Anti-cheating solution to detect graphics driver tampering for online gaming

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10729980-B2
Application number	US-201816233372-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 27, 2018
Priority date	Dec 27, 2018
Publication date	Aug 4, 2020
Grant date	Aug 4, 2020

Abstract

Embodiments described herein provide an apparatus comprising a processor to receive, from a gaming/anti-cheating server, a message comprising a first pixel data set comprising first pixel data for one or more pixels of a watermark generated by the gaming/anti-cheating server, store the first pixel data set in the machine-readable memory, receive, from a gaming system, a frame buffer rendered by the gaming system and comprising the watermark generated by the gaming/anti-cheating server, isolate, from the frame buffer, a second pixel data set comprising second pixel data for one or more pixels corresponding to the first pixel set, and forward an alert to the gaming/anti-cheating server when the second pixel data differs from the first pixel data by an amount that exceeds a threshold. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a processor to:
receive, from a gaming server, a message comprising a first pixel data set comprising first pixel data for one or more pixels of a watermark generated by the gaming server;
store the first pixel data set in a machine-readable memory;
receive, from a gaming system, a frame buffer rendered by the gaming system and comprising the watermark generated by the gaming server;
isolate, from the frame buffer, a second pixel data set comprising second pixel data for one or more pixels corresponding to the first pixel set; and
forward an alert to the gaming server when the second pixel data differs from the first pixel data by an amount that exceeds a threshold.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , the processor to:
establish a secure communication channel with the gaming server.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , the processor to:
exchange a shared secret with the gaming server during an attestation process, wherein the shared secret uniquely identifies a player and a platform; and
use the shared secret to decrypt the first pixel data set.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , the processor to:
transmit, in response to receiving the first pixel data set, a frame buffer request to the gaming system.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , the processor to:
compare a first color value of the first pixel data set with a second color value of the second pixel data set; and
forward an alert when a difference between the first color value of the first pixel data set and the second color value of the second pixel data set exceeds a threshold.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein:
the threshold is a fixed value.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 , the processor to:
adjust the threshold dynamically in response to a change in an operating condition of the gaming system.

8. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
receive, from a gaming server, a message comprising a first pixel data set comprising first pixel data for one or more pixels of a watermark generated by the gaming server;
store the first pixel data set in a machine-readable memory;
receive, from a gaming system, a frame buffer rendered by the gaming system and comprising the watermark generated by the gaming server;
isolate, from the frame buffer, a second pixel data set comprising second pixel data for one or more pixels corresponding to the first pixel set; and
forward an alert to the gaming server when the second pixel data differs from the first pixel data by an amount that exceeds a threshold.

9. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8 , further comprising instructions which configure the processor to:
establish a secure communication channel with the gaming server.

10. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 9 , further comprising instructions which configure the processor to:
exchange a shared secret with the gaming server during an attestation process, wherein the shared secret uniquely identifies a player and a platform; and
use the shared secret to decrypt the first pixel data set.

11. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8 , further comprising instructions which configure the processor to:
transmit, in response to receiving the first pixel data set, a frame buffer request to the gaming system.

12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8 , further comprising instructions which configure the processor to:
compare a first color value of the first pixel data set with a second color value of the second pixel data set; and
forward an alert when a difference between the first color value of the first pixel data set and the second color value of the second pixel data set exceeds a threshold.

13. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein:
the threshold is a fixed value.

14. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12 , further comprising instruction which configure the processor to:
adjust the threshold dynamically in response to a change in an operating condition of the gaming system.

15. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving, in a processor, a message from a gaming server, the message comprising a first pixel data set comprising first pixel data for one or more pixels of a watermark generated by the gaming server;
storing the first pixel data set in a machine-readable memory communicatively coupled to the processor;
receiving, in the processor, a frame buffer rendered by the gaming system and comprising the watermark generated by the gaming server;
isolating, from the frame buffer, a second pixel data set comprising second pixel data for one or more pixels corresponding to the first pixel set; and
forwarding an alert to the gaming server when the second pixel data differs from the first pixel data by an amount that exceeds a threshold.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
establishing a secure communication channel with the gaming server.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
exchanging a shared secret with the gaming server during an attestation process, wherein the shared secret uniquely identifies a player and a platform; and
using the shared secret to decrypt the first pixel data set.

18. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
transmitting, in response to receiving the first pixel data set, a frame buffer request to the gaming system.

19. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
comparing a first color value of the first pixel data set with a second color value of the second pixel data set; and
forwarding an alert when a difference between the first color value of the first pixel data set and the second color value of the second pixel data set exceeds a threshold.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein:
the threshold is a fixed value.

21. The method of claim 19 , further comprising:
adjusting the threshold dynamically in response to a change in an operating condition of the gaming system.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Mojarad Roksana Golizadeh
• Heydarpour Amin
• Panneer Selvakumar
• Ghosh Rahuldeva

Classifications

• H04W12/03

  Protecting confidentiality, e.g. by encryption · CPC title

• A63F2300/6653

  for altering the visibility of an object, e.g. preventing the occlusion of an object, partially hiding an object · CPC title

• A63F13/75 Primary

  Enforcing rules, e.g. detecting foul play or generating lists of cheating players · CPC title

• A63F13/73

  Authorising game programs or game devices, e.g. checking authenticity · CPC title

• A63F13/355

  Performing operations on behalf of clients with restricted processing capabilities, e.g. servers transform changing game scene into an encoded video stream for transmitting to a mobile phone or a thin client · CPC title