Riot Games is offering a decent amount of money for any one who can find holes in their anti-cheat system Vanguard.
To patch and fix holes in Vanguard, Riot Games offers hackers up to $100,000 when they can find ways to exploit the system in any way – but there are some strict rules to this.
In it’s ongoing crusade against hackers and attempting to keep matches fair, Riot Games decided to offer up to $100,000 to any hacker who can find holes in their Valorant and League of Legends protecting, anti-cheat system Vanguard.
You against Vanguard
Vanguard works on the kernel level – if you will, the deepest part of your PC – to make out cheats even before they can ruin the game and is successful against aimbots and any other shady hardware exploits. Even though it might be a way to a safer gaming experience, players are questioning the measurement for seeing their privacy endangered.
To go even further, Riot now came up with a bounty program, inviting ethical hackers to show what they’re made out of and do their worst.
A listing on HackerOne, a company that connects tactical hackers with organizations for them to fix security flaws, shows that Riot wants to reward those who are able to poke holes in Riots shields and find vulnerable spots to be exploited.
Real life loot for hackers
Here is a list of the highest bounties Riot offers on HackerOne:
Network Attack with No User Interaction:
- Kernel-Level Code Execution: Up to $100,000
- Unauthorized Data Access: Up to $75,000
Network Attack Requiring User Interaction:
- Kernel-Level Code Execution: Up to $75,000
- Unauthorized Data Access: Up to $50,000
Local Attack for Privilege Escalation:
- Kernel-Level Code Execution: Up to $35,000
- Unauthorized Data Access: Up to $25,000
The bounty program is the next step in Riot's attempts at their anti-cheat-commitment. This way they’re hoping to find weak spots in Vanguard to patch them out before malicious hackers exploit them and cause harm to the games or the players.
But Riot will not give out the money randomly. Hackers have to submit a solid proof of concept and follow strict rules while finding exploits within the kernel-level-driver of Vanguard and are not allowed to speak publicly about the found exploits at all.
What are you thinking about Riots new way to improve their anti-cheat-security? Do you think something like this could also work for other game developers?
