Programmer warns how easily Warzone hackers can create new console cheats

December 2022 · 3 minute read

As Warzone hackers continue to plague the Call of Duty battle royale, a programmer has shown just how easy it is for people to make them if they have the skills and that includes console cheats.

The threat of console hacks taking over Warzone was a major story in early July after an anti-cheat watchdog warned that they were evolving.

After videos of the cheats spread, Activision took action and eventually forced the developer to shut down before even more serious damage could be done to the already cheat-infested game.

Now, a programmer has shown that the threat of console cheats is far from over. Twitter user and YouTuber ‘Sjas0a32’ showed off how AI can be used to detect enemy players.

Consoles aren’t immune to Warzone hacks

The craziest thing is that they were able to create and train the image recognition AI in just five hours.

“I don’t know much about AIs, so clearly more talented people will develop console cheats that are almost impossible to detect. Too bad, but consoles will soon no longer be safe,” the user wrote in the video description.

In other words, if an amateur can design something in five hours, what would happen if someone more skilled had time on their hands? It’s a scary thought.

I created and trained the image recognition AI in 5 hours. It can recognize the COD opponents. This means that there will soon be console cheats :/, such one @Activision removed lately. Of course I wont make a cheat / share the source code. Lets Fight the Cheaters! @AntiCheatPD pic.twitter.com/Khl6ZGH0kd

— Sjas0a32 (@sjas0a32) July 27, 2021

However, the programmer made it clear that they were very much against cheating in games.

“This means that there will soon be console cheats such as one Activision removed lately,” they added, referring to the aforementioned story. “Of course, I won’t make a cheat / share the source code. Let’s fight the cheaters.”

Basically, these kind of cheats use machine learning to send inputs to controllers with all players needing to do is aim in the general area of enemies.

Microsoft and sony have full control over what input is allowed to the controller it doesnt take a rocket scientist to block input from spoofed input or enable some kind of tpm like chips within the controller for the next generation of consoles there is so many ways to stop this

— Anti-Cheat Police Department 🕵️ (@AntiCheatPD) July 28, 2021

Sony and Microsoft urged to take action

Luckily, even if someone wants to hack on console, it requires a lot of work. As Anti-Cheat Police Department explained to Dexerto, “You need a capture card, laptop with a good GPU or a PC with a good GPU that has very small latency.”

This said, if console cheats do become a bigger problem, the solution may lie in next-gen hardware, AKA the PlayStation 6 and who knows how far away that will be.

“Microsoft and Sony have full control over what input is allowed to the controller. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to block input from spoofed input or enable some kind of TPM like chips within the controller for the next generation of consoles. There are so many ways to stop this,” Anti-cheat PD wrote.

In any case, the dangers of console hacks taking over gaming is still very much alive. Hopefully, console developers can take the steps needed to prevent it from being an even bigger problem.

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