Call of Duty’s new anti-cheat, RICOCHET, was unveiled on October 13 and, within a day, Warzone hackers are reportedly reversing it after a major leak of the kernel-level driver’s files.
Warzone has been a hacker paradise since release with the battle royale plagued by cheaters hellbent on ruining matches with aimbots, wallhacks and other nefarious tools.
With CoD: Vanguard on the way, Activision have unveiled their upcoming anti-cheat RICOCHET to combat the waves of troublemakers making Warzone and other games a nightmare.
According to the watchdog group Anti-Cheat Police Department, Activision finally had a fighting chance against hackers with RICOCHET, but a leaked kernel-level driver may lose them the war before it even begins.
Unfortunately, the kernel driver for @CallofDuty new Anti-cheat called RICOCHET got leaked today, and P2C devs are already reversing it, this is already very bad. pic.twitter.com/Vb8f3eXx5b
— Anti-Cheat Police Department 🕵️ (@AntiCheatPD) October 14, 2021
RICOCHET Kernel-level driver leaked
In a screenshot posted by Anti-cheat Police Department, hackers are already in the process of reversing RICOCHET after the driver was leaked.
“P2C devs are already reversing it, this is already very bad,” the group warned.
If RICOCHET is already being dissected, hackers will have a head start in preparing for the launch of Vanguard and the anti-cheat’s implementation into Warzone.
it is accordingly the same as a @equ8anticheat driver they took all the stuff they did and added more user information which is probably for their HWID banning system this kernel driver will be easily bypassed, the thing that worries me the most is the weak protection they have.
— Anti-Cheat Police Department 🕵️ (@AntiCheatPD) October 14, 2021
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To make matters worse, speaking with a reverse engineer, it was determined that the driver is “nothing that special” and wasn’t well protected.
“This kernel driver will be easily bypassed, the thing that worries me the most is the weak protection they have,” the watchdog group added.
Cheat developers are not afraid of the RICOCHET Anti-cheat, and to be fair most cheats already operate at the kernel level for a very long time, it is down to the developers at Ricochet if they have the skills to detect these cheats now, the playing ground is now even pic.twitter.com/Xb7OFflbi2
— Anti-Cheat Police Department 🕵️ (@AntiCheatPD) October 13, 2021
Warzone hackers not afraid of RICOCHET
In forum posts shared by Anti-Cheat PD, cheat sellers explained how there wouldn’t be a price increase and that existing products will support Vanguard and Warzone despite RICOCHET’s implementation.
“Cheat developers are not afraid of the RICOCHET Anti-cheat, and to be fair most cheats already operate at the kernel level for a very long time,” the group wrote. “It is down to the developers at RICOCHET if they have the skills to detect these cheats now, the playing ground is now even.”
It remains to be seen how serious this leak will be and if it will drastically affect the course of Vanguard’s launch.
Of course, hackers don’t play by the rules to begin with, so it will be interesting to see how Activision respond and if they have another trick up their sleeves leading up to launch. At the moment, nothing is confirmed so we’ll be monitoring the situation closely.