Riot Games‘ kernel-level anti-cheat, Vanguard, has received an update that is allegedly altering system firmware to remove the ability of the user to access certain hardware associated with cheating.

Riot Games quoted one post discussing the anti-cheat, replying “congrats to the owners of a brand new $6k paperweight.” But how exactly does Vanguard’s new system make “paperweights” out of hardware?

  • brsrklf@jlai.lu
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    5 days ago

    This is a later clarification. First tweet just told people it would turn their device into “paperweights”, which is usually synonymous with “bricking” to a lot of people who mod hardware with custom firmware and such. And the original article talked about how it worked by messing with firmware, it was not even clear whether they talked about only the cheating device firmware or the usual PC components it’s connected on.

    Now, with the clarification, it seems the thing they’re doing is way milder than what they hinted at and isn’t even doing anything permanent (I think?)

    Sure, the article should be retitled following the new info though. Leaving it like that is dishonest.