GameGuard: A windows-based software architecture for protecting online games against hackers

The L.B., Khanh V.N.
VietNam Multimedia Comporation, 65 Lac Trung st, HaNoi, Viet Nam; Hanoi University of Technology, 1 Dai Co Viet st, Hanoi, Viet Nam

Abstract: We propose a software architecture and an implementation framework for protecting Windows-based online games against hackers. Our network model is between 3 parties, the game producer, the game distributor and the game player (client), where we aim to support the distributor to fight against cheater clients with minimum cooperation from the game producer. Our protection system is centered on our specifically designed module, GameGuard, which accomplishes the main protection duties while simultaneously, interacts with the GameClient program so that if a serious hack attempt is detected, both will terminate. Our two layers of protection, in hiding game modules and detecting hacks, integrated with the mechanism of auto-updating/reporting with the distributor server provide a general, powerful yet flexible approach in building hack protection products. We support the game distributors with a general protection framework which is not dependent of specific games and also only need minimum cooperation from the distant game producers. Our approach is powerful enough that we would defeat most kinds of attacks which are based on hooking Windows APIs, including ones from memory, graphic or hardware attack categories. Our GameGuard system is also robust against attacks directed at the protection modules: we achieve authenticity of our protection modules based on the authenticity of the GameClient assured by the producer. Based on our framework, we have implemented a hack protection system which is being extensively experimented at VTC, the Vietnam Multimedia Corporation, with very encouraging results. © 2010 ACM.
Author Keywords: hacking; hooking; kernel-mode; online game; windows APIs
Index Keywords: Game players; hacking; Hardware attack; hooking; In-buildings; kernel-mode; Main protection; Network models; On-line games; Protection systems; Two layers; Viet Nam; Computer crime; Information technology; Internet; Personal computing; Software architecture; Network architecture

Year: 2010
Source title: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series
Page : 171-178
Link: Scorpus Link
Authors with affiliations:
  1. The, L.B., VietNam Multimedia Comporation, 65 Lac Trung st, HaNoi, Viet Nam
  2. Khanh, V.N., Hanoi University of Technology, 1 Dai Co Viet st, Hanoi, Viet Nam
Correspondence Address: The, L. B.; VietNam Multimedia Comporation, 65 Lac Trung st, HaNoi, Viet Nam; email: luan.bui@vtc.vn
Download Abstract: HN_U128.pdf