PunkBuster

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PunkBuster is a computer program to prevent cheating in online games published by Even Balance, Inc. It has recently been deployed in several popular multiplayer online games, including Battlefield 2, Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 2142, Battlefield Vietnam, America's Army, Call of Duty, War Rock and Quake III Arena.

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[edit] History

The first beta of PunkBuster was announced on September 21, 2000 for Half-Life. Valve Software was at the time fighting a hard battle against cheating, which had been going on since the release of the game. The first game in which PunkBuster was integrated was id Software's Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

[edit] Basics

PunkBuster for Half-Life was a stand-alone application that ran in the background at the same time as the game. Since the release of PunkBuster for Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the program has been integrated with the game engine. Anyone downloading and installing "PunkBuster" should be sure to read the license agreement in full, since the software may be considered invasive and the installer must agree that his or her ability to play the game is more valuable than any losses caused by the software searches of files and possible publishing of screenshots from the client's computer. The game server can communicate with the PunkBuster program and check if the client is following the rules set down for the game. PunkBuster also communicates with dedicated servers to check for updates.

[edit] Features

[edit] Published features

  • Real-time scanning of memory by PunkBuster Client on players' computers searching for known hacks/cheats using a built-in database.
  • Throttled two-tiered background auto-update system using multiple Internet Master Servers to provide end-user security ensuring that no false or corrupted updates can be installed on players' computers.
  • Frequent status reports (encrypted) are sent to the PunkBuster Server by all players. When necessary, the PunkBuster Server raises a violation which (depending upon settings) will cause the offending player to be removed from the game and all other players to be informed of the violation.
  • PunkBuster Admins can also manually remove players from the game for a specified number of minutes or permanently ban if desired.
  • PunkBuster Servers can optionally be configured to randomly check player settings looking for known exploits of the game engine.
  • PunkBuster Servers can be configured to instruct clients to calculate partial MD5 hashes of files inside the game installation directory. The results are compared against a set configuration and differences logged, and optionally, the client removed from the server.
  • PunkBuster Admins can request actual screenshot samples from specific players and/or can configure the PB Server to randomly grab screenshot samples from players during gameplay.
  • An optional "bad name" facility is provided so that PunkBuster Admins can prevent players from using offensive player names containing unwanted profanity or racial slurs.
  • Search functions are provided for PunkBuster Admins who wish to search player's keybindings and scripts for anything that may be known to exploit the game .
  • The PunkBuster Player Power facility can be configured to allow players to self-administer game servers when the Server Administrator is not present entirely without the need for passwords.
  • PunkBuster Servers have an optional built-in mini HTTP web server interface that allows the game server to be remotely administered via a web browser from anywhere over the Internet.
  • PunkBuster Admins can stream their server logs in real time to another location. Non-profit organizations like PunksBusted , PBBans and AASA are examples of groups that use this feature to create shared banlists for their members.
  • PunkBuster has initiated Punkbuster Hardware Bans, that bans hardware components upon detection of cheats that disrupts or circumvents PunkBuster's normal operation.

[edit] Unpublished features

  • PunkBuster scans for unknown exports (APIs) in sensitive software such as graphics libraries. Upon finding an undocumented export a violation is raised and the client removed from the game.
  • PunkBuster does not allow windows users without administrative accounts to connect to any games. Upon connecting to a game, the user will be immediately kicked for insufficient OS privilages.

[edit] Hardware bans

As of June 30, 2004, Even Balance has incorporated the usage of unique hardware identifiers to permanently ban players from all PunkBuster enabled servers who raise a violation that corresponds to hacking or interfering with PunkBuster's normal operation and therefore violating the EULA.

Even Balance uses multiple private one-way hashes so that no serial number information for individual computers can be determined by admins or anyone else who may try to obtain this information from a hardware GUID.

PunkBuster only gives a hardware ban if memory scans show that a cheat that is known to circumvent or disrupt PunkBuster's normal operation or its facilities is activated. Because of the size of the memory footprint of modern cheats and the use of a unique hash to identify that cheat, the number of false positives for banned players is virtually zero.

As with previous PunkBuster GUID global bans, the new hardware GUID bans are permanent and will not be lifted. Even Balance has not disclosed which hardware parts are used to ban players, but trial and error has shown that the hardware GUID is based on the serial numbers of all available hard drives and the MAC addresses (which can be changed with a simple fix in the Windows registry) of all available network interfaces.

According to their EULA, Even Balance has the final say in matters of banning.

[edit] Attacks on PunkBuster

Being a security system of sorts, PunkBuster is a target for attacks. As PunkBuster is frequently updated (using an auto-update feature) cheats are blacklisted shortly after being reported. While it is possible to create a new program, following the PunkBuster protocol that always reports that everything is as it should be, the frequent updates are a deterrent; such a program would quickly become outdated. So far there have not been any successful large-scale attacks on the system.

In addition, PunkBuster incorporates a system called global banning. Either the GUID (generated from the CD key) or parts of the computer hardware are banned from PunkBuster enabled servers. Most cheats simply will get a detection, but cheats that interfere with PunkBuster's software could get a global GUID ban. This will disallow access to PunkBuster enabled servers for that particular game. Cheats which are even more interfering could end up being the user banned from all PunkBuster enabled games by a hardware ban. Hardware bans work by banning the serial numbers on hardware, so if any hardware with blacklisted serial numbers connects to a PunkBuster game, the user will be kicked. It is unknown exactly what hardware is banned, though it is speculated that PunkBuster bans the harddrive and the network card. There are efforts to bypass hardware bans, however like cheats themselves, this area evolves as PunkBuster detects and shuts down methods.

[edit] Games which use PunkBuster

[edit] Programs known to cause bans under PunkBuster

PunkBuster is also setup to kick users using special programs that can potentially be abused by players, which causes PunkBuster to blacklist these programs. The disadvantage to this is that non-cheating users with legitimate uses of these programs will also be kicked. This may be limited to certain games and forced by the game publisher.

  • NetLimiter
  • SpeederXp

[edit] PunkBuster in MMORPGs

On June 18 to 19 of 2006, the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) Ultima Online announced that it was testing PunkBuster for use in that game. Ultima Online at this time had been plagued with cheating and exploiting on a massive scale for some time, especially with player vs. player (PvP) combat and resource gathering [1]. In regards to how bannings would be handled, Tony Ray, founder of PunkBuster, stated in an interview "we plan to leave all banning decisions to the UO team. For Ultima Online, PunkBuster is currently designed to report what it finds to the GMs and it is up to the UO team to enforce their own policies. At least in the beginning, players who are Hardware banned for hacking PunkBuster in some other game will not be Hardware banned in UO"[2].

If PunkBuster is indeed used in Ultima Online, this appears to be the first big use of PunkBuster in an MMORPG, a new era for the anti-cheating software. As well, it would arguably be a new era for MMORPGs, which can no longer afford to ignore their cheating problems.

As of 1 September 2006, developers from Ultima Online's publisher, Electronic Arts, estimate that public testing of PunkBuster would begin in late September, 2006[3].

[edit] References

  1. ^ "UO.com PunkBuster FAQ", Electronic Arts, June 2006.
  2. ^ Electronic Arts (UO.com) (2006-06-28). Interview with Tony Ray, Founder of PunkBuster. UOForums.com. Retrieved on 2006-09-26.
  3. ^ Electronic Arts (UO.com) (2006-09-01). UO.com Five on Friday. Electronic Arts. Retrieved on 2006-09-26.

[edit] External links

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