GameGuard

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nProtect GameGuard
nProtect GameGuard logo
Developed by INCA Internet Co., Ltd.
OS Microsoft Windows
Available in C++
Development status Active
Genre Anti-cheating software
License Proprietary
Website gameguard.nprotect.com

nProtect GameGuard (sometimes called GG, with a driver dump_wmimmc.sys - launched via GameMon.des) is a game anti-cheating software developed by INCA Internet. It is bundled with many multiplayer online games such as Phantasy Star Universe, MapleStory, Gunbound, GunZ: The Duel, Sudden Attack, FlyFF, Ragnarok Online and 9dragons to block certain applications and common methods of cheating. Some editions of GameGuard are now bundled with Norton's "Tachyon" anti-spyware library, and others with nProtect KeyCrypt (advertised as anti-keylogger software). KeyCrypt is used to emulate keyboard hardware to block macro programs, but is currently not capable of blocking keyloggers.[1] It hides the game application process, monitors the entire memory range, terminates applications defined by the game vendor and INCA to be cheats, blocks certain calls to DirectX functions and Windows APIs and auto-updates itself to change as new threats surface. Even with these measures, GameGuard can still be compromised by using modified game client files, modified versions of Cheat Engine coupled with server emulation utilities. On some games such as MapleStory, the game itself does a hash check of the GameGuard revision currently running and will exit if it does not match the hash on the server side.

Because of its method of actuation (similar to a rootkit), it is criticized for being too invasive. The software installs a device driver and offers no way to uninstall it; even uninstalling the game will still leave some files hidden on the system. In recent versions (revision 1007 and up), GameGuard fails to halt when the game ends, so GameGuard continues to use resources and inject code into processes. This is usually not noticeable to the end-user, as GameGuard masks its intense CPU usage by hooking Windows system querying APIs. Most anti-virus vendors exclude nProtect GameGuard from their detection databases due it being commercial software.

GameGuard is sometimes cited by users of a specific game as unusable because of numerous errors when attempting to run a game, including the infamous "Error 114," which details that the device driver dump_wmimmc.sys has failed to load, thus not allowing GameMon.des to fully initialize.

GameGuard also conflicts with Windows Vista, causing the OS to be recognized by Microsoft as not genuine. This has been fixed with a patch, but many games have not applied this patch yet.

Contents

[edit] Known games running GameGuard

[edit] Known blocked applications

  • Logitech G-series Keyboard Profiler (profiler is required to use G-keys and any features)
  • Ollydbg
  • Almost all VNC servers, such as RealVNC (does not block or shut down, but disables input)
  • Cheat Engine (some strings and block of codes are detected, even buffer of a size 512, so the names of some things can be changed to evade detection. Most people called it Undetected Cheat Engine (UCE) when it is not detected by nProtect GameGuard.)
  • The Core Media Player
  • WhatPulse
  • Outpost Firewall Pro
  • Process Explorer
  • Xpadder
  • WPE Pro
  • Tsearch
  • Steam (content delivery) (Launching game through Steam, nProtect reports Steam as "Game Hack" and shuts down the program that uses nProtect)
  • Motherboard Monitor (reason unknown, causes the software to crash)
  • SpeedFan (reason unknown, Core2 Sensors say -27C, Volt and RPM become 0 when game is launched)
  • Filezilla (reason unknown, causes the software to crash)
  • Eclipse can't start, if running when starting nProtect everything is fine
  • Examples of of game client modification to evade GameGuard
  • Zboard
  • NetLimiter (détected as a game hack, even if you stop the service and kill the process)
  • cFosSpeed (détected as a game hack if you use "Traffic Shaping")
  • Freenet closes Freenet node without warning.
  • EZ Macros reports it as Game Hack
  • AutoHotkey (created hotkeys is not working)
  • Razer mouse drivers (mouse buttons mapped to keys will not function, scroolwheel ceases to function)

[edit] References

  1. ^ nprotect_gameguard.htm (htm). INCA Internet Co., Ltd.. Retrieved on 27 August 2007.
  2. ^ a b c d e f partner.htm (htm). INCA Internet Co., Ltd.. Retrieved on 27 August 2007.

[edit] External links


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