Valve honeypot catches 40,000 Dota 2 cheaters red-handed

[Shawn Knight]

What just happened? Valve recently dropped the ban hammer on more than 40,000 accounts suspected of cheating in Dota 2. According to the developer and publisher, accounts in question used third-party software to gain an unfair advantage over the competition. How did Valve know the gamers were cheating? Simple – they set a trap and watched them take the bait.

Valve recently learned that some players were utilizing third-party software capable of accessing information used internally by the Dota client. This information isn't visible during normal gameplay and gives the user an unfair advantage.

Devs quickly remedied the issue and released a patch that also set a trap. The patch included a section of data in the game client that could never be seen during normal gameplay but could be accessed using known third-party exploits. Valve was able to flag each and every account that read from this "secret" area in the client, which served as proof they were cheating.

The resulting bans were "well-deserved," Valve added.

The ongoing fight against cheat developers and players that use their wares often takes place behind the scenes but in this instance, Valve wanted to highlight its stance on the matter in public – anyone that runs an app that can read data from the Dota client while gaming can have their account permanently banned. This policy also applies to professional gamers, who will additionally be banned from all Valve competitive events if found to be cheating.

Dota 2 arrived in 2013 as a direct sequel to Defense of the Ancients. The multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) pits two teams of five players against each other as they fight to become the first to destroy their opponent's Ancient structure.

Despite being nearly a decade old, Dota 2 remains massively popular. It occupies the number two position on Steam's most played list as of this writing with 538,616 current players. That puts it well ahead of Apex Legends in third place with 259,467 current players but pretty far behind the 947,689 people playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Image credit: Keyboard by Rodnae Productions, Ban Hammer by R5on11c

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/97710-valve-honeypot-catches-40000-dota-2-cheaters-red.html

 

[dirtyferret]

Fanf@#$ingtastic, I don't play multiplayer games because there is rampant cheating in virtually everyone and I find stories like hilarious.

 

[psycros]

I'd love to know how many high-ranked players got banned.

 

[RudyBob]

40K. Wow. More people need(ed) fathers

 

[brucek]

Nice work, but for people who are already willing to spend money to buy cheats, how big a hurdle is it to just buy the game again?

I think I'd prefer a system where it doesn't tell them they've been banned, it just silently sets a flag on their account where from then on they will only ever be matched up with other cheaters. That way they can all keep playing the way they like without screwing it up for the rest of us.

 

[Nobina]

Nice work, but for people who are already willing to spend money to buy cheats, how big a hurdle is it to just buy the game again?

I think I'd prefer a system where it doesn't tell them they've been banned, it just silently sets a flag on their account where from then on they will only ever be matched up with other cheaters. That way they can all keep playing the way they like without screwing it up for the rest of us.

Buy Dota? It's free.

 

[peterparker86]

Lovely, now nuke the ban hammer on the cheaters at Everquest.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Such a simple method - a known ploy for a long time - eg each top secret document having a hidden unique code . Epsom salts in your smoothie in the work fridge etc
TBF maybe top cheat makers can spot this somehow with due diligence

 

[Ravey]

Buy Dota? It's free.

Hmmm yes and no.. The game is free but you can purchase in-game content for a price. So if you are cheating on an account you spent hundreds of Dollars/Pounds on, it's going to sting a bit

 

[Nobina]

Hmmm yes and no.. The game is free but you can purchase in-game content for a price. So if you are cheating on an account you spent hundreds of Dollars/Pounds on, it's going to sting a bit

Doubt many cheaters cheat on their primary account with a lot of money invested and on the same PC. But I get what you're saying.

 

[Avro Arrow]

So they got 40,000, eh? Drop, meet bucket.

 

[Tetr1s]

Man if only they did stuff like this for CSGO......

 

[Avro Arrow]

Man if only they did stuff like this for CSGO......

I agree. I don't go anywhere near online arena games for this very reason and I used to love PvP back when I was playing Star Wars Galaxies on the Ahazi server.

Nowadays, I don't bother with PvP because there's something bothersome about the fact that I'll only ever know that a match was honest if I win. If I lose, I'll never know if it was because the other player was better or if the other player had a "fix".

Losing honestly is nothing that ever bothered me because it made me better, it made me ask questions and learn new techniques. Nowadays, cheat apps are so ubiquitous that I've just completely given up on PvP.

 

[Tetr1s]

I agree. I don't go anywhere near online arena games for this very reason and I used to love PvP back when I was playing Star Wars Galaxies on the Ahazi server.

Nowadays, I don't bother with PvP because there's something bothersome about the fact that I'll only ever know that a match was honest if I win. If I lose, I'll never know if it was because the other player was better or if the other player had a "fix".

Losing honestly is nothing that ever bothered me because it made me better, it made me ask questions and learn new techniques. Nowadays, cheat apps are so ubiquitous that I've just completely given up on PvP.

The last time I've played an arena type game was league and I hated it instantly lmfaoo