Riot Games has found a motherboard vulnerability that helps cheaters on PC

Riot Games says there’s a vulnerability in many modern motherboards that can be exploited by cheaters without detection, and now companies including Asrock, Asus, Gigabyte and MSI have released BIOS updates to address the issue. According to Riot“If this issue had gone unnoticed, it would have completely eliminated all DMA detection and prevention technologies currently on the market – including those of other gaming companies – due to the nature of this category of fraud operating in a distinct area where anti-cheat software typically does not operate.”

As a result, Riot’s anti-cheat software may prompt you to update your system to a patched BIOS in order to be able to play ValuationWe wouldn’t be surprised if other anti-fraud systems add similar checks as well.

According to Riot, DMA (Direct Memory Access) devices plugged into PCIe slots can exploit the flaw and bypass IOMMU (Input Output Memory Management Unit) protections that aren’t “fully initialized” right away, even though they appear to be. “In essence, it appeared that the system’s ‘guard’ was on duty, but was actually asleep in the chair,” Riot says.

“BIOS updates aren’t quite as exciting as looking at ban numbers, but this is a necessary step in our arms race against hardware cheats,” Riot says. “By closing this pre-roll vulnerability, we are neutralizing an entire class of previously untouchable cheats and significantly raising the cost of unfair play.”