New FPS Cheating Tool Uses Machine Learning, Is Impossible to Detect

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Creators say the app should be used to fight cheaters with cheats.

FPS stock game image
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

A new cheating program, Tweeted by @AntiCheatPD, is on the rise that promises to be undetectable by anti-cheating services. By using AI-based machine learning, the cheating app uses frames coming from the GPU to detect human silhouettes within the game.

The makers of this anti-cheating device (via ArsTechnica) are very confident in the program's undetectability, because the app doesn't manipulate any game files, which is the typical way cheaters can infiltrate a game.

The cheat works by looking at the exact same frames from your GPU that you are while playing the game. Using machine learning, the app can detect human-like silhouettes and automatically fire your weapon at them, via additional hardware that can manipulate mouse inputs.

To make the app even harder to detect, the cheat can also be run on a secondary computer with a capture card inputting data coming from your main PC's video card, like a streaming computer.

The free version of the app is very basic, with simple trigger bot commands that can detect an enemy and auto-fire when that enemy approaches your crosshairs, plus some anti-recoil capabilities. However, for just a $50 "donation," you can get the paid version of this app that has the full aim-bot feature.

The creators made the app supposedly to "fight against cheaters" currently running rampant in modern FPS shooters. But tools designed to fight bad actors never fall into the wrong hands, right?

Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

24 Comments Comment from the forums
  • hotaru.hino
    And this continues to give companies an excuse to include their Ring-0 anti-cheat services that aren't audited for security and/or stability.
    Reply
  • mikewinddale
    Would it be possible for a game to require you to select a mouse device, the same way you select an audio device? If the game accepts input from one and only one mouse, would that render this cheat ineffective?
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    hotaru.hino said:
    And this continues to give companies an excuse to include their Ring-0 anti-cheat services that aren't audited for security and/or stability.
    i mean....that wont do anythign to prevent this one. they stated it can be literally ran on another pc .

    mikewinddale said:
    Would it be possible for a game to require you to select a mouse device, the same way you select an audio device? If the game accepts input from one and only one mouse, would that render this cheat ineffective?
    no.
    as it basically is what the cheat uses wouldnt do anything.
    in fps your mouse is the crosshairs. the cheat fires at any target near ur crosshair. meaning its basically using your mouse. (just automating the click)
    Reply
  • RodroX
    eh....... so whats the point of playing anymore right?

    If my GPU will do my shooting, ima just go and watch and action movie instead.
    Reply
  • sizzling
    RodroX said:
    eh....... so whats the point of playing anymore right?

    If my GPU will do my shooting, ima just go and watch and action movie instead.
    What the point in cheating in any form but it’s still rife online.
    Reply
  • RodroX
    sizzling said:
    What the point in cheating in any form but it’s still rife online.

    Don't get me started on rife online !
    Reply
  • mikewinddale
    hotaru251 said:
    mikewinddale said:
    Would it be possible for a game to require you to select a mouse device, the same way you select an audio device? If the game accepts input from one and only one mouse, would that render this cheat ineffective?
    no. as it basically is what the cheat uses wouldnt do anything.
    in fps your mouse is the crosshairs. the cheat fires at any target near ur crosshair. meaning its basically using your mouse. (just automating the click)

    I thought this cheat also functioned as a second mouse, to move the cursor around.
    Reply
  • CerianK
    Using a 'Dirty Harry' or 'MIB' style anti-cheat, where games implement friendly NPCs that occasionally pass through the cross-hairs, might detect AI fire. I doubt that is a rabbit hole that developers want to pursue to try to outwit ever-improving AI algorithms, though.
    Reply
  • bigdragon
    Grabbing frames off a capture device and then relaying commands to an input device is rather novel. Very effective and not detectable via automated mechanisms. These devs are clever. I would have preferred to man-in-the-middle the game's network communications, but this is even cleaner and could apply even to consoles with the right setup. Too bad publishers and developers prefer to outsource security that barely works rather than invest in security internally.

    RodroX said:
    eh....... so whats the point of playing anymore right?

    If my GPU will do my shooting, ima just go and watch and action movie instead.
    If I were still playing modern competitive FPS games, then the appeal of a cheat like this to me would be to accelerate the process of unlocking content I paid for without enriching the publisher/developer that made unlocks such a slog. That would be the point -- to rapidly get to the content you actually want to enjoy rather than getting relentlessly dominated by the unlockable for 3 weeks, unlocking it, and then having 3-7 days before the devs nerf the unlockable into oblivion. Such a cheat was not necessary in older FPS games lacking unlockables that affect gameplay.
    Reply
  • TwoSpoons100
    Include some vaguely human shaped rocks and trees - if your system is repeatedly attacking them you earn "suspicion" points, so you get flagged as a potential cheater. Combined with real player reports ... down comes the ban hammer!
    Reply