How to find exploits in video games (opens in new tab)

(shalzuth.com)

188 pointsshalzuth1y ago32 comments

32 comments

I wrote a short blog post about my thought process on how I reverse engineer video games and build tools that enable me to do security testing on them. It’s a bit brief on purpose, as reading the code is expected. Let me know your thoughts and what would make it better.

Joel_Mckay1y ago

"build tools that enable me to do security testing on them"

I gather you write cheat exploits... and if public... eventually the players account/GPU/IMEI risks getting permanently banned/flagged.

It is always easier to break something, than to build something stable. People may focus resources on better content, game-play, and performance. Or play wack-a-mole with hostile Desktop/Mobile users...

Thus, some folks won't ever patch exploits... just shadow-ban the users running them...

Have a nice day =3

njbooher1y ago

As someone who does security testing for video game service backends, I benefit significantly from all the reverse engineering and tools the hobbyists and cheaters build, and always enjoy reading more stuff.

1 more reply

johnisgood1y ago

Yeah and you end up with one of the worst client-server architectures that RDR2 has.

1 more reply

shipscode1y ago

Thanks for the write up! This is really interesting and a great piece of knowledge to have out there. Funnily it similar to mobile app reverse engineering workflows.

Levitating1y ago

I love the briefness of your post. Your code and method are clearly conveyed.

caporaltito1y ago

Very interesting

malkia1y ago

I had a wonderful app MS-DOS resident (TSR) on my PC that when pressing a key would do a snapshot of the whole memory (or specific area) to disk, to a file. So if you play a game, and lose a live, or HP points, you keep on pressing this, and then there were tools to do the diff.

There was one game that was storing the lifes as actual text - Ninja or something....

So last year my son was hacking some games, and nowadays there is a similar tool too - also based on diffs - though with me back then it was only 640KB, and nowadays we are looking towards 8-16GB if not more!

Somehow this technique still works for some games, but with way more gotchas...

memesarecool1y ago

CheatEngine (80mb) is very widely used nowadays and does memory dumps and comparisons. A very useful tool not only for game reverse engineering.

maeil1y ago

That's a broad use of "nowadays", haha. Following step-by-step Cheat Engine tutorials to use game hacks (MapleStory and Gunbound) was my first brush with coding/system internals when I was a child. This must have been around 2006 and it was already the most popular tool back then, though I remember there were loads of forks to bypass what must have been primitive anticheat systems that scanned for whether Cheat Engine was running.

pajko1y ago

Used to do this in my childhood with save files. Save the game in Alone in the Dark, shoot the shotgun, save, shoot again, save, then proceed to look for the differences.

samwhiteUK1y ago

I remember using CWCheat on PSP in the WWE games to create my own custom modes, adding ladders to Royal Rumble etc. Great fun

nottorp1y ago

> The game monetizes through pay-to-win microtransactions

IAP fests are not games. Let's start using "gacha" or something for them.

krageon1y ago

Addiction-based exploitation. Perhaps the word "garbage" applies well to it. Or in a good reality, "criminal".

codiumm1y ago

>but since the game is built on Unity, it was relatively easy to bypass these restrictions and enable system proxies. There are many others that do il2cpp mod tutorials, and I recommend those, with the key part being hooking HttpClientHandler.SendAsync.

I could only find il2cpp tutorials that I could not get them to work. What is the non-il2cpp way? This should be a separate post and a new submission to HN.

Which il2cpp tutorial works?

3abiton1y ago

It's really interesting to see people enjoying/more interested in breaking a game vs playing the game.

lunchmeat3171y ago

You should check out Tool-Assisted Speedruns om tasvideos.org, then. They use some of these techniques to do RNG manipulation, among other things, to improve game times.

dvh1y ago

From the end user perspective "let's game it out" is a must see YouTube channel.

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32 comments

shalzuthOP1y ago

Joel_Mckay1y ago

"build tools that enable me to do security testing on them"

I gather you write cheat exploits... and if public... eventually the players account/GPU/IMEI risks getting permanently banned/flagged.

Thus, some folks won't ever patch exploits... just shadow-ban the users running them...

Have a nice day =3

njbooher1y ago

1 more reply

johnisgood1y ago

Yeah and you end up with one of the worst client-server architectures that RDR2 has.

1 more reply

shipscode1y ago

Thanks for the write up! This is really interesting and a great piece of knowledge to have out there. Funnily it similar to mobile app reverse engineering workflows.

Levitating1y ago

I love the briefness of your post. Your code and method are clearly conveyed.

caporaltito1y ago

Very interesting

malkia1y ago

There was one game that was storing the lifes as actual text - Ninja or something....

Somehow this technique still works for some games, but with way more gotchas...

memesarecool1y ago

CheatEngine (80mb) is very widely used nowadays and does memory dumps and comparisons. A very useful tool not only for game reverse engineering.

maeil1y ago

pajko1y ago

Used to do this in my childhood with save files. Save the game in Alone in the Dark, shoot the shotgun, save, shoot again, save, then proceed to look for the differences.

samwhiteUK1y ago

I remember using CWCheat on PSP in the WWE games to create my own custom modes, adding ladders to Royal Rumble etc. Great fun

nottorp1y ago

> The game monetizes through pay-to-win microtransactions

IAP fests are not games. Let's start using "gacha" or something for them.

krageon1y ago

Addiction-based exploitation. Perhaps the word "garbage" applies well to it. Or in a good reality, "criminal".

codiumm1y ago

I could only find il2cpp tutorials that I could not get them to work. What is the non-il2cpp way? This should be a separate post and a new submission to HN.

Which il2cpp tutorial works?

3abiton1y ago

It's really interesting to see people enjoying/more interested in breaking a game vs playing the game.

lunchmeat3171y ago

You should check out Tool-Assisted Speedruns om tasvideos.org, then. They use some of these techniques to do RNG manipulation, among other things, to improve game times.

dvh1y ago

From the end user perspective "let's game it out" is a must see YouTube channel.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse