
Robocalypse Now: Using Deep Learning to Combat Cheating in CSGO [video] - doppp
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024994/Robocalypse-Now-Using-Deep-Learning
======
dvt
I built (and tried to get funding for)
[http://gameref.io/](http://gameref.io/) a few years ago. Many critics argued
that a deep learning or AI solution would be better. For what it's worth, I
also played Counter-Strike at a professional level from '04-'07 -- my
CS:Source team was ranked #7 in North America in 2005 (according to
GotFrag.com).

After some research and a few POCs I am 100% certain a ML solution will _not_
work in detecting cheats other than completely trivial "spinbots" or "aim-
lock" aimbots. For example, it by definition cannot catch an entire class of
cheats (wall hacks), but it even falters when trying to catch aimbots; the
presentation here argues for a "heuristic-based" method, but, again, these
methods often fail when (if you look at the source), aimbots are often coded
to (a) move smoothly/naturally and (b) introduce random noise.

In my case, I tried to at the very least combat _one_ class of cheats with
close to 100% confidence. These kinds of talks are great at conferences, but,
as they say, the proof is in the pudding. Cheaters are very hard to catch, and
cheat coders are much smarter than generalized AI methods.

~~~
rudedogg
gameref looks like a really clever and simple solution as a hardware device.

> After some research and a few POCs I am 100% certain a ML solution will not
> work in detecting cheats other than completely trivial "spinbots" or "aim-
> lock" aimbots.

I'm curious why you say this. I'm a machine learning noob, but it seems pretty
straightforward that it would work. Relating to wallhacks, they can use your
last 1,000 matches, and if you're never/rarely surprised by a camping enemy,
you're probably cheating. Your camera position moments before interaction with
an obscured enemy is probably another indicator.

~~~
metjm
I'm failing to see a use case for gameref. At the big tournaments the computer
is provided by the organizer. For online tournaments, wallhacks and maphacks
won't be detected by this device.

> I'm curious why you say this. I'm a machine learning noob, but it seems
> pretty straightforward that it would work. Relating to wallhacks, they can
> use your last say 1,000 matches, and if you're never/rarely surprised by a
> camping enemy, you're probably cheating.

Exactly. And not just that, wouldn't ML in theory also be able to detect
subtle reactions to changes that the player shouldn't see? For example if a
cheater has a map hack that only shows dots on the minimap, and does some
small action like twitch with the mouse when an enemy he's following and can't
see or hear ingame, changes direction?

~~~
dvt
> I'm failing to see a use case for gameref. At the big tournaments the
> computer is provided by the organizer. For online tournaments, wallhacks and
> maphacks won't be detected by this device.

There have been cases of people smuggling aimbots in onboard mice drivers.
There was also a Steam oversight where hacks could be loaded via the workshop
feature. A semi-pro German player was caught in 2015 I believe.

~~~
chi3
There has never been a proven case of either as far as I know, only theories
and "insiders" claiming these things.

The german guy who was caught was saying a lot of these things which obviously
weren't true, like claiming that a lot of other players in top teams were
cheating on LAN, but in hindsight that hardly seems believable.

A driver cheat which would auto-inject code on insertion would as far as I
know require a 0-day exploit on Windows, and I have a hard time believing one
of the cheat devs was sitting on one of those.

~~~
dvt
> The german guy who was caught was saying a lot of these things which
> obviously weren't true, like claiming that a lot of other players in top
> teams were cheating on LAN, but in hindsight that hardly seems believable.

I mean, there were 3 pro players banned in like a week. I doubt this was
coincidence [1].

> A driver cheat which would auto-inject code on insertion would as far as I
> know require a 0-day exploit on Windows, and I have a hard time believing
> one of the cheat makers was sitting on one of those

It's not completely out of the question. Check out this DEF CON hack which
illustrates something similar[2].

[1] [https://www.pcgamer.com/csgo-competitive-scene-embroiled-
in-...](https://www.pcgamer.com/csgo-competitive-scene-embroiled-in-hacking-
scandal-as-three-players-are-banned/)

[2] [https://theoutline.com/post/2032/how-to-hack-a-mouse-to-
win-...](https://theoutline.com/post/2032/how-to-hack-a-mouse-to-win-millions-
at-esports?zd=1&zi=d6mb2onj)

~~~
chi3
About [2], yeah, that's the way it could happen without a 0-day, but it really
does seem very, very impractical, risky and unlikely.

Out of sf, KQLY and Emilio, it does seem likely that both sf and Emilio would
cheat online in order to qualify, but KQLY whose team almost always passed
online qualifiers? I have no idea.

If I recall correctly, Emilio was banned months prior to the others though,
and he hardly played any major LANs. sf and KQLY were using the same cheat,
but there's nothing which makes it seem like it happened on LANs.

Either way, it's impossible to say what happened years ago, but if it did
happen, I doubt it kept happening.

------
sturadnidge
I’d be curious to know if there was a difference in engagement from
Overwatchers. I basically stopped doing cases because there was so much junk
in queue (rage reporting, skilled players playing against unskilled players,
aka ‘smurfing’, etc). But after the introduction of VACnet the case quality
went through the roof, i no longer felt like i was wasting my time doing cases
and thus do more of them now.

------
Hydraulix989
Now cheat by using a generative network to combat the deep learning that
combats cheaters.

~~~
CNJ7654
What a time to be alive

------
narrator
I have long said that the future will be our AI bots vs their AI bots with the
humans stuck in the middle of it all just trying to have a life.

------
RenegadeEagle
I haven't watched this talk yet, but as an avid CS:GO player, this isn't doing
much to combat cheaters.

~~~
NamTaf
This is a really amusing comment after watching the 9-12 minute segment of the
video. :)

For what it's worth, I very rarely run into cheaters. I couldn't specifically
identify the last time I ran into one, in fact.

~~~
efini
Those who cheat and don't get caught are very good at hiding it. When all it
takes to toggle is a hotkey like NUMPAD1 to activate aimlock/walls and NUMPAD0
to turn all cheats off, it makes it almost impossible to identify a cheat.

