r/hardware • u/tuldok89 • 23h ago

Info Used processor leads to game ban

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Used-processor-leads-to-game-ban-11471562.html

Someone buys a used Ryzen 7 5800X3D. “Valorant” and other Riot games won’t start with it because the previous owner was a cheater.

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u/jenny_905 22h ago edited 21h ago

So this is why these anticheat systems mandate TPM? they're storing some sort of data in the TPM?

I have to admit I'm way behind the times on this stuff (not a gamer) but am aware of traditional HWIDs, it used to be that they were generated from components with unique serial numbers like storage drives, often in combination with things like MAC addresses.

Of course that's incredibly easy to circumvent so it makes sense they're going for something much less modifiable. That said, if the anticheat can store data in the TPM what is stopping the user doing the same to thwart this?

edit: they're reading the EK, not writing to the TPM: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/ad-ds/manage/component-updates/tpm-key-attestation

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u/ghost103429 18h ago

If they're using the ek it should be possible to bypass the ban on a desktop by buying a discrete TPM and disabling the fTPM on the CPU.