Anti-Cheat Expert

⚠️This article has been marked as incomplete. Sourcing or verifiability needs additional work.

In particular:

1. needs better resources (not Wikipedia)
2. use Template:Cite web for references

A moderator needs to check the page before this notice can be removed. Visit the noticeboard or the #appeals channel in either Zulip or Discord to request removal.

More info ▼

Articles must provide verifiable, credible evidence for their claims and avoid relying on forum posts, personal blogs, or other unverifiable sources. You can help by replacing weak citations with reputable reporting, corporate communications, receipts, repair logs, or independent investigative coverage that demonstrates the systemic relevance required by the Mission statement and Moderator Guidelines.

Anti-Cheat Expert commonly abbreviated as "ACE" is an modular anti-cheat system developed by Tencent, that initially released in 2005 as a anti-bot solution for Free Fantasy Online.

Anti-Cheat Expert

Basic Information
Release Year	2005
Product Type	Anti-cheat, Software
In Production	Yes
Official Website	https://intl.anticheatexpert.com/

ACE provides cheat prevention for PC as well as Android and iOS however the mobile versions do not run at the Kernel level and operates less invasively than the PC version. ACE also offers server side solutions and moderation tools

ACE on PC is a modular kernel level anti-cheat that allows game developers to enable or disable certain features, such as the anti-cheat running 24/7, as well as add their own game specific checks.

Consumer impact summary

Freedom

If a game publisher chooses ACE will be running from computer startup, even when not playing. As a kernel-level anti-cheat on PC, Anti-Cheat Expert has the highest level of access to your computer.

Privacy

ACE on PC is a kernel-level (ring 0) anti-cheat meaning it has access to everything on your computer and therefore depending on the game publishers configuration it could be a 24/7 anti cheat similar to Riot Vanguard. ACE also loads multiple drivers based on what features game publishers enable. Anti-Cheat Expert is created by Tencent, which has strong ties with the Chinese government.^{[citation needed (2025-10-15)]}

Incidents

Chinese Government Ties

ACE is created by Tencent which has close ties to the Chinese Government and is bound by Chinese laws.

Technical Implications

The kernel-level access combined with potential government compulsion is particularly concerning because:

• Ring 0 access provides complete system control.
• Users cannot monitor or restrict ACE's activities at this level.
• Depending on the game the anti-cheat maybe be running 24/7 which means the system is potentially vulnerable even when not gaming.
• The software could theoretically be used as a backdoor if compelled by authorities.
• The software could have a negative performance impact even when doing other if the game publishers has chosen the driver to run 24/7

Privacy and Security Assurances

• Some documentation is available publicly
• ACE provides a uninstaller in the ACE installation folder