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Revision as of 00:03, 25 July 2004

PunkBuster™ is a software program to prevent cheating in online games. It has recently been deployed in several popular online games, including Battlefield 1942, Battlefield Vietnam and Call of Duty.

PunkBuster

History

The first beta of PunkBuster was announced September 21th, 2000 for Halflife. Valve 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.

Basics

PunkBuster is a standalone application, which runs in the background at the same time as the game. Depending upon the game, it may be more or less integrated with the game engine. 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.

Published features

  • Real-time scanning of memory by PunkBuster Client on players' computers searching for known hacks/cheats.
  • 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 (highly 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 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.

Attacks on PunkBuster

Being a security system of sorts PunkBuster is an obvious target for attacks. As PunkBuster is frequently updated (using an autoupdate feature) cheats are being blacklisted very soon after they are reported. Theoretically it’s possible to create a new program, following the PunkBuster protocol that always reports that everything is as it should be. However, the frequent updates are a deterrent, as such a program would quickly be outdated. Today people are less likely to share the cheats, as a widely spread cheat is more likely to get blacklisted soon. So far there hasn’t been any successful large-scale attack on the system.

Some games which use PunkBuster

External links