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Latest MSI BIOS update implements "anti-cheat mechanism" (thelemmy.club)
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
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On March 20th, 2026 MSI released a BIOS update for B650 Tomahawk Wi-Fi motherboard. One of the changes says "Implemented the anti-cheat mechanism."

I looked around their forums and people seem to agree that it refers to Microsoft Pluton security processor.

Does anybody know what this change is actually about? Is it another initiative by Microsoft to further lock people out of their computers? Would it somehow hinder using Linux with this motherboard?

A screenshot from MSI website showing the description of a BIOS update. One of the mentioned changes is "Implemented the anti-cheat mechanism."
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[–] 83 points 6 months ago (14 children)

https://www.riotgames.com/en/news/vanguard-security-update-motherboard

I am so deeply annoyed that

  1. Vanguard demands this level of control over user systems

  2. Vanguard seems to be the only entity handling a threat vector most people simply ignore. I suspect not even crowdstrike and the like could handle malicious pci devices. Well, vanguard can't either, it's just a cat and mouse game. But they are definitely trying in an area where most seem to have given up, but it's absurd that it's a fucking game anticheat that's doing this.

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  • [–] 41 points 6 months ago (5 children)

    Vanguard is proven spyware. If you installed that shit, I'd wipe the OS and reflash the BIOS.

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  • [–] 22 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    Do you have a source of this information?

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  • [–] 40 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    No, but it feels right and it sounds cool.

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  • [–] 21 points 6 months ago* (1 child)

    It is spyware by design, but whether it's being used maliciously is still in question.

    It does send encrypted traffic to China, though, and while that alone isn't proof of nefarious behavior (could be anonymous metadata/logs for development purposes), it's extremely suspicious

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  • [–] 7 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    So glad I stopped playing league of legends over a decade ago. (And it wasn't even because of this, you could play it on a completely normal computer back then, I just ended up liking Dota more)

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  • [–] 6 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    When the arms race with cheaters has gotten there you should change strategies in fighting them.

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  • [–] 10 points 6 months ago*

    Sometimes I wonder if Vanguard is actually a government pet project for practice blocking and executing malicious pci devices.

    You take one of those pci dma cheat cards, put a modem in them, and you've broken secure boot. And nation states have done such a thing to compromise laptops or other devices after getting physical access to them for a bit.

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