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Valorant's anti-cheat starts upon computer boot and runs all the time, even when you don't play the game

Helios

Member

The kernel anticheat driver (vgk.sys) starts when you turn your computer on. To turn it off, you either need to change the name of the driver file so it wouldn't load on a restart, or you can uninstall the driver (it will be installed back again when you open the game).

so ya, the big issue here is it running even when players don't have the game open, from startup no less. EDIT - It runs at Ring 0 of the Windows Kernel which means it always has the same rights as administrator from the moment you boot.



For comparison, BattlEye and EasyAntiCheat both load when you're opening the game, and unload when you've closed it. If you'd like to see for yourself, open cmd and type "sc query vgk"



It has been confirmed as intended behavior by RiotArkem over at /r/VALORANT, as well as him giving an explanation about riot's stance on this:



Now look, I can understand why they do it and people wanting a better anti-cheat... but this just brings up a whole number of issues from data to vulnerability to security to trust:



  • you have a piece of software that can't be turned off, that runs with elevated privileges non-stop on your system. If someone with malicious intent can figure out a way to use it as a rootkit... like come on, riot are not magicians creating perfect software that can't be cracked or beaten (as apparently some valorant fans think)


  • let's say the ant-cheat gets compromised tomorrow, you won't know that your computer is exposed and it won't update until you start the game


  • I also believe it should be made very clear that this is something that the the game does, and at the very least should be something togglable. RiotArkem is already saying you can uninstall the anti-cheat if you want to, so let this be something users can easily toggle.


  • then comes the trust issue:
    with the amount of backlash blizzard (rightfully) got for the blitzchung incident and how people were all over blizzard for tencent having shares in it, 5% stake... how are there ppl actually just waving off anyone with concerns of having a startup kernel on their system from a company OWNED by tencent? how are there people faulting others for caring about this issue and asking for more than just riot saying "trust us"?


It also conflicts with other games causing FPS drops and the mods over at /r/Valorant deleted the post showing this



 

Helios

Member
Who even plays that shit any way?
I am part of the glorious pc gaming master race and nevre heard of it until like a week ago!
Fucking garbage game.
It was announced only a few weeks ago I think. It's unfortunately very popular partly because some people are in love with Riot's sterile gameplay/art and part because of how they chose to advertise it. Right now, if you want to get access into the beta you have to watch streams on Twitch from "Influencers" specifically chosen by Riot. Than you have the *chance* at a key drop. It's been sitting at 1 mil viewers for at least a week (I assume a big part of it are bots and idlers but it works for advertising purposes anyway).
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Pejo

Member
You literally couldn't pay me to install this on even somebody else's computer. There is virtually 100% chance that this is either currently collecting your data or can be used to do so. I avoid EGS launcher for similar concerns, even though those were mostly explained away.
 

mickaus

Member
It is things like this that make me stick to consoles. If Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft want to see my gaming history that’s fine, but with riot and other chinese companies getting themselves deep into the computer, it’s just becoming a risk to play games sometimes.
 

Helios

Member
EDIT: If I uninstall the game I'll be good right?
According to Riot
The Vanguard driver can be uninstalled at any time (it'll be "Riot Vanguard" in Add/Remove programs) and the driver component does not collect any information from your computer or communicate over the network at all.
so it's different from the main install.
 
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too bad, but its expected after people accepted the spyware in windows 10, things like this are the obvious next step


but don't worry "its for your protection"
 
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M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
too bad, but its expected after people accepted the spyware in windows 10, things like this are the obvious next step


but don't worry "its for your protection"
You mean telemetry? That's really nothing, this shit is way more dangerous. Are you using linux or why such an extreme term "spyware", if anything Win10 sending less data then it's predecessor, which result in more bugs/instabilities thanks to that...
 
You mean telemetry? That's really nothing, this shit is way more dangerous. Are you using linux or why such an extreme term "spyware", if anything Win10 sending less data then it's predecessor, which result in more bugs/instabilities thanks to that...

I was referring at things like the keylogger

I consider a keylogger and track what you say a spyware and a big red flag, but to be fair I dont know if they still use it, but at the time people justified it


yes I am a linux user :lollipop_halo:
 
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Soodanim

Member
Anyone remember Sony rootkit? Those were the days.
From the title I expected a return to some of those horrible ones that you weren’t told about and you couldn’t get rid of (as reported). As much of a swing and a miss this is, it’s not a 10/10 red alert devil.exe
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
I was referring at things like the keylogger

I consider a keylogger and track what you say a spyware and a big red flag, but to be fair I dont know if they still use it, but at the time people justified it


yes I am a linux user :lollipop_halo:
Did not know that people accept keylogger... Is this some kind of story?
 
Did not know that people accept keylogger... Is this some kind of story?

that was my experience overall with "clients", friends and in forums, people that consulted me about it were concerned but unable to do much about it, all that at the time it was in the news, if people want to be apathetic about it its ok by me, I still use windows 7 in a couple machines and my brother also use windows 7 for gaming exclusively other thatn that my parents use osx

I cannot check if its still there as I dont use the OS and when I repair a windows 10 machine is usually a favor and I prefer not touch anything that is not the problem, when I do a repair is usually hardware problems mostly recover data from faulty hdds, password resets and things like that and mostly old machines its not my job I only fix pc in my free time

if its still there I guess it means people just "accepted" the keylogger, can you confirm is still there?
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
that was my experience overall with "clients", friends and in forums, people that consulted me about it were concerned but unable to do much about it, all that at the time it was in the news, if people want to be apathetic about it its ok by me, I still use windows 7 in a couple machines and my brother also use windows 7 for gaming exclusively other thatn that my parents use osx

I cannot check if its still there as I dont use the OS and when I repair a windows 10 machine is usually a favor and I prefer not touch anything that is not the problem, when I do a repair is usually hardware problems mostly recover data from faulty hdds, password resets and things like that and mostly old machines its not my job I only fix pc in my free time

if its still there I guess it means people just "accepted" the keylogger, can you confirm is still there?
I am not sure, if I copy....you are saying that there was a keylogger, by default in Win 10? I am sorry, I've been in Hospital, I have to get up in 5am, so I guess my brain is slow and I am non-native English speaker, so pardon me if I appear slightly retarded.
 

ZywyPL

Banned
It's made by Rito, what people expected? Of course it's gonna be garbage, just as every other of their projects. Which sill won't stop those for making shitloads of money.
 
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