RIP Vanguard o7

if its true o7

would link full article but too big and ip grabber so I'll just paste it here:

Back in July, after the massive Crowdstrike outage that ended up grounding flights and bringing businesses around the world to their knees, there was talk from Microsoft about locking down the Windows kernel in order to prevent similar issues from arising in the future. Now, according to a Microsoft blog post about the recent Windows Endpoint Security Ecosystem Summit, the company is committing to providing “more security capabilities to solution providers outside of kernel mode.”

According to the blog post, Microsoft and many of its security partners and vendors discussed several aspects of the future of security in Windows, but moving security features out of the kernel has some interesting implications for the future of gaming on Linux. Removing kernel-level security software would mean that anti-cheat software would all have to be implemented with user access, making it much less intrusive and far easier to emulate with translation layers, like WINE or Valve's Proton.

Theoretically, this should make it easier for devices like the Steam Deck to run games like Paladins and Fortnite — whether Tim Sweeney likes it or not. Many games that use kernel-level anti-cheat software, like EAC (Easy Anti-Cheat), are not compatible with Linux, despite that compatibility reportedly being a single toggle in software — however, game developers and publishers are hesitant to enable Linux compatibility, for some reason.

Somewhat comically, Microsoft directly calls out the Crowdstrike vulnerability in the blog post, although it doesn't go so far as to outright blame the outage for the proposed new approach to security. Microsoft also outlined its plan for the new security platform for Windows, highlighting resiliency and tamper-proofing as main goals of the new security platform.

"Both our customers and ecosystem partners have called on Microsoft to provide additional security capabilities outside of kernel mode which, along with SDP, can be used to create highly available security solutions. At the summit, Microsoft and partners discussed the requirements and key challenges in creating a new platform which can meet the needs of security vendors.

Some of the areas discussed include:

• Performance needs and challenges outside of kernel mode
• Anti-tampering protection for security products
• Security sensor requirements
• Development and collaboration principles between Microsoft and the ecosystem
• Secure-by-design goals for future platform"

the source is microsoft itself, its not that hard to find out

I mean Microsoft is definitely considering it to some extent due to the crowdstrike incident and also this happened yesterday: https://x.com/tomwarren/status/1834863294730956803

Some replies in the same tweet suggest that Riot is also working to move away from the way Vanguard currently works, so I guess they are aware of it and are considering alternative solutions.

*EasyAntiCheat

EasyAntiCheat, a Kernel-Level Anti-Cheat System used by more than 70 gaming studios globally.
we are cooked bro