GDC 2010 - Anti-Cheat and Anti Piracy

The What…

The Why…

The Technology…

One of the largest problems facing the gaming industry

4:1 to 8:1 ratio, pirated versus legitimate

Leaving money on the table

Temporary hurdle

Negative public perception

Only prevents initial hacking

DRM

True fans are impatient

If game is available now, fans won’t want to wait

Can account for 50% loss of game sales

Modify executables and memory locations

Community is growing

Devalues games for others

LIVE is a protected service

Designed to keep illegitimate users out

Complements any offline DRM

10

LIVE Access Key per-title and per-gamertag

• Finding unused LIVE Access Key (5×5) very difficult

Extremely difficult for pirates to access LIVE

• No access without proof of ownership (1 license/user)

• License maintained on server: Difficult to spoof

Two levels of SSA defense

• Basic SSA

• Advanced SSA

Automatically cuts off pirates from all LIVE features

• No multiplayer

• No achievements

• No Community Features: presence, voice chat, messaging …

• No Game Add-onsGreatly reduces value of a title using LIVE features

Implementation is a single checkbox

• Ask Account Manager to order SSA-enabled codes

No Multiplayer

No DLC

No Achievements

DemoFull Game

Tie non-LIVE functionality to the LIVE connection

• Functionality tied to a LIVE connection cannot be used by pirates

Can be used for single-player heavy games

• Only certain levels are accessible offline—draw pirate in before cutting him off

• Gets reduced to a demo when not connected to LIVELIVE connection check protected by anti-hack features• Not easy for pirate to hack around the check on the client

Full Game

10 19 27 48 3

Tie non-LIVE functionality to the LIVE connection

• Functionality tied to a LIVE connection cannot be used by pirates

Can be used for single-player heavy games

• Only certain levels are accessible offline—draw pirate in before cutting him off

• Gets reduced to a demo when not connected to LIVELIVE connection check protected by anti-hack features• Not easy for pirate to hack around the check on the client

Publisher gets to make the trade-off

• Protect significant revenue vs. community feedback

Highly anticipated titles are often leaked before release

• Loss of revenue for publisher

ZDPP protects selected critical binaries

• Strong AES-128 encryption

• Decryption keys hosted on Microsoft servers

Decryption keys held until release date

• Reduce title leak until release date

• Difficult for vendors to break the release date

One-time online verification required

• Quick process: only decryption keys downloaded

Lightweight launcher attached to game

• Checks if released date has passed when game is run

• Removes ZDPP on or after release date

Launcher localized in GFWL-supported languages

• Customizable to fit title’s look and feel

Level 1 Level 9

Level 10Level 2

Level 3 Level 11

Level 12Level 4

Level 5 Level 13

Level 14Level 6

Level 7 Level 15

Level 16Level 8

Level 1 Level 9

Level 10Level 2

Level 3 Level 11

Level 12Level 4

Level 5 Level 13

Level 14Level 6

Level 7 Level 15

Level 16Level 8

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Level 6

Level 7

Level 8

Level 9

Fix Buffer Overflows

Verify File Formats

Remove Problematic

APIs

Ensure High-

Quality Code

Debugger Detection

Module Authentication

Protected Buffers

Secure Network Layer

Challenge Response

Community Feedback System

Advanced Server-Side Authentication

Basic Server-Side Authentication

Debugger Detection

Protected Buffers

Zero-Day Piracy Protection

Challenge Response

Module Authentication

Secure Network Layer

Community Feedback System

More…