About PunksBusted

From PunksBusted

Contents 1 Our Objectives and Principles 1.1 Deliver an Accurate and Comprehensive Master Ban List 1.1.1 Size Doesn't Matter 1.1.2 Validity Does Matter 1.1.3 Some Punks Will Always Get Away 1.2 Maintain the Most Comprehensive Database of Player GUIDs 1.3 Provide Anti-Cheat Verification Services to Organized Leagues 1.4 Work to Improve Anti-Cheat Capabilities 2 Standard Practices 2.1 Protection of Player Information for Players Not on the MBL 2.2 Policies for Judging Violations 2.2.1 Evidence is Only Accepted from Streaming Servers 2.2.2 Violations We Issue Bans For 2.2.3 Violations Which We Do Not Ban For 2.3 Offer Banned Players a Process to Appeal their Ban

PunksBusted (abbreviated PsB) is a non-profit organization (not affiliated with Even Balance, Inc.) which strives to provide the best-possible support for the PunkBuster™ anti-cheat system by providing to game server administrators the most accurate, comprehensive, and verifiable information that will help them maximize the effectiveness of the PunkBuster system, protect their game servers from known hackers and cheaters, and disrupt the actions of those individuals who would do harm to the world of online gaming that we all know and love.

To accomplish these goals, PunksBusted introduced the ground-breaking Automated Master Ban List system (Auto-MBL) and continues the quest to provide ever-improving technological and intelligence resources for game server administrators, gaming communities, competitive leagues, and other organizations to combat the scourge of cheating in online gaming in all the games we support.

Our Objectives and Principles

Deliver an Accurate and Comprehensive Master Ban List

We focus much of our efforts on collecting streaming PunkBuster server logs, player screenshots, and player demos from game server administrators for analysis. From the moment a player joins one of the streaming servers in our extended network to the moment that an offender is added to the Master Ban List (MBL), we insist on a verifiable and accurate process for identifying potential offenders. Offenses must be judged in a manner that is fully-knowledgeable of the circumstances surrounding them, and ensuring that the chances of adding innocent player's GUID (globally-unique identifier) to the MBL are as low as possible.

Size Doesn't Matter

Our objective is NOT to have "the biggest" ban list, but the most accurate ban list. We want to be sure, to the maximum extent possible with the limited information available to us, that every player who has a GUID on the MBL is highly likely of being guilty of a serious offense that warrants banning from all the game servers in our extended network. Our members trust us to provide them with only the best-available information, and we do our best every day to ensure that it is what they receive.

Validity Does Matter

Extensive efforts are made to verify the offenses which are reported to us. All evidence received must be exactly correlated to a verified streaming server log in order to be considered, to prevent the possibility of a rouge administrator manufacturing false evidence against another player. All bans are checked for validity before being distributed to our members to prevent any unexpected system behavior from causing false bans.

Some Punks Will Always Get Away

Despite the best efforts of our staff and our streaming game server administrators, it is inevitable that there will be cases where the guilt of an offender cannot be completely determined. We will not add any GUID to the MBL when we cannot determine the guilt of the player beyond a level of reasonable doubt. This means, simply by fact, that there will be punks who "get away with" their offenses... for now. As our capabilities improve, and the punks continue to provide examples of their behavior, they will eventually be caught with verifiable and strong evidence against them.

Our view is, in essence, it is always better to let a few punks get away than to put one innocent player's GUID on the MBL.

Maintain the Most Comprehensive Database of Player GUIDs

By merit of operating the Auto-MBL system, we have collected the world's largest database of PunkBuster player GUIDs that allows our streaming game server administrators the ability to search for player GUIDs across all of the games we support and provide the most accurate available information about suspicious players.

This valuable asset gives our members the vital information they need when conducting their own investigations and player background checks. It also comes with the support offered by our seasoned staff members, who can help members utilize the system to the maximum extent to identify and pursue information about specific players.

Provide Anti-Cheat Verification Services to Organized Leagues

When a league for organized competition in a PunkBuster-enabled game seeks the peace of mind that the matches they sanction are fair and free of cheaters, chances are that they turn to us first for log streaming services, close support, and investigative services. Some of the best leagues in the world have trusted us to provide them with the services they need to successfully run their competitions.

We accommodate leagues by allowing all participating clans to have their match servers stream to a specially-created league account in our system. We can also provide for a league's custom needs on request and provide advice on a league-wide deployment strategy.

Work to Improve Anti-Cheat Capabilities

Through our strong working relationship with Even Balance, we work on the front lines to improve anti-cheat capabilities. Our unique experience and capabilities provide the strong analytical and strategic data needed to continue to advance the effort against the punks. We also consult with various game developers directly to meet their specific needs as requested, including testing, feedback, and custom data solutions.

We also continue to develop new solutions for our streaming game server administrators, including an updated version of the Auto-MBL that is currently in development which will offer even more innovations to our members.

Standard Practices

Protection of Player Information for Players Not on the MBL

In all venues except for the official private review forums for judging violations, it is not permitted to post accusations against players who are not presently on the MBL which include the player's name or GUID. This also includes the posting of PunkBuster Screenshots which have not had the player's name and GUID removed. Any information which has not been explicitly verified through our official review process is considered unconfirmed and cannot be used in public arguments as this is generally used for smearing innocent but unliked players with uncertain and gossipy allegations.

Policies for Judging Violations

We only ban GUIDs when the player associated with that GUID is found to have been cheating or hacking, as judged in a manner defined below. We do not ban aliases of players or their IP addresses.

Evidence is Only Accepted from Streaming Servers

The largest part of the Auto-MBL system is the extended network of game servers which stream their PunkBuster server logs to our repository in real-time. The fact that we receive this log data information directly from the PunkBuster server program means that we can independently verify that the information provided is genuine and has not been tampered with. This information includes when players join and leave the server, their GUIDs, records of PunkBuster Screenshots that were taken, and additional information along the same lines which serves to verify that violations reported by game server administrators are genuine and have not been tampered with in any way.

Given this elaborate process for ensuring the validity of all evidence received, we do not -- under any circumstances -- accept any evidence of violations (no matter how blatant) which cannot be verified by comparing it to the streaming server log which was received by our repository at the time of the violation. This means that the game server on which the violation took place must be streaming its log to our repository at the time at which the violation occurred, or else the violation cannot be verified and we can take no action to add the player involved to the MBL.

We hope that you understand that is it of absolute importance for us to make sure that only verifiable and genuine violations are used as the basis to add players to the MBL. If we allowed unverified violations to be used as the basis for issuing MBL bans, the integrity of the entire MBL and the repository itself would be placed in jeopardy.

Violations We Issue Bans For

1. PunkBuster-Detected Cheats: Recorded cheat violations in the code number ranges of the 50,000s through 120,000s will result in automatic ban additions to the MBL. These violations are automatically received by the repository when a streaming server reports they have taken place and no game server administrator action is required to pursue MBL bans against players with these violations.
2. MD5Tool Violations for Known Cheat Files: Game server administrators who use the Auto-MBL system have the option to have MD5Tool "NOT_FOUND" checks automatically added to their server which use data collected in our intelligence operations to determine if any players on their servers have files in their game directory which are known to be used in cheating activities. If any of these files are found in the player's game directory, a violation is triggered which is automatically relayed to the repository if the game server is streaming at the time the violation occurs.
3. PunkBuster Screenshots with Evidence of Cheating: Game server administrators are encouraged to to take advantage of the PunkBuster Screenshot facility to collect images which show what information is shown on the player's screen while they are playing. Suspicious screenshots must be submitted through the official submission process for consideration. The game server must have been streaming at the time the screenshot was taken, as this relays to the repository the verification information needed to check the integrity of the screenshot. Submitted screenshots are subject to a period of review by staff and other game server administrators who judge whether or not the screenshot depicts a cheating activity. Votes are gathered for each screenshot and if a sufficient majority is present, the player is found to be guilty of a violation and their GUID is added to the MBL.
4. Game Demos Recorded with the PunksBusted Demo Recorder (PDR) with Evidence of Cheating: We have developed a program called the PunksBusted Demo Recorder which is used in certain games to securely record player demos in a manner that the demos can be verified against the streaming server log. If a game server administrator believes a player is cheating, they can record a demo of that player using the PDR and submit it for review. The process is similar to the process for reviewing PunkBuster screenshots, where there is a period of review by staff and game server administrators and a voting process determines if the player is guilty of a violation.
5. Other Violations at Our Discretion: We may choose to ban for other violations without notice, and even on a case-by-case basis if the circumstances warrant.

Violations Which We Do Not Ban For

1. MD5Tool Violations for Stock File Checks: We do not issue bans for any MD5Tool violation which is not based on a known cheat file where we issued the check directly over the Auto-MBL system. Therefore, all MD5Tool checks which examine the player's game files for mismatches or unpure files will not result in MBL bans. The reason for this is that it is common to find legitimate players who have a corrupted game file for any number of reasons which are not related in any way to cheating. These checks are only used by game server administrators to keep players with unpure game files off their server.
2. Console Variable (CVAR, also called DVAR) Violations: In general, we do not issue MBL bans for CVAR violations because there is a distinct possibility that a player could unintentionally trigger one of these violations by using a configuration file with a bad CVAR defined (which may or may not indicate the use of a cheat) or being tricked somehow to type the CVAR directly into their game console.
   1. We determine on a game-by-game basis whether or not the possibility for allowing CVAR bans exists. The criteria for this decision include information about the game's engine, whether or not it is possible for a CVAR to be inadvertently activated by a player (or even remotely by a third party), and other technical factors.
   2. If it is determined that the risk level of accepting CVAR bans in a particular game is acceptable, we will privately issue a list of CVARs to scan for to game server administrators. The CVAR checks in this list are the only CVARs which we will issue MBL bans for.
   3. This policy does not prohibit individual game server administrators from locally banning players on their servers who have any other CVAR violation, however they themselves will be responsible for handling the repercussions of this decision.
3. PunkBuster Technical, Integrity, and Miscellaneous Violations: Any low-level violation involving trivial errors in a player's PunkBuster client (such as a communication failure, not being able to update their PunkBuster installation, and so on) will never result in MBL bans because these violations do not indicate any cheating activity. For more information on these violations, see our article on PB Violations.
4. "Attempted PunkBuster Hack" Violations: We deliberately do not issue bans for recorded cheat violations with a code number in the 130,000s, unless Even Balance has explicitly told us it is not harmful to do so. The rationale behind this is that only Even Balance can determine whether or not these violations are true hack attempts against the PunkBuster engine or if they are false positives which may be caused by other running programs on the player's computer. If the offense is determined to be valid by Even Balance, they will issue a global (hardware) ban against the player, which is universally effective on all PunkBuster-enabled servers, including those in the PunksBusted extended network.
5. Any Violation Which Originates from a Non-Streaming Server: Real-time server log streaming is the only method we have available to assure that all violations reported to us are genuine. Therefore, we cannot accept any evidence of a violation (such as PunkBuster Screenshots, demos, and unverified log files) where the game server where the offense occurred was not streaming to our repository at the time of the violation.

Offer Banned Players a Process to Appeal their Ban

Players on the MBL who feel that they have not committed the violation that caused them to be added to the MBL have an official process to appeal their ban that they may take advantage of. A person in this situation must present compelling and verifiable evidence (as directed) that they were not cheating in order to be considered for reversal of their ban.

Through the Auto-MBL system, we maintain a process to delete bans from the ban list which is used by the servers in our extended network, allowing any ban reversal to take effect quickly through the entire extended network. In practice, it is rare to see a ban reversed due to the measures we take to ensure that only genuine violations result in MBL bans. However, since we strive for accuracy, we will consider legitimate and fact-based complaints that certain violations are not due to cheating.