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We outsmarted CSGO cheaters with IdentityLogger

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Re: We outsmarted CSGO cheaters with IdentityLogger

#251

Post by consp »

xxs wrote: post #224
phire wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same rules apply to the steam ID and IP address. As far as I'm aware, you can get away with disclosing the fact that you are tracking "unique identifiers for the purpose of anti-cheating" in the terms and conditions, without explicitly explaining the technical details that it's a cookie. Also, this is a server covering the Australia/New Zealand region, so it doesn't have to worry about GDPR compliance.

>the fact that you are tracking "unique identifiers for the purpose of anti-cheating" A person can requests to delete their data at any time, and also can request to provide all the personal data collected.

This does not apply to fraud. You can store the data if it is relevant to an illegal act, and since cheating voids the ToS of the server ...

Re: We outsmarted CSGO cheaters with IdentityLogger

#252

Post by rldjbpin »

respect the ingenuity of the solution and how well it did.

although it has to be said that we are better off without having vgui in the first place.

this kind of sneaky tracking is so widespread today on the Web that it is nearly impossible to be bothered with evading it. whether it is the "wideport" or what extensions you use, you might as well use tails to surf the internet at that rate.

but using a logical fallacy, to exploit for the better good does seem appealing.

Re: We outsmarted CSGO cheaters with IdentityLogger

#253

Post by johnisgood »

johnisgood wrote: post #124
snarfy wrote: post #25

For UT2004, you can ban by player GUID (a hash of the CD key) or IP. With the game abandoned by Epic, a number of key generators have cropped up, which makes GUID bans useless. IP bans only go so far with VPNs costing $2 these days. The main solutions we have today are IP ban + VPN blocking using a database of known VPN subnets and adding them all to the firewall, and a similar fingerprinting technique which scans th…

> IP bans only go so far with VPNs costing $2 these days. https://redman.xyz/doku.php/schachtmeister2 was made specifically against people using VPNs. It was made for Tremulous (ioquake3 fork) where people kept evading IP bans, but it can be used for any other games. It is not my project, but I know the author, and I could personally fork it and make it suitable for specific (or any) games if there is demand for it.…

OK, https://redman.xyz/git/schachtmeister2 now works (cgit), and it can be cloned, too.

Re: We outsmarted CSGO cheaters with IdentityLogger

#254

Post by fiskfiskfisk »

precommunicator wrote: post #221

> but the traffic itself was encrypted over HTTPS. This meant that even if one were to use a packet sniffing tool like Wireshark, you would not be able to find the raw token. It's trivial to decrypt HTTPS with tools like Fiddler or Burp Suite, assuming this build in browser used system proxy and system certificates list.

Its all about how apparent the issue is if you're running Wireshark - it does not stand out, so you have to do a lot more work to discover what is actually happening. The request is also hidden in plain sight along other requests, and those requests are what you'd expect (you'd normally expect a motd request, so this isn't out of the place).

Given that the way of circumventing the issue at hand is to delete a single local file, which is far simpler than finding the actual request and setting up fiddler or burp suite, this worked good enough.

No need to overengineer.

Re: We outsmarted CSGO cheaters with IdentityLogger

#255

Post by eertami »

kelnos wrote: post #70
ghxst wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This still leaves you wide open to cheaters using mobile data tethering and proxies. Have you considered more advanced network analysis? It's one of the areas I have an interest in (professionally and personally) so if you want any suggestions let me know.

> This still leaves you wide open to cheaters using mobile data tethering and proxies Is latency going to be good enough on mobile data (especially if they're also using proxies) for a FPS, though? Sure, they're using cheating software, but I wouldn't be surprised if the software gets the information it needs to cheat too late often enough for it to be useful.

It's not ideal but I lived half a year with unreliable internet and frequently played over a tethered 4G mobile connection (in Europe). Latency was around 40-50ms, which was still lower than the people playing from Eastern Europe who would play in EU West matchmaking. I imagine with 5G it could be even lower.

Re: We outsmarted CSGO cheaters with IdentityLogger

#256

Post by jamespo »

anticrymactic wrote: post #212
snarfy wrote: post #25

For UT2004, you can ban by player GUID (a hash of the CD key) or IP. With the game abandoned by Epic, a number of key generators have cropped up, which makes GUID bans useless. IP bans only go so far with VPNs costing $2 these days. The main solutions we have today are IP ban + VPN blocking using a database of known VPN subnets and adding them all to the firewall, and a similar fingerprinting technique which scans th…

> The main solutions we have today are IP ban + VPN blocking using a database of known VPN subnets and adding them all to the firewall, and a similar fingerprinting technique which scans their folder structure of certain system folders. No. VPN blocking is useless to stop malicious actors as most residential connections have DHCP and VPN subnets are added and removed somewhat frequently, it's not that hard to find a…

Excluding someone on VPN from playing UT2004 on a specific server is not an abuse of their human rights

Re: We outsmarted CSGO cheaters with IdentityLogger

#258

Post by trowflahbung »

robertlagrant wrote: post #257

Would it be worth charging for CSGO? Or Counter-Strike 2, whatever the latest is? Because being banned by Steam ID might mean something if you have to pay $10 each time for the privilege.

They semi-charge, i.e. the new “Premier” league is gate-kept by a $15 charge and an XP gate that requires extensive playtime in their other game modes.

However, one can pretty easily buy a wholesale account if and when that happens and skip the time-money sink.

Re: We outsmarted CSGO cheaters with IdentityLogger

#259

Post by schmorptron »

robertlagrant wrote: post #257

Would it be worth charging for CSGO? Or Counter-Strike 2, whatever the latest is? Because being banned by Steam ID might mean something if you have to pay $10 each time for the privilege.

You do have to pay to play the ("prime") competitive mode. Sadly that doesn't seem to be much of a deterrence.

Re: We outsmarted CSGO cheaters with IdentityLogger

#260

Post by hypercube33 »

robertlagrant wrote: post #257

Would it be worth charging for CSGO? Or Counter-Strike 2, whatever the latest is? Because being banned by Steam ID might mean something if you have to pay $10 each time for the privilege.

I used to believe this, but in Call of Duty you burn $40-60 a ban plus it was or is tied to a phone number at one point and that didn't slow cheating down one bit. It's ultimately why my group quit playing.
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