Volatile Memory Anti-Cheat System Preventing Tampering
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Solution Overview
Problem
In multiplayer video games, cheating by users through automated software, or 'bots,' can lead to an unbalanced gaming experience and loss of sales due to disillusioned players, as existing monitoring systems can be tampered with by malicious users.
Innovation Solution
An anti-cheat system is implemented that runs in volatile memory, accessing cheat signatures from a backend system over a network and performing real-time detection, preventing storage in non-volatile memory to avoid tampering and ensure automatic deletion upon game exit.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the anti-cheat system stores cheat signatures in non-volatile memory, then the system can persistently store detection data, but the stored data can be tampered with by malicious users
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the cheat signatures from non-volatile memory and loads them into volatile memory for active use. This separation allows the system to maintain persistent storage capabilities while using a tamper-resistant medium (volatile memory) for active detection operations, thereby reducing the risk of user tampering with critical anti-cheat data
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the memory state parameter of cheat signatures from persistent (non-volatile) to temporary (volatile). This parameter change ensures that cheat signatures are automatically cleared when the system shuts down, preventing malicious users from accessing or modifying stored detection data while maintaining system functionality during operation
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the anti-cheat system runs in volatile memory, then the risk of tampering is reduced, but the storage space in non-volatile memory is consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic memory management approach where cheat signatures are loaded into volatile memory only when needed for active detection. This dynamic allocation allows the system to minimize non-volatile storage consumption while maintaining adequate volatile memory resources for tamper-resistant operations, optimizing the balance between storage efficiency and security
3Reliability
If the anti-cheat system uses real-time detection with volatile memory, then automatic deletion upon game exit is ensured, but the detection process requires continuous network access
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary loading of cheat signatures into volatile memory before the game runs. This preliminary action ensures that detection data is ready for immediate use and automatically cleared when the game exits, providing reliability without requiring continuous network access during gameplay. The network connection is only needed initially for loading signatures and optionally for updates
Data Source
AI summary
An anti-cheat system may be accessed over a network and stored directly into volatile memory of a user computing system. In some embodiments, this anti-cheat system may scan, or access portions of, the volatile memory of the user computing system to detect whether cheat software or other unauthorized software that may interact with a game application is detected on the user computing system. The accessed portions of the volatile memory may be compared with one or more signatures that are associated with the execution of cheat software on a computing system. The anti-cheat system may be prevented from being stored within non-volatile memory, thereby preventing malicious users from modifying the anti-cheat system.