PunkBuster

PunkBuster

Original author(s)	Tony Ray
Developer(s)	Even Balance, Inc
Initial release	2000
Development status	Active
Operating system	Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac
Type	Anti-cheat software
Website	http://www.evenbalance.com/

PunkBuster is a computer program that is designed to detect software used for cheating in online games. It does this by scanning the memory contents of the local machine. A computer identified as using cheats may be banned from connecting to protected servers. The aim of the program is to isolate cheaters and prevent them from disrupting legitimate games. PunkBuster is developed and published by Even Balance, Inc.

History

Tony Ray founded Even Balance to develop PunkBuster after his experience with cheaters on Team Fortress Classic.^[1]

The first beta of PunkBuster was announced on September 21, 2000 for Half-Life. Valve Software 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.

Features

Published features

• Real-time scanning of memory, a feature also prominent in many spyware programs, by placing a PunkBuster Client on players' computers searching for known hacks/cheats using a built-in database.
• 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 (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 Servers can be configured to instruct clients to calculate partial MD5 hashes of files inside the game installation directory. The results are compared against a set configuration and differences logged, and optionally, the client removed from the server.
• 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. However, it is possible for a game hack to block screenshots (producing a black screenshot) or remove all visual features of a hack (cleaning the screenshot) to remain undetected, leaving the effectiveness of this feature diminished.
• 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, in which the players can call votes to have a player removed from the server for a certain amount of time.
• 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.
• PunkBuster Admins can stream their server logs in real time to another location. Non-profit organizations like Anti-Cheat Inc, Airdale Ops Network, GGC Stream, PunksBusted, PBBans and AASA are examples of groups that use this feature to create shared banlists for their members.
• PunkBuster has initiated Punkbuster Hardware Bans, that bans hardware components upon detection of cheats that disrupt or circumvent PunkBuster's normal operation. These bans mean permanently banning players whose HD id matches the blacklist at Evenbalance. The cheater will have to buy new hardware to be able to play again.

Incompatibilities

Some games (like Crysis or Bioshock 2) do not have a 64-bit version of PunkBuster. For this reason, 64 bit clients will not be able to play in PunkBuster enabled servers, unless they run the 32-bit client of the game.

PunkBuster does not allow Windows users without administrative accounts to connect to any games. Upon connecting to a game, the user will be immediately kicked for having insufficient OS privileges. Starting with PB client v1.700, a Windows service with full administrative rights is used in complement with the ingame PunkBuster client, allowing updates without user rights elevation. However, some games might still require administrative rights before PunkBuster will function correctly.^[2]

Valve's Steam overlay may cause PunkBuster enabled servers to kick the user, forcing the user to disable the service before starting the game.^[3] Even Balance refuses to fix the issue citing updates made to the overlay as the problem. According to a Valve employee, Valve has tried to reach out to Even Balance in the past to try to remedy the issue, but to no avail.^[4]

It is not possible to use Punkbuster-enabled Windows games under Wine. Wine developers have stated that it would be necessary to hack in the system for Punkbuster to work properly. Even Balance refuses to provide a solution to the problem, stating that they will not alter their codebase to support Wine or Cedega or any other compatibility layer.^[5]

Enforcement

Global GUID bans and Hardware bans

PunkBuster incorporates a system called global banning. Either the GUID (generated from the CD key^{[citation needed]}) or parts of the computer hardware are banned from PunkBuster enabled servers. Most cheats simply will get a detection, but cheats that interfere with PunkBuster's software could get a global GUID ban. This will disallow access to PunkBuster enabled servers for that particular game. However, GUID bans can be easily bypassed by obtaining a different GUID. Cheats which are even more interfering could end up getting the user banned from all PunkBuster enabled games by a hardware ban.

As of June 30, 2004, Even Balance has incorporated the usage of unique hardware identifiers to permanently ban players from all PunkBuster enabled servers who raise a violation that corresponds to hacking or interfering with PunkBuster's normal operation and therefore violating the EULA.

Even Balance uses multiple private one-way hashes^{[citation needed]} so that no serial number information for individual computers can be determined by admins or anyone else who may try to obtain this information from a hardware GUID.

PunkBuster only gives a hardware ban if memory scans show that a cheat that is known to circumvent or disrupt PunkBuster's normal operation or its facilities is activated.

As with previous PunkBuster GUID global bans, the new hardware GUID bans are permanent and will not be lifted. Even Balance has not disclosed which hardware parts are used to ban players, but trial and error has shown^{[citation needed]} that the hardware GUID is based on the serial numbers of all available hard drives but not the MAC addresses.

According to their EULA, Even Balance has the final say in matters of banning.

Attacks on PunkBuster

PunkBuster usually searches for known cheat program signatures as opposed to relying on a more heuristic approach.^{[citation needed]} On March 23, 2008, hackers published and implemented a proof of concept exploit of PunkBuster's indiscriminate memory scanning. Because PunkBuster scans all of a machine's virtual memory, malicious users were able to cause mass false positives by transmitting text fragments from known cheat programs onto a high population IRC channel. When PunkBuster detected the text within user's IRC client text buffers, the users were banned.^[6] On March 25, 2008, Even Balance confirmed the existence of this exploit, and advised users not to run any other programs at the same time as PunkBuster protected games.^[6]

Games using PunkBuster

Games with support dropped are marked with strikethrough.

• All Points Bulletin
• APB: Reloaded
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood^[7]
• America's Army
• Battlefield 1942
• Battlefield 2
• Battlefield 2142
• Battlefield 3^[8]
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2
• Battlefield Heroes^[9]
• Battlefield Play4Free
• Battlefield Vietnam
• Call of Duty
• Call of Duty 2
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare ^[10]
• Call of Duty: World at War^[11]
• Crysis
• Crysis Wars
• Doom 3
• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
• Far Cry
• Far Cry 2
• F.E.A.R.
• F.E.A.R. Extraction Point
• F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate
• FIFA Online
• Frontlines: Fuel of War
• Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising
• Joint Operations: Escalation
• Knight Online
• Medal of Honor
• Medal of Honor: Airborne
• Need for Speed: ProStreet
• Need for Speed: Undercover
• Prey
• Quake III Arena
• Quake 4
• Quake Live
• Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein
• Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2
• War Rock
• Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
• Wolfenstein
• Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

EULA Details

In PunkBuster's EULA, PunkBuster notes they may be considered invasive, and that they reserve the right to inspect someone's entire harddrive and all of their files: "Licensee understands and agrees that the information that may be inspected and reported by PunkBuster software includes, but is not limited to, Licensee's Internet Protocol Address, devices and any files residing on the hard-drive and in the memory of the computer on which PunkBuster software is installed." "Further, Licensee consents to allow PunkBuster software to transfer actual screenshots taken of Licensee's computer during the operation of PunkBuster software for possible publication." "Licensee agrees that any harm or lack of privacy resulting from the installation and use of PunkBuster software is not as valuable to Licensee as the potential ability to play interactive online games with the benefits afforded by using PunkBuster software."

See also

• Cheating in online games
• DMW Anticheat
• GameGuard (nProtect)
• Hackshield
• Valve Anti-Cheat
• Warden

References

1. ^ Slagle, Matt (2002-12-09). "Cheats Could Ruin Online Gaming". CBS News. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/09/tech/main532309.shtml. Retrieved 2008-04-01. 
2. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions about PunkBuster Services". Even Balance. 2008-07-23. http://www.evenbalance.com/index.php?page=pbsvcfaq.php. Retrieved 2008-07-23. 
3. ^ "Steam Support - PunkBuster". http://supportwiki.steampowered.com/wiki/PunkBuster. Retrieved 2010-06-17. 
4. ^ "Punkbuster Kicking Problem". http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13596193&postcount=17. Retrieved 2010-06-17. 
5. ^ "Punkbuster removes me from game for UNKNOWN WINDOWS API FUNCTION [131124]". http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9685. Retrieved 2010-08-18. 
6. ^ ^{a b} "netCoders vs. PunkBuster". http://bashandslash.com/index.php?Itemid=78&id=297&option=com_content&task=view. 
7. ^ PunkBuster (2011-01-14). "PunkBuster Announcements". Even Balance. http://www.evenbalance.com/index.php?page=announce.php. Retrieved 2011-04-04. 
8. ^ PunkBuster (2011-08-23). "PunkBuster Announcements". Even Balance. http://www.evenbalance.com/index.php?page=announce.php. Retrieved 2011-08-24. 
9. ^ PunkBuster (2008-07-22). "PunkBuster Announcements". Even Balance. http://www.evenbalance.com/index.php?page=announce.php. Retrieved 2008-10-05. 
10. ^ PunkBuster (2006-09-12). "PunkBuster Announcements". Even Balance. http://www.evenbalance.com/index.php?page=announce.php. Retrieved 2006-09-18. 
11. ^ PunkBuster (2008-08-04). "PunkBuster Announcements". Even Balance. http://www.evenbalance.com/index.php?page=announce.php. Retrieved 2008-08-14. 

External links

• Official PunkBuster site
• UOForums.com - Interview with Punkbuster's Founder, Tony Ray.
• AntiCheat Inc AntiCheat Inc, Multi-Game Service & History Tool
• GGC-Stream.com GGC Stream Full PunkBuster Support Websites.
• PBBans.com PBBans - PunkBuster Support Community.