Riot Vanguard: Difference between revisions

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==Concerns==

===Tencent Ownership and Chinese Government Ties===

A major concern surrounding Vanguard stems from Riot Games' ownership by Tencent Holdings, a Chinese technology conglomerate. This ownership, combined with Vanguard's kernel-level access, raises significant security and privacy implications due to Chinese legal requirements, particularly the National Intelligence Law of the People's Republic of China (2017).

A major concern surrounding Vanguard stems from Riot Games' ownership by Tencent Holdings, a Chinese technology conglomerate. This ownership, combined with Vanguard's kernel-level access, raises significant security and privacy implications due to Chinese legal requirements, particularly the [[wikipedia:National_Intelligence_Law_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China|National Intelligence Law of the People's Republic of China]] (2017).

The law mandates cooperation with national intelligence efforts from all organizations and citizens. Relevant articles include:

The law mandates cooperation with national intelligence efforts from all organizations and citizens. Relevant articles include:<blockquote>Article 7: All organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts in accordance with law, and shall protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of.

"Article 7: All organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts in accordance with law, and shall protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of.

Article 10: As necessary for their work, national intelligence work institutions are to use the necessary means, tactics, and channels to carry out intelligence efforts, domestically and abroad.

Article 18: As required for work, and in accordance with relevant national provisions, national intelligence work institutions may ask organs such as for customs and entry-exit border inspection to provide facilitation such as exemptions from inspection."

These legal requirements raise several concerns:

Article 18: As required for work, and in accordance with relevant national provisions, national intelligence work institutions may ask organs such as for customs and entry-exit border inspection to provide facilitation such as exemptions from inspection.</blockquote>These legal requirements raise several concerns:

*Tencent, as a Chinese company, could be legally compelled to provide data or access through Vanguard.

*The kernel-level access could potentially be leveraged for surveillance or data collection beyond anti-cheat purposes.

*An hacker attack to Vanguard could have catastrophic consequences

*Users have no way to verify if or when such access might be utilized.

*The combination of mandatory installation, kernel-level access, and Chinese ownership creates potential security risks for:

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{Sources to be added}

*Following the League of Legends implementation announcement, Riot published a detailed FAQ addressing community concerns. They maintained that Vanguard's kernel driver is focused solely on game integrity and doesn't process any personal information.

*Following the League of Legends implementation announcement, Riot published a detailed FAQ addressing community concerns. They maintained that Vanguard's kernel driver is focused solely on game integrity and doesn't process any personal information.<ref>https://support-leagueoflegends.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/24169857932435-Riot-Vanguard-FAQ-League-of-Legends</ref>

*Riot's Security Team published a technical blog post explaining that Vanguard's kernel-level implementation is necessary to detect and prevent sophisticated cheating methods that operate at the same level.

*Riot Security Team published a technical blog post explaining that Vanguard's kernel-level implementation is necessary to detect and prevent sophisticated cheating methods that operate at the same level.<ref>https://www.riotgames.com/en/news/a-message-about-vanguard-from-our-security-privacy-teams</ref>

Riot Games has expressed that kernel level anticheat is becoming an industry standard, that to be able to defeat cheaters operating at the kernel level is to also be operating at the same level and that this is the only way to stop account botting, ranked boosting and to ban cheaters permanently via using hardware identifiers.

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 ==Concerns==
 ===Tencent Ownership and Chinese Government Ties===
-A major concern surrounding Vanguard stems from Riot Games' ownership by Tencent Holdings, a Chinese technology conglomerate. This ownership, combined with Vanguard's kernel-level access, raises significant security and privacy implications due to Chinese legal requirements, particularly the National Intelligence Law of the People's Republic of China (2017).
+A major concern surrounding Vanguard stems from Riot Games' ownership by Tencent Holdings, a Chinese technology conglomerate. This ownership, combined with Vanguard's kernel-level access, raises significant security and privacy implications due to Chinese legal requirements, particularly the [[wikipedia:National_Intelligence_Law_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China|National Intelligence Law of the People's Republic of China]] (2017).
-The law mandates cooperation with national intelligence efforts from all organizations and citizens. Relevant articles include:
+The law mandates cooperation with national intelligence efforts from all organizations and citizens. Relevant articles include:<blockquote>Article 7: All organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts in accordance with law, and shall protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of.
-"Article 7: All organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts in accordance with law, and shall protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of.
 Article 10: As necessary for their work, national intelligence work institutions are to use the necessary means, tactics, and channels to carry out intelligence efforts, domestically and abroad.
-Article 18: As required for work, and in accordance with relevant national provisions, national intelligence work institutions may ask organs such as for customs and entry-exit border inspection to provide facilitation such as exemptions from inspection."
-These legal requirements raise several concerns:
+Article 18: As required for work, and in accordance with relevant national provisions, national intelligence work institutions may ask organs such as for customs and entry-exit border inspection to provide facilitation such as exemptions from inspection.</blockquote>These legal requirements raise several concerns:
 *Tencent, as a Chinese company, could be legally compelled to provide data or access through Vanguard.
 *The kernel-level access could potentially be leveraged for surveillance or data collection beyond anti-cheat purposes.
+*An hacker attack to Vanguard could have catastrophic consequences
 *Users have no way to verify if or when such access might be utilized.
 *The combination of mandatory installation, kernel-level access, and Chinese ownership creates potential security risks for:
@@ Line 57: / Line 56: @@
 {Sources to be added}
-*Following the League of Legends implementation announcement, Riot published a detailed FAQ addressing community concerns. They maintained that Vanguard's kernel driver is focused solely on game integrity and doesn't process any personal information.
+*Following the League of Legends implementation announcement, Riot published a detailed FAQ addressing community concerns. They maintained that Vanguard's kernel driver is focused solely on game integrity and doesn't process any personal information.<ref>https://support-leagueoflegends.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/24169857932435-Riot-Vanguard-FAQ-League-of-Legends</ref>
-*Riot's Security Team published a technical blog post explaining that Vanguard's kernel-level implementation is necessary to detect and prevent sophisticated cheating methods that operate at the same level.
+*Riot Security Team published a technical blog post explaining that Vanguard's kernel-level implementation is necessary to detect and prevent sophisticated cheating methods that operate at the same level.<ref>https://www.riotgames.com/en/news/a-message-about-vanguard-from-our-security-privacy-teams</ref>
 Riot Games has expressed that kernel level anticheat is becoming an industry standard, that to be able to defeat cheaters operating at the kernel level is to also be operating at the same level and that this is the only way to stop account botting, ranked boosting and to ban cheaters permanently via using hardware identifiers.