ThunderBust Anti-Cheat

[afraca]

Greetings to all of you,

As some of you may have noticed this topic is about a future anti-cheat program called ThunderBust. I know most people would instantly think of this as something rather impossible to do, but luckily some don't. Gamers on this forum might have noticed cheating is still being done by a large amount of players, even in these "modern times". X-ray, a famous anti-cheat program used in competition - gaming, has been declared "dead", PBbans, another anti-cheat program has died slowly, and PunkBuster hasn't had a real update in a looooong time.....

So, a lot of people are interested in a new anti-cheat program, so we set up the ThunderBust project. Currently we've been brainstorming a lot, and developed the concept, some "art", and some other stuff. The actual programming hasn't been done due a lack of experienced C++ programmers. The "problem" is that our brainstorm/concept design (closed for public) forum is only in Dutch, but for those of you that are interested I'm happy to provide you with our up-to-date status.

// I'll post the concept here tonight when I have a little bit more time. Stay tuned!

// For any questions contact me here!

[ih8censorship]

Sounds interesting I know of at least one active member here who knows Dutch. I don't know if he'd help though. I remember when punkbuster was the newest thing. Of course around the same time i was also banned from a few soldier of fortune servers for cheating ,where i wasnt cheating but i liked to play the same map and i got really good at it and got accusations of cheating haha. Is this going to be an open source project?

[*brammie*]

sounds good,
I hacked once in maplestory xD (and got banned >_<)

I might help if you want to
(and I'm dutch)

[oulyt]

sounds good,
I hacked once in maplestory xD (and got banned >_<)

I might help if you want to
(and I'm dutch)

who hasnt, i never got banned for it just gotta know the right places to vac. but that was yearrrrssss ago.

[FrozenKnight]

Is this going to be an open source project?

Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of anti-cheat. If hackers know how you are scanning for their cheats then they will also know how to avoid your scans.

Currently we've been brainstorming a lot, and developed the concept, some "art", and some other stuff.

Somehow I don't think art is important to anti-cheat.

The actual programming hasn't been done due a lack of experienced C++ programmers.

A lack of programmers doesn't give me too much hope for the project.
I think you would also need some experienced hackers, and if your hackers are any good they are probably also programmers.

Hmm, the more I analyze this post the less confidence I have in it.

[ih8censorship]

Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of anti-cheat. If hackers know how you are scanning for their cheats then they will also know how to avoid your scans.

I'm not a big fan of security through obscurity only. Think of the number of serious security flaws that have been found in software such as Windows and Internet Explorer. Not to mention all of the web flaws on various sites.

With the right license (clearly something like GPL doesnt work here, some part of the software has to be encrypted or something) I think an open source system could work, especially if some malware like mutating/encryption technology was brought into it.

[luq]

Hi, I'm working on this project too. I would like to clarify some things.

The actual programming hasn't been done due a lack of experienced C++ programmers.

We started working on this project for one week. It's not that we made a whole website allready, we're just starting. We have an old hacker in our crew allready.

Somehow I don't think art is important to anti-cheat.

OK, so we'll just make an MS-DOS interface for our users? Some designing has to be done right..

I'm not a big fan of security through obscurity only. Think of the number of serious security flaws that have been found in software such as Windows and Internet Explorer. Not to mention all of the web flaws on various sites.

With the right license (clearly something like GPL doesnt work here, some part of the software has to be encrypted or something) I think an open source system could work, especially if some malware like mutating/encryption technology was brought into it.

Something we didn't think of yet, but sounds interesting. By the way, whose the dutch person you're talking about?

[afraca]

I would like to apologize for my absence during your helpful replies. As Luq pointed out, we've just started on the project. Regarding the "art", perhaps I should have phrased it a bit different, I meant the design for the website.....

Regarding Open-Source: that's a very good one. I've been thinking about this over and over, as I the open-source idea is absolutely amazing. Time has proven security related programs can be made even better when made open-source. As pointed out here however, this can be quite "dangerous" as hackers/cheaters will be constantly looking for any flaws in the code..... My opinion is to make a closed-source for a short period of time, where we have proven we CAN catch hackers/cheaters efficiently. In time making the project open-source will be a good idea IMHO (I have to talk this through with the team of course   ) .

Brammie, I'll send you a PM. Hopefully you're still interested in the project, and hopefully you'll be a great help for the team.

We would really hear your feedback, and especially all the solutions you would have for it. All the input is welcome and we'll analyze it very carefully. (So FrozenKnight, if you know where we could get find hackers willing to contribute to this project, please give us a direction)

I hope this solves most of the issues. If you have any more questions/comments, feel welcome to post!

[ih8censorship]

OK, so we'll just make an MS-DOS interface for our users? Some designing has to be done right..

I think FrozenKnight was thinking more on the order of you were making a software library which only needs an interface to use from a programming language rather than a website. I was wondering why you needed art too haha.


Ya *brammie* is the Dutch member i was thinking of.

[death]

i think this sounds cool, i would love to help with the website designing/coding if i could, i probably shouldn't though because school just started

[FrozenKnight]

sorry about not replying sooner. I don't check this section very of tent myself am a hacker, (not one of the best) I learned mostly from the farms at www.gamehacking.com. I haven't Checked there recently  but last time I was there most of the good hackers had moved on.  I do know some ways to detect cheaters but any method you use can be defeated by a good experienced hacker, especially if the hacker knows where to look.