Critical motherboard flaw allows game cheats, Riot Games blocks 'Valorant' players that don't update BIOS — security patches pushed live by all major motherboard vendors

Riot Games, the developer of several popular esports titles such as Valorant and League of Legends, just discovered a security vulnerability affecting several motherboards from Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock that cheaters can use to bypass hardware security checks and make it impossible for the game’s anti-cheat software to detect them.

According to the company, the Input-Output Memory Management Unit (IOMMU), which protects system RAM from Direct Memory Access (DMA) devices, is not fully initializing upon boot in some motherboard models. This means that even though the BIOS might indicate that Pre-Boot DMA Protection is active, it’s not actually protecting the entire system.

DMA devices are hardware that plugs directly into the PCIe slot and bypasses the processor and the operating system. As the name suggests, it interacts directly with the computer’s memory, allowing it to read and write code directly on the system RAM.

IOMMU works by checking the ID of any module that attempts to access the memory and only allowing registered components to access it. However, if IOMMU fails to initialize immediately when you boot your computer, a DMA cheating device could potentially load earlier and allow the cheater to manipulate a game without being detected by anti-cheat systems.

DMA devices are some of the most advanced cheating techniques, and most of them are expensive and difficult to implement. These types of mods aren’t used by casual players; instead, they’re often applied by hardcore players looking to gain an advantage in esports matches, especially when there is a monetary prize.

When Riot Games’ security team discovered this vulnerability, it immediately worked with hardware manufacturers, which validated their findings. They then released BIOS updates to address the issue, ensuring that no one could exploit this weakness and gain an unfair advantage.

If your computer is affected by this bug, you’ll be given a restriction, and you won’t be able to launch Valorant. You can resolve this by updating your motherboard’s BIOS to the latest version and by ensuring that all security features like Secure Boot, VBS, and IOMMU are activated and working properly.

If you don’t want to be inconvenienced by a security warning before launching your game, Riot Games recommends that you update your BIOS to the latest version as soon as possible. “BIOS updates aren’t exactly as exciting as looking at ban numbers, but this is a necessary step in our arms race against hardware cheats,” Riot's blog post on the matter reads. “By closing this pre-boot loophole, we are neutralizing an entire class of previously untouchable cheats and significantly raising the cost of unfair play.”

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