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I farmed tens of thousands of us dollars in modern RuneScape by unhooking the mousehook. It worked for decades. Find call to `SetWindowsHookEx` -> Find dword (

I farmed tens of thousands of us dollars in modern RuneScape by unhooking the mousehook. It worked for decades. Find call to `SetWindowsHookEx` -> Find dword (`HHOOK`) it returns -> Inject module that calls `UnhookWindowsHookEx((HHOOK)(module_base + hhook_rva));` -> profit. Jagex has done some interesting things, but without fail, there is a blunder accompanying each.

megagpt3 16d ago
Short of hardware-enforced secure boot chain TPM anticheat there will always be a way around it. It's cat-and-mouse, not a single permanent solution.
- compsciphd 16d ago
  Honestly, I dont know why "xbox mode" isn't this for PCs. Instead of anticheat, reboot into a stripped down mode just for playing the game that has a secure boot chain that the app can attest and report to the servers about and then reboot back into normal windows. booting is so quick today that its hardly a friction point as it used to be.
  - yoursred 16d ago
    It's called rebooting into rootkitted winblows
    - tacomagick 15d ago
      If it lets people play League on Linux thats a deal most will take. Tech people overestimate how much a normie cares about the anticheat or their data being sent to wherever.
  - OSaMaBiNLoGiN 16d ago
    This is where we're heading. But just like anything else, there will be an equal and oppsite reaction. Either side of the aisle making one large leap is bad. Regular users lose at every turn.
JojiDoesCode 16d ago
You suck for farming gold btw
- jamesnorden 16d ago
  Too hacker for Hacker News.
- serf 16d ago
  let's try the entrepreneurial defense that tends to work around here : "oh no, it's okay -- you see I was selling the hack; I wouldn't have wasted time in that game."
  - OSaMaBiNLoGiN 16d ago
    On the contrary. I played the game heaps. If someone with no knowledge of a game beyond its engine and anticheat develops a bot, they become solely reliant on 3rd party developers ("scripters") to develop the content-specific automation programs for the bot. These are usually sold or rented on a form of UGC marketplace within the bot vendor's platform. This is tricky to balance and can produce situations that many teenagers/young adults who are running these platforms have not envisioned. One such situation: A particularly competent "scripter" writes automation programs for the most complicated content in the game. As such, they sell at a premium. It makes you and him considerable money for many months. Eventually, the community starts to develop a free version of this same automation program. You are now in a situation where you've likely built your business around the expectation of revenue from this one "scripter" and his/her products. Maybe you've even given them a more favorable revenue share model. Another issue that can pop up from this, especially in lower pop games, is that it's very obvious from a statistics point of view. The game developer will easily take notice if the hardest content in the game is suddenly being done many times per day by players who have never showed an affinity for such content. This in turn increases ban numbers which hurts your product's reputation. All of this is to say: Having thousands of hours in the game you are working on is a massive benefit at every turn. It is best to work on games you genuinely enjoy.
- dpoloncsak 16d ago

megagpt3 16d ago

Short of hardware-enforced secure boot chain TPM anticheat there will always be a way around it. It's cat-and-mouse, not a single permanent solution.

compsciphd 16d ago
Honestly, I dont know why "xbox mode" isn't this for PCs. Instead of anticheat, reboot into a stripped down mode just for playing the game that has a secure boot chain that the app can attest and report to the servers about and then reboot back into normal windows. booting is so quick today that its hardly a friction point as it used to be.
- yoursred 16d ago
  It's called rebooting into rootkitted winblows
  - tacomagick 15d ago
    If it lets people play League on Linux thats a deal most will take. Tech people overestimate how much a normie cares about the anticheat or their data being sent to wherever.
- OSaMaBiNLoGiN 16d ago
  This is where we're heading. But just like anything else, there will be an equal and oppsite reaction. Either side of the aisle making one large leap is bad. Regular users lose at every turn.

JojiDoesCode 16d ago

You suck for farming gold btw

jamesnorden 16d ago
Too hacker for Hacker News.
serf 16d ago
let's try the entrepreneurial defense that tends to work around here : "oh no, it's okay -- you see I was selling the hack; I wouldn't have wasted time in that game."
- OSaMaBiNLoGiN 16d ago
  On the contrary. I played the game heaps. If someone with no knowledge of a game beyond its engine and anticheat develops a bot, they become solely reliant on 3rd party developers ("scripters") to develop the content-specific automation programs for the bot. These are usually sold or rented on a form of UGC marketplace within the bot vendor's platform. This is tricky to balance and can produce situations that many teenagers/young adults who are running these platforms have not envisioned. One such situation: A particularly competent "scripter" writes automation programs for the most complicated content in the game. As such, they sell at a premium. It makes you and him considerable money for many months. Eventually, the community starts to develop a free version of this same automation program. You are now in a situation where you've likely built your business around the expectation of revenue from this one "scripter" and his/her products. Maybe you've even given them a more favorable revenue share model. Another issue that can pop up from this, especially in lower pop games, is that it's very obvious from a statistics point of view. The game developer will easily take notice if the hardest content in the game is suddenly being done many times per day by players who have never showed an affinity for such content. This in turn increases ban numbers which hurts your product's reputation. All of this is to say: Having thousands of hours in the game you are working on is a massive benefit at every turn. It is best to work on games you genuinely enjoy.
dpoloncsak 16d ago