A Systematic Review of Technical Defenses Against Software-Based Cheating in Online Multiplayer Games

TL;DR

This paper systematically reviews technical defenses against software-based cheating in online multiplayer games, analyzing various approaches for effectiveness, overhead, privacy, and scalability, highlighting trade-offs and ongoing challenges.

Contribution

It categorizes and evaluates existing anti-cheat methods, providing a comprehensive comparison and identifying key trade-offs and research gaps.

Findings

Kernel-level solutions are highly visible but pose privacy and stability risks.

Server-side methods are less intrusive but offer limited insight.

An ongoing arms race exists between cheat developers and anti-cheat defenses.

Abstract

This systematic literature review surveys technical defenses against software-based cheating in online multiplayer games. Categorizing existing approach-es into server-side detection, client-side anti-tamper, kernel-level anti-cheat drivers, and hardware-assisted TEEs. Each category is evaluated in terms of detection effectiveness, perfor-mance overhead, privacy im-pact, and scalability. The analy-sis highlights key trade-offs, particularly between the high visibility of kernel-level solutions and their privacy and stability risks, versus the low intrusive-ness but limited insight of server-side methods. Overall, the re-view emphasizes the ongoing arms race with cheaters and the need for robust, adversary-resistant anti-cheat designs.