Call of Duty Ban Exploit Could Be More Severe Than Activision Acknowledges

A troubling new exploit in Call of Duty has emerged, potentially allowing unscrupulous players to issue permanent bans to anyone without justification, revealing a problem more significant than Activision acknowledges.

In October, just before the release of Black Ops 6, content creator BobbyPoff found himself facing a permanent ban, despite having never participated in cheating activities.

It was later confirmed by the developers that this ban was linked to an issue with the RICOCHET anti-cheat system, which permits cheaters to falsely ban players even if they have never encountered them in a game lobby.

While Activision initially stated that only a “limited number”of accounts were compromised, an anti-cheat advocacy group has raised concerns that the extent of this issue is far greater than the company is revealing.

Recently, two different exploits involving RICOCHET and BattlEye have surfaced. These exploits enable abusers to issue permanent bans to any player they choose. These methods could potentially affect any game utilizing these anti-cheat systems. https://t.co/dRUN4UL3Ap https://t.co/cdeccNxqMI

— Anti-Cheat Police Department 🕵️ (@AntiCheatPD) October 18, 2024

According to Anti-Cheat PD, “Two distinct exploits within RICOCHET and BattleEye came to light this past week. Both allow offenders to permanently ban any player they choose, and these techniques may be applicable to any title using these anti-cheat technologies.”

BattleEye is implemented in many popular games, including PUBG and GTA Online; as reported by zebleer, the actual number of affected users far exceeds the “limited”figure provided by Activision, leading many players of GTA to step away during the period when bans were being issued.

Zebleer shared insights from the founder of the exploit, stating that “for quite a while, it has been possible to permanently ban players by simply sending them a friend request or posting a message in chat, such as ‘Nice Trigger Bot dude!’”

They further remarked, “I can confidently say that several thousand random COD players were impacted by this exploit before streamers became the primary targets.”

This exploit may have resulted in thousands of users facing unjust bans due to the “trigger bot”vulnerability.

“Activision is beginning to reverse bans issued due to this exploit; however, this reinstatement also means that legitimate cheaters identified by these signatures may be unbanned as well,” they continued. “Additionally, it seems RICOCHET is underestimating the number of players adversely affected, as suggested by their claims of a small number.”

On October 18, Activision released a blog post outlining forthcoming updates to RICOCHET with Black Ops 6, emphasizing their intention to identify and eliminate cheaters within one hour of their initial match by enhancing their detection processes.

As the battle against cheaters intensifies, it remains to be seen what long-lasting impacts this exploit will have once Black Ops 6 becomes available.

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