuse to start and/or ban online account. Honestly, banning players because they have RE tools feels like a generally counter-productive idea. Best-case scenario is that it'll require an engineer who was actually going to RE game files to get another account, stalling them very briefly. Worst-case scenario is getting someone with technical skills and free time pissed off enough to actually start messing with the game (potentially, in a less respectful way than your average cheat developer might - looking for game-breaking exploits than just automating things or providing extra information to the player), even if they didn't mean to.
kmeisthax 2y ago
I have an old copy of IDA floating around somewhere and play games on my primary machine. This is a really bad and awful way to do anticheat.
eddiewithzato 2y ago
I used x64dbg to crack some accounting software that went EOL and forced us to buy a new software based on a new subscription model. You can basically patch the executable to skip the function that locks you out
- jsheard 2y ago
  I recently saw that Roblox kids are trolling each other by putting "x64dbg" in their display names, because the game checks the window title of every running app and refuses to run if it sees that string anywhere :^)
  - ganoushoreilly 2y ago
    gotta love it. ALT+F4 to show your respects. ;D
  - robotnikman 2y ago
    That's actually pretty clever, and gave me a good laugh
0xcde4c3db 2y ago
Not literally IDA, but I once had OllyDbg on my "gaming PC" (really my "everything PC") because I was trying to help a game developer debug a problem that apparently only happened on my PC.
ganoushoreilly 2y ago
It's not so uncommon for homelab / cyber security researchers. I have an older licensed copy of Ida and Ghidra on my main gaming pc. Mostly to keep dumb research of workstations I use for legit work.
bloopernova 2y ago
As someone who has lost a fair bit of my hand eye coordination as I've aged, I wanted to say thank you to you and your community for developing some cheats. Specifically those for single player games, I've used them to finish games so I can view the story/endings.
Terr_ 2y ago
Using a stupid/unreliable signal for lazy banning--like "is a developer tool installed"--is deeply unjust to a minority of users. A less permanently-severe but real example: A Windows game which terminates (with no message) if the user opens "git bash" (cygwin).

G4E 2y ago

I'm sorry, but that's a really narrow minded take. There are a lot of good reasons to have IDA or Ghidra installed on your computer, if only for fun and learning reverse-engineering. This should NOT prevent you to play others games. ( To everybody reading this : if you like computer and puzzles, you should absolutly try to reverse-engineer a simple binary at least once. It's fun !)

lmz 2y ago
If you installed it to learn RE and the game refuses to run because of it, now you have a project to try your skills on.
- drdaeman 2y ago
  I assume this is a joke, but still... I have had Ghidra open in the background for a while (weeks), as I worked on some IoT projects for my cats. While I'm biased and I hold some unpopular opinions... I think not just me, but most people definitely would get offended if suddenly some game would refuse to start and/or ban online account. Honestly, banning players because they have RE tools feels like a generally counter-productive idea. Best-case scenario is that it'll require an engineer who was actually going to RE game files to get another account, stalling them very briefly. Worst-case scenario is getting someone with technical skills and free time pissed off enough to actually start messing with the game (potentially, in a less respectful way than your average cheat developer might - looking for game-breaking exploits than just automating things or providing extra information to the player), even if they didn't mean to.

kmeisthax 2y ago

I have an old copy of IDA floating around somewhere and play games on my primary machine. This is a really bad and awful way to do anticheat.

eddiewithzato 2y ago

I used x64dbg to crack some accounting software that went EOL and forced us to buy a new software based on a new subscription model. You can basically patch the executable to skip the function that locks you out

jsheard 2y ago
I recently saw that Roblox kids are trolling each other by putting "x64dbg" in their display names, because the game checks the window title of every running app and refuses to run if it sees that string anywhere :^)
- ganoushoreilly 2y ago
  gotta love it. ALT+F4 to show your respects. ;D
- robotnikman 2y ago
  That's actually pretty clever, and gave me a good laugh

0xcde4c3db 2y ago

Not literally IDA, but I once had OllyDbg on my "gaming PC" (really my "everything PC") because I was trying to help a game developer debug a problem that apparently only happened on my PC.

ganoushoreilly 2y ago

It's not so uncommon for homelab / cyber security researchers. I have an older licensed copy of Ida and Ghidra on my main gaming pc. Mostly to keep dumb research of workstations I use for legit work.

bloopernova 2y ago

As someone who has lost a fair bit of my hand eye coordination as I've aged, I wanted to say thank you to you and your community for developing some cheats. Specifically those for single player games, I've used them to finish games so I can view the story/endings.

Terr_ 2y ago

Using a stupid/unreliable signal for lazy banning--like "is a developer tool installed"--is deeply unjust to a minority of users. A less permanently-severe but real example: A Windows game which terminates (with no message) if the user opens "git bash" (cygwin).