Riot Games says a security flaw in many recent motherboards could be exploited by cheaters undetected, and now companies including Asrock, Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI have released BIOS updates to address the issue. According to Riot, “had this issue gone unnoticed, it would have completely nullified all existing DMA detection and prevention tech currently on the market — including that of other gaming companies — due to the nature of this class of cheats running in a privileged area that anti-cheats typically do not run.”
Riot Games found a motherboard security flaw that helps PC cheaters
Your motherboard may need a security update to keep playing Valorant.
Your motherboard may need a security update to keep playing Valorant.
Image: Riot Games
is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.
As a result, Riot’s Vanguard anti-cheat software may prompt you to update your system to a patched BIOS so that you can play Valorant, and we wouldn’t be surprised if other anti-cheat systems add similar checks too.
According to Riot, DMA (direct memory access) hardware devices that plug into PCIe slots could exploit the flaw and get around IOMMU (input-output memory management unit) protections that weren’t “fully initializing” right away, even though they appeared to be. “In essence, the system’s ‘bouncer’ appeared to be on duty, but was actually asleep in the chair,” Riot says.
“BIOS updates aren’t exactly as exciting as looking at ban numbers, but this is a necessary step in our arms race against hardware cheats,” Riot says. “By closing this pre-boot loophole, we are neutralizing an entire class of previously untouchable cheats and significantly raising the cost of unfair play.”
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