Worried about RATs and hacks - am I being Paranoid?

moses90 · 04/14/2021, 15:39

Hi all,

So I have been doing some research and am a little worried about my computer being infected with a remote access trojan (RAT).

I have tried numerous hacks in the past and they all ask you to disable all security and grant admin rights.

Just read this report by Activision regarding the topic where they actually infiltrated the community and planted one of these as a trial!

For anyone who is interested - read here:

After doing a bit of research about these RATs, they are very very difficult to find and easy to plant given the correct circumstances (admin rights, no antivirus, no kernel protection, ring -1 access etc etc).

And these can collect data for months and years without you knowing then out of the blue you get hit hard.

What are your thoughts on this topic and do y'all have any advice on how to avoid falling into this trap?

I know that I make the choice with cheating and hacking etc - with the risk of getting a ban, but not with the risk of having my private info and money stolen!

Am I just being overly paranoid?

Is there any specific anti RAT advise more seasoned computer experts out there can suggest?

Thanks!

Xenos · 04/14/2021, 15:45

Who the **** gives a ****. Not even a single ****. Dont use free cheats, thats it.

moses90 · 04/14/2021, 15:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xenos

Who the **** gives a ****. Not even a single ****. Dont use free cheats, thats it.

Lool your reply made me laugh.

I am referring to paid cheats not free cheats.

I have never used free cheats before.

So you think I am being paranoid and I shouldnt give a **** about having a RAT installed on my PC and stealing my data?

kleiner Eisbär · 04/14/2021, 15:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by moses90

Lool your reply made me laugh.

I am referring to paid cheats not free cheats.

I have never used free cheats before.

So you think I am being paranoid and I shouldnt give a **** about having a RAT installed on my PC and stealing my data?

Its just a risk you are willing to take when cheating. There is a reason some of us use their money to get dedicated systems only for gaming that arent in touch with "banking and worthwhile systems" in the network.

Xenos · 04/14/2021, 16:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by moses90

Lool your reply made me laugh.

I am referring to paid cheats not free cheats.

I have never used free cheats before.

I hope you know that their research is referring to (fake) free cheats which are spread on YouTube and so. Its a meme article from them to defame cheats.

moses90 · 04/14/2021, 16:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by kleiner Eisbär

Its just a risk you are willing to take when cheating. There is a reason some of us use their money to get dedicated systems only for gaming that arent in touch with "banking and worthwhile systems" in the network.

Yeh good point, I just haven't got the space for that though. Running two machines! Maybe it is something I need to invest in.

But i don't agree that it is a risk that people should take when cheating.
I agree that you may get banned etc but not this

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xenos

I hope you know that their research is referring to (fake) free cheats which are spread on YouTube and so. Its a meme article from them to defame cheats.

If you read the article they acknowledge this, the point of it was not to mix free cheats vs paid cheats.
They are merely saying that it is very easy to do, especially with any cheat.

I attach the conclusion for reference:

CONCLUSION
When it comes down to it, the dependencies for a “genuine” cheat to work are the same as those needed by
most malware tools to successfully execute. System protections need to be bypassed or disabled, and privileges
need to be escalated to allow the program to run correctly and/or establish persistence. While this method is
rather simplistic, it is ultimately a social engineering technique that leverages the willingness of its target (players
that want to cheat) to voluntarily lower their security protections and ignore warnings about running potentially
malicious software.

kleiner Eisbär · 04/14/2021, 16:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by moses90

Yeh good point, I just haven't got the space for that though. Running two machines! Maybe it is something I need to invest in.

But i don't agree that it is a risk that people should take when cheating.
I agree that you may get banned etc but not this

If you read the article they acknowledge this, the point of it was not to mix free cheats vs paid cheats.
They are merely saying that it is very easy to do, especially with any cheat.

I attach the conclusion for reference:

CONCLUSION
When it comes down to it, the dependencies for a “genuine” cheat to work are the same as those needed by
most malware tools to successfully execute. System protections need to be bypassed or disabled, and privileges
need to be escalated to allow the program to run correctly and/or establish persistence. While this method is
rather simplistic, it is ultimately a social engineering technique that leverages the willingness of its target (players
that want to cheat) to voluntarily lower their security protections and ignore warnings about running potentially
malicious software.

There is no need for 2 real systems next to each other, you can simply use 2 different partitions, a virtual enviroment or something like that.

And ofcourse! If you get software by shady people, you gotta live with the consequences. Its not like you are getting software that has to pass some kind of QA xD

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xenos

I hope you know that their research is referring to (fake) free cheats which are spread on YouTube and so. Its a meme article from them to defame cheats.

its more common in fake free cheats and weird indian youtube videos that try to get kids to download trojans by advertising free ingame cash and stupid stuff like that. But I am 100% certain that there are also providers on this forum that have some kind of backdoor in their software. I once had logged an login on one of my paypal accounts, which was only saved and used in a firefox installed on a dedicated gaming/ cheating machine, in the middle of the night. Fresh system, only cheats by 3 of the bigger paid providers on epvp. Happened like a week after setting the system up & installing the depencies/ hacks according to the providers

moses90 · 04/14/2021, 16:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by kleiner Eisbär

There is no need for 2 real systems next to each other, you can simply use 2 different partitions, a virtual enviroment or something like that.

Haha yes good point re QA, i highly doubt it too!

Thanks for the advice pal, any more specific pointers for me to start my research on how to get this set up? And what kind of things to search for

Thanks again

kleiner Eisbär · 04/14/2021, 16:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by moses90

Haha yes good point re QA, i highly doubt it too!

Thanks for the advice pal, any more specific pointers for me to start my research on how to get this set up? And what kind of things to search for

Thanks again

Like how to get what setup? two different systems using one phsyical one?

If you got no idea where to even start, just go with 2 different SSDs and just discord the cheating/ gaming one if you want to the other stuff, and the other way around. And of course install Windows on both of em etc. And watch out for not mixing them/ never use banking stuff etc on the cheating/gaming one

moses90 · 04/14/2021, 16:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by kleiner Eisbär

Like how to get what setup? two different systems using one phsyical one?

If you got no idea where to even start, just go with 2 different SSDs and just discord the cheating/ gaming one if you want to the other stuff, and the other way around. And of course install Windows on both of em etc. And watch out for not mixing them/ never use banking stuff etc on the cheating/gaming one

Yes this is exactly what I meant.

That sounds like a perfect method and way around it, I will buy a new HDD and the only downside is constantly opening my PC up to unplug and replug depending on what I am doing but that is the price to pay for security!

0x41^4 · 04/14/2021, 16:44

Don’t use free cheats.
Check lists here before buying.
Easy.

moses90 · 04/14/2021, 17:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by -0x41^4-

Don’t use free cheats.
Check lists here before buying.
Easy.

I have never and will never use free cheats.

0x41^4 · 04/14/2021, 17:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by moses90

I have never and will never use free cheats.

Then don’t worry.
Check lists from my blog to Xenos unofficial list.
Don’t buy from anyone not on one of our lists.

Eirvans · 04/14/2021, 18:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by -0x41^4-

Then don’t worry.
Check lists from my blog to Xenos unofficial list.
Don’t buy from anyone not on one of our lists.

How you know if they are not stealing our personal and banking data? Just a question. As the OP said, as much as payment or not payment cheats, we are exposed, I mean, same as OP, There is a way that we can pretty sure that we are protected from pishing and all those internet tactis for get personal data? I guess not, because we agreed to disable all the securities.

Axe_Mango · 04/14/2021, 18:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eirvans

How you know if they are not stealing our personal and banking data? Just a question. As the OP said, as much as payment or not payment cheats, we are exposed, I mean, same as OP, There is a way that we can pretty sure that we are protected from pishing and all those internet tactis for get personal data? I guess not, because we agreed to disable all the securities.

Buy from websites that use a secure payment gateway like Sellix, shoppy, Atshop, stripe, paypal.

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