Question re Hardware Breakpoints

I know the thread has been locked and I may misunderstand what is being talked about,
however it seems some guy wants to cheat at a game by changing the memory or something
however it seems to me that such things which would allow your to cheat in a game would
be stored centrally (remotely on a server) rather than on a players computer?
I mean I might like to modify by money balance on a poke site, but I doubt that value
would be held on my own computer!!!
Feel free to lock//delete this if it is inapproopiate.

It normally is stored elsewhere since it's too easy to alter it while on your own system. However I would not put it past some of these sites to put a rootkit on your system so you cannot alter the information. I'm not saying they
do but it really would not surprise me if they did. Just be careful which ActiveX controls you allow on your system.


The other thread has been closed. It's not usually wise to open up another thread about a topic on which another thread has been closed just to add your input. Since this thread is actually about something a bit different I will leave it open.

To answer your question esbo, best practice is to completely validate all input from the remote client. Don't trust a single byte sent from it.
A few reasons:

• To avoid cheating
• To avoid having your system hacked into
• To avoid having someone deliberately crash your program

Quote:

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Originally Posted by esbo

I know the thread has been locked and I may misunderstand what is being talked about,
however it seems some guy wants to cheat at a game by changing the memory or something
however it seems to me that such things which would allow your to cheat in a game would
be stored centrally (remotely on a server) rather than on a players computer?
I mean I might like to modify by money balance on a poke site, but I doubt that value
would be held on my own computer!!!
Feel free to lock//delete this if it is inapproopiate.

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Not necessarily. For example, World of Warcraft has a secondary anti cheat util running on the local computer entitled the Warden. This util normally scans your computer about every 15 seconds for any signs of cheating such as modifying the game memory etc. Evidently, there is a lot of code/data that can be modified for cheating purposes on the client.

Yes, of course there is... You could fake data sent to the server.
But cheating in MMOs is the worst thing you can do. It's fine to cheat, as long as it affects only yourself, but when it affects others... then there is a line that must be drawn. You shouldn't spoil the game for others.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by esbo

I know the thread has been locked and I may misunderstand what is being talked about,
however it seems some guy wants to cheat at a game by changing the memory or something
however it seems to me that such things which would allow your to cheat in a game would
be stored centrally (remotely on a server) rather than on a players computer?
I mean I might like to modify by money balance on a poke site, but I doubt that value
would be held on my own computer!!!
Feel free to lock//delete this if it is inapproopiate.

---

With games, it is a trade off. Security is important, but it has to be balanced against responsiveness. If all game data was completely managed by the central server, too much data would have to flow back and forth. So decisions are made where to draw the line between what is managed centrally and what is managed on the client.

In a game, the server typically "trusts" the client during the short term, but constantly monitors the game state to make sure it doesn't change in an unnatural way. For instance, if a client suddenly reports their position far from the previous frame, such that the speed they would have had to travel would be faster than their maximum speed. Etc.

It is always possible to cheat in little ways. Mouse-looker software is one example of this. Ultimately, the real control on cheating is the players themselves. If a server is being perverted by cheaters, legitimate players will just go elsewhere.