League of Legends INFECTING Windows Users with Rootkit

Рет қаралды 4,639

Күн бұрын

Riot Games just dropped a new crate for League of Legends but instead of loot, this crate has a rootkit inside. Riot Games' anti-cheat tool, Vanguard, has entered the game to fight those pesky cheaters. But here's the thing: to use it on Windows, you basically have to let Riot install a rootkit on your computer, which gives them some seriously deep access. Yikes! On the bright side, at least Linux gamers don't have to deal with that... oh wait, they just broke the game entirely. Talk about a lose-lose situation!
Chapters
00:00 Broken for Linux but worse on Windows
00:19 Solution . . . Dota 2
00:29 Vanguard anti-cheat rootkit added to League of Legends
00:42 Rootkit term explained
01:30 Reports of Vanguard bricking gamers' PCs
01:43 What is Vanguard?
02:11 Kernel term explained
02:24 Anti-cheats do not need kernel level access
02:45 Answers to Vanguard FAQs are lame
03:02 Q: "Isn't Vanguard Spyware?"
04:46 Is it a Rootkit?
05:27 Other anti-cheat rootkits
05:40 Differences between BatttlEye and EAC vs Vanguard
05:57 BattlEye and EAC work on Linux
06:15 Proton on Linux and why it's AWESOME
06:30 How Proton works
07:11 Microsoft, why are these even possible in Windows?
07:26 Q: "What if I am personally incompatible with Vanguard?"
09:42 "Q: What about Linux?"
11:40 Linux is MUCH bigger than you think
12:42 Lutris is dope!
13:45 Linux is not "dangerous" for companies
13:57 Linux is better protection for these games
15:03 Vanguard can already be bypassed
15:30 Monitors made to help gamers cheat
16:12 MSI makes AI-powered monitor that cheats at League of Legends
17:22 Other ways to fight cheating
18:29 Q: "What about OSX?"
19:06 Linux without cheats is "dangerous" & Mac is okay without Vanguard?
19:26 Just play Dota 2
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Links:
www.leagueoflegends.com/en-us...
dotesports.com/league-of-lege...
levvvel.com/what-is-kernel-le...
www.battleye.com/
www.easy.ac/en-US
lutris.net/games/league-of-le...
lutris.net/
www.tomshardware.com/monitors...
dotesports.com/league-of-lege...
www.gamingonlinux.com/2024/04...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot_Games
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkit
• This gaming monitor he... [bitwit]
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Thanks For Watching!
#Linux

Пікірлер: 112

@garmar704 Ай бұрын

Boycott gaming companies who are actively hostile to Linux users.

@W.A.-Linux Ай бұрын

100%

@Mr0utsider Ай бұрын

Seeing as how i'm on linux, boycotting is not optional for me right now. I just can't play the game. XD

@garmar704 Ай бұрын

@MichaelDustter Great point!

@MathiasShaw637 25 күн бұрын

as a windows user I shall join your boycott

@carloshenrique-fj3eb 22 күн бұрын

I sign the boycott, we are a total of 10 gamers who use Linux

@userkewne Ай бұрын

I've been playing since 2011 and I refuse to play the game now until they remove their spyware from their game. I'm a part of a competitive team that's kept me sane for a year now and being a cybersecurity / server builder / programmer I refuse to let their rootkit touch my computer. It's a shame how much money I've spent on the game just to have their nonsense that kept me out of Valorant ruin one of my most played games on Linux. It's just sad man

@userkewne Ай бұрын

@dreaper5813 my typ-a guy you should've left this as your own comment IMO, adds the exact information I was too lazy to type up the first time

@BinaryZeroTV Ай бұрын

I uninstalled it, and I hope more people choose to uninstall it too. This way, they'll see the player base shrinking more and more, which may eventually prompt them to implement a better anti-cheat system or remove it altogether.

@felderup Ай бұрын

does uninstalling also remove the rootkit? since it runs when the game doesn't... maybe it isn't uninstallable with their game uninstaller.

@felderup Ай бұрын

@s052e is what i thought, so, binaryzero's no safer.

@dasgeek Ай бұрын

One thing I want to add. Even if LoL was trustworthy which by all accounts they're not, putting a backdoor on someone's computer opens up for all types of vulnerabilities that can be exploited leveraging their kernel level backdoor. This is not only unnecessary it's dangerous and shows how little they care about their player base.

@OldKingMaple Ай бұрын

It's a very low-integrity company. They are never honest with their player base. They also had a scandal involving the treatment of one of their players, who was apparently malnourished and forced to play. They to this day have no publicly acknowledged.

@PotatoTroll 13 күн бұрын

I doubt it was riot who forced the player to play...

@jimmym8741 Ай бұрын

“If Riot hasn’t earned your trust, don’t run our software” 😂😂

@SimoAtlas Ай бұрын

Why windows allowing third party software to run at kernel level

@michael_tunnell Ай бұрын

exactly! why would they even let this be a thing?

@tomaszgasior772 Ай бұрын

Each OS allows to run third party software at kernel level. Linux too. macOS too. For example, drivers are software running at kernel level. Some software requires extra logic running at kernel live, like virtual machine software for example.

@filipepinho3319 Ай бұрын

@@tomaszgasior772 Except Linux drivers don't work the same way as windows drivers, in fact the Linux kernel already have all it needs to work with all devices out of the box... The only exception is Nvidia, for that you need to enable a kernel module from Nvidia to use a proprietary driver.... So in reality Linux don't allow other kernel applications... Thought Riot could create a kernel module to enable allow Vanguard driver to run... But I seriously don't think either Linux community would accept that merge or even riot to create such module

@HumbleBountyHunter Ай бұрын

No matter what it takes, anti-cheat is going to have to move server-side. Sever-side would mean it would be (1) in complete control of the game dev, (2) platform agnostic, (3) safe and privacy-friendly. There needs to be an arms race among all the big gaming companies, as well as third-party and open-source, to develop good server-side solutions that actually work.

@reallogic4991 29 күн бұрын

Shit take, AC will continue to be more intrusive on the client side because that's what it needs to monitor, it being moved to the server side makes no sense.

@HumbleBountyHunter 29 күн бұрын

@@reallogic4991 Some cheats don't even need to run on the same PC as the game. It can't be monitored. Server-side would monitor behaviors (not PC processes) like a referee.

@reallogic4991 29 күн бұрын

@@HumbleBountyHunter Client side cheats need to be run on the client, if you're talking about hardware on monitors that detect pixels, moving to the server side wouldn't prevent this nor would it cover the plethora of other existing cheats. There is an upper limit on what the server side can discern as cheating. That's why there are client side AC tools.

@HumbleBountyHunter 29 күн бұрын

@@reallogic4991 I was not talking about display monitors, but client-side also would not detect this making it unnecessary. Not all client-side cheats need to run on the same PC as the game. Some can run on a second PC, or run the game inside a VM and run cheats outside the VM. There is an upper limit on client-side detection as well. Considering the rampant cheating in some games and the obfuscation of the cheats improving, I think it is a losing battle. Newer CoD games use RICOCHET AC which is mixed (client & server). The devs actively monitor games (server-side) and nerf cheaters so they can't win. It uses a KERNEL-LEVEL driver that isn't good enough on it's own and needs server-side to help. When the most invasive client-side AC doesn't even work well, we need a new approach. Remove it from player control and put it on the server.

@xmemorex93 Ай бұрын

and nothing of value was lost

@dasgeek Ай бұрын

Brilliantly presented

@ShaunakHub Ай бұрын

why is audio so low ? P.S. I am not a gamer, I just came here because I love your shows . Once in a while I play 0ad and get whacked silly within 15 minutes (max). But honestly, don't you think its kinda stupid for folks who are still playing this game ? Lets be honest, so much addiction to play a specific game is ridiculous to say the least!

@iamnama999 Ай бұрын

you could also try smite/smite 2. it's a way different experience and the devs actively try to incorporate every os into their support system.

@Bixmy Ай бұрын

The thing is it would be justifiable if its doesnt need to always be on. But it does need kernel level permissions from startup. Which makes it way more suspicious.

@boo_1096 21 күн бұрын

Just a quick note - a lot of the NT kernel interfaces (required for kernel extensions such as these rootkits) are actually not implemented in Wine. BattlEye/EasyAntiCheat actually ship native Linux binaries of the anti-cheats with the Windows versions of the game which get loaded if it detects wine. These run entirely at the user level and can even run in a sandbox (like with Flatpak Steam). Otherwise, the explanations here are correct.

@pupip55 Ай бұрын

I watched a video where they ran 2 VMs to be able to play riot games on Linux, So the root kit doesn't like going beyond hyperx (think its called), so play a windows VM running on a Windows VM with hyperx running, riot anti cheat won't check any higher.

@CrossHusky Ай бұрын

It's hyper-v, as far as I know this method has been patched for quite some time

@pupip55 Ай бұрын

@@CrossHusky oh damn

@jorge86rodriguez Ай бұрын

Thank you for bringing this in such a detailed video, I have been saying it all the time. Even if kernel anti cheats are a controversial topic vanguard is the worst, it does unnecessary things that other anti cheats don´t. There is not a single valid reason for that shit to stay on all the time.

@BabiIak Ай бұрын

What a high quality video. Thank you!

@BrixTalk Ай бұрын

Hmm... Cant you Put MacOS in a VM on Linux and Cheat away using the backdoor they implemented? What was the acronym of that Game again?

@googleusersincewhen3982 Ай бұрын

Hi, Michael i removed lol and vangard after i watched your video, what if i use another SSD or HDD to play LoL and only? just windows and lol and some browsers just for surfing. i was thinking about plug the cables out from my hdd and ssd and plug in new ssd for lol. Do you think is it safe way to play lol without any risks? is this vangaurd system runs from the cmos setup too? i dont know much about computers but if im using same cpu and mobo, i was like what if this vanguard run from the cmos setup or whenever i start my comp, and regardless of switching ssd or hdd it runs behind the system or something like that? i cant afford to another comp and getting new ssd is my best idea... i need some help please

@coconut-tea 28 күн бұрын

Vanguard runs deeply inside your computer. SSD and HDD are just hard drives, it doesn’t change anything. You would need a new computer.

@lostboy2637 17 күн бұрын

Personally this was the push I needed to stop playing League. Thanks Riot!

@kittivi01 Ай бұрын

I am sad, I was confronted with it today. I've been playing it for years and I didn't think they would do this. Well I'm not going to replace my Linux, I'm going to say goodbye to LoL.

@polyjackets8659 12 күн бұрын

You: have a pc Riot: is for me? 👉👈🥺

@dfntlynotjorn 7 күн бұрын

I've played league from 2012 to 2023. I've never encountered any cheater in-game though.

@lildms3691 4 күн бұрын

fun story i saw a vid of a kid complaining about hackers in game who only proof that venguared broke everyone system for nothing.

@jillix2 Ай бұрын

Beautifully done Michael!! 😂

@user-ce5yk9gu6x Ай бұрын

Dropped LOL when it was CLEAR and OBVIOUS they were stopping people from climbing (Except you are a robot and grind 24/7).. now a rootkit? yeah , right....

@justkibo Ай бұрын

They can make vangurad only for ranked(some kind of faceit like), I only play aram and cant even play more because of vangurad

@workthis 18 күн бұрын

the only way to fix the bricking is if you update your bios.. its a UEFI bios rootkit

@Naruto5471 17 күн бұрын

My computer got bricked after installing vanguard. Literally couldn't even use the browser...

@chaosmachines934 8 күн бұрын

when riot manged to one up blizzards f up with just one forced anti cheat and their long list of gaslight their critics .

@NewT4-ku8tn Ай бұрын

Tencent has put rootkit on their platform (TGP and WeGame) for over 10 years. I won't be surprised if Riot got the rootkit from Tencent.

@CocolinoFan Ай бұрын

Ye I played League on Linux for years, all was good. Guess is fine to quit this addictive game.

@fuseteam Ай бұрын

Huh i was positive EAC and battleeye has both user level and kernel level anti cheat, where only the former is supported on linux

@coconut-tea 28 күн бұрын

The issue people have with vanguard is because it runs 24/7, and other anti cheats don’t do that

@fuseteam 28 күн бұрын

@@coconut-tea i'm referring to something michael said in the video about EAC and BattleEye, which seemed inaccurate

@Lamaskff4x0z2 Ай бұрын

I just quit lol, after 10 years, this is too much for me

@chubbyadler3276 Ай бұрын

4:45 It isn't spyware, but I would still call it malware.

@hanzofuma Ай бұрын

I hope that this video reach Riot. I have some points that I want to talk about: 1. The most important feature of Vanguard is the obfuscation of memory. Vanguard utlizes it's own memory space that is hidden from the user space memory. this make it impossible for apps to read the game's memory values. that's why emulators and virtual machines are banned by riot and this understandable. 2. Despite all of the data privacy stuff and rootkit. Riot simply trying to kill a mosquito with an AK47. the issues that they discussed in their blog talks about scripters and bots but vanguard is used to detect various advanced hacks that are made mostly to FPS games and league will not benefit that much. 3. It's sad to see that Mac is favored. Even thought the game doesn't support M series which means the players base is very few yet they choose Mac over Linux.

@nushia7192 26 күн бұрын

It's not actually a cheating ai for the monitor, its just an indicator, it can't function on things that are outside your pov in league.

@michael_tunnell 26 күн бұрын

The monitor can do things for you like analyze stuff faster than a human can to add advantage. You could argue it’s not cheating but it’s not fair gaming either

@magovermelhoffv4729 Ай бұрын

Great script. Loved it!

@diuran1919 Ай бұрын

Microsoft should block instalation of this game on their system.

@Lamaskff4x0z2 Ай бұрын

Vi sitter här i Venten och spelar lite Dota

@lildms3691 4 күн бұрын

i am willing to install a mobile emulator to check out the moba game that riot was trying to sue out of existence Mobile Legends

@ThePlayerOfGames Ай бұрын

Back to DOTA2 and SMITE then ☺️

@rflooker 8 күн бұрын

Yeah I uninstalled it already because of this

@Mempler Ай бұрын

About the spyware in faq, they should've been honest to built trust. Like: "It does have the capabilities to be declared as spyware, but those will only be used if you were caught cheating to ensure that we do not false ban"

@nathaniel_pardue Ай бұрын

I love love LOVE the reddit posts justifying Vanguard. Same old points all debunked here.

@robertg8826 Ай бұрын

I liked the show, never the game, well I do prefer playing offline casual games like one of my new favorites is OpenTTD, something about perfect train track layouts scratches an itch

@tizian_heckmann Ай бұрын

Well, this argument may not have much traction here since a lot of viewers are using Linux, at least I am guessing so. But Windows itself is the (potentially malicious) rootkit, at least it could be argued like that or am I mistaken? Hypothetically, if I trusted the USA as much as I trust China or any other country for that matter and I am an ambitious gamer, then someone could argue that there is not really much point in preventing actions like Riot took in the name of less cheaters. Please tell me if this argument is absurd. Edit: Of course, running this anti-cheat software all the time is not a good look and rightfully deemed suspicious.

@breadmoth6443 Ай бұрын

state of gaming is just depressing, and to be honest i personally do not see anything worthwhile in playing these days... i'll stick with my classics from the 1990s via emulation , dosbox, scummvm, nes/snes and playstation1 emulation ; so im good.

@catmando268 Ай бұрын

Well said.

@chaosmachines934 8 күн бұрын

don't worry i plan to play smite or heroes of the storm anyway the lol awarded system it's not worth it. and also, sorry but 1 or 4 bad games are not worth it to get my pc set up broken for a stupid game my pan tablet from Huion got his 7-button broken partly thanks to venguared

@Arzeefy Ай бұрын

Lmao i can't believe Michael promoting dota lmao

@michael_tunnell Ай бұрын

Why’s that? 🤷‍♂️

@Arzeefy Ай бұрын

@@michael_tunnell you play regularly/occasionally?

@michael_tunnell Ай бұрын

I don’t play either dota or league. That’s not my genre

@nushia7192 26 күн бұрын

the problem with dota2 is the rantful gamers...

@Darty2590 29 күн бұрын

Like if Cheaters were the real problems in this game..... Soo many years I have been in elo hell and what was the real problem was.. the AI that plays, the degenerate who lose their mind after 30 sec in the game or worst in the lobby..The AFk, the Matchmaking, how F*** mmr'S system is.. cause in my other account I was plat 3, and the main I sued to paly with silver 4. oh... the mian account would win max 21 lp per win, the plat 3 would win arround 34 and more.. like wtf.. this has to be fixed first.. the ranking system, that allows ppl to pick really bad picks in their lane, and purposly lose becausse they lost it but in normal even weird pick still works and at least ppl try.. This is fu*** on so many levels.. now, since Vanguard, it force my board to install TPM 2.0. but it cannot run it, anyway, this is another topic in itself.. The Customer service is one of the WORST in the world.. Almost no section to speak to a human, and tickets, only Ai would answer. I had no humans trying to reach and help with the problem. or like.this is curesed, corrupted.. Theey try to push the agenda that the game wil lbe fix because of some rare cheaters.. like wtf. This is the bottom of what makes this game cancer..

@Mochi-gx1qu 3 күн бұрын

wanna know the funny part? there are still cheaters on the game

@rflooker 8 күн бұрын

If you have to cheat to win you have already admitted you suck. Knowing this the pressure is off so just have fun and not worry about winning... I don't know it never made sense to me...

@lildms3691 4 күн бұрын

i played lol for fun yeah, i did deal with cheaters but i Gussie riot report system only works for FDK , and racist or offensive language boo hoo. do toxic ppl exist in games yeah, they do so i block theme and move on with my life not worth the stress

@user-xe6sm4jv8f Ай бұрын

Rito: "Nobody plays League on Loonix it's not worth it!!!" Also Rito: makes sure that nobody can actually play League on Loonix. What a bunch of clowns, really.

@sj3614 22 күн бұрын

Riot is not a transparent enough company for you to trust them to install a rootkit on your PC.

@michael_tunnell 22 күн бұрын

I don’t think company is worthy of being trusted enough for that 😆

@sponix2ipfw Ай бұрын

Roblox is doing similar

@filipepinho3319 Ай бұрын

I would like all league players really stop playing while riot does not revert Vanguard... but sadly kids can't live without the game and riot will say "players accept this, so we keep throwing bad decisions to players"..... I'm also a linux gamer since win10 came out, and I play League since season2... while I'm sad to see the game go trough this path I can't support or give my money to them while they do this

@petar0402 Ай бұрын

Please, PLEASE do audio leveling before releasing a video. Thanx in advance! 😉

@michael_tunnell Ай бұрын

I did level it, what was off?

@garmar704 Ай бұрын

@@michael_tunnell It's fine for me!

@romany8125 Ай бұрын

@@michael_tunnellnot loud enough...

@michael_tunnell Ай бұрын

That’s interesting, it sounded fine in all of my testing. I’ll look into it more

@petar0402 Ай бұрын

@@michael_tunnell It was too quiet comparing to other YT videos and that "stop it, get some help" meme at 19:23 was too loud comparing to the rest of the video. My guess is that small part got leveled up, but the rest of the video did not because of that part.

@davey820051 Ай бұрын

Question: "Isn't Vanguard spyware?" Smart answer: "No, Vanguard is not spyware". Accurate answer: "With root permissions, Vanguard can do anything we want it to, now or in the future, including but not limited to spying on your computer activity '" Riot Games answer: "You're a total a$$hole for asking."

@jimmym8741 Ай бұрын

😂😂😂😂

@cameronbosch1213 Ай бұрын

Riot actually is owned by Tencent. That's a Chinese company. Who knows what they're ACTUALLY putting on the systems!?

@hanzofuma Ай бұрын

This is none sense actually. In each region riot and every other company adhere to the laws of the region. People playing in EUW and EUN or people playing in the NA are treated differently. and both EU and NA have strict rules for data privacy especially for chinese or russian companies.

@cybernit3 Ай бұрын

Makes me wonder if the Chinese Secret Intelligence is using this to spy on us or to access more systems to use.

@pjcpspn670 Ай бұрын

Roblox and LOL out, I hope no more Game Giants hop on the bandwagon lol.

@lildms3691 4 күн бұрын

switch games dude it's not worth it anymore

@chaosmachines934 8 күн бұрын

riot and TenCent are not worth it.

@bhargavjitbhuyan9394 Ай бұрын

Bro LOL stands for League of legends 😂😂😂😂.

@makcocyt Ай бұрын

This game is the only reason why my main pc is still on windows, even though im using linux on my laptop for 6+ years. Even when it was working through lutris, it still was a pain to play it this way, lots of problems with cursor, insanely long loading times, etc. As a high elo league player, i must say Dota 2 is not a good alternative for a league player, dead game with obsolete mechanics.

@VallThyo Ай бұрын

Vanguard is spyware rootkit, I wouldh't run it on windows, and I wouldn't run it on Linux either. I don't play League anymore, but if I would still playing I would probably stop, since nowadays I care a lot more about those things as compared to 10 years ago when I still played League of Legends. There is no reason for such an invasive tool, aside their own incompetence in the case they can't make anything better, or straight up malicious since they have full access to your windows machine and what it's running ALL THE TIME.

@AssafHershko Ай бұрын

They are allowed to say that 800 people a day isn’t worth it for them. This rant is misguided.

@michael_tunnell Ай бұрын

Your comment is misguided since you missed the part of how complicated it is to play it on Linux and thus the number would be drastically higher if it was just a play button.

@Avero_ Ай бұрын

also obviously the numbers drop when they announcend earlier that the platform will be dead in a few weeks.