Hacking Warzone: A Bago-investigation

Hacking is nothing new to the world of online gaming, thanks to free-to-play games rising they are even more prominent than ever before; recently the biggest concern has come from players in Activision’s insanely popular Call of Duty franchise, namely Warzone. Earlier this year Activision finally let players know that Warzone uses an ‘internal anti-cheat software‘ to help identify and ban cheaters, this followed with Raven Studios proclaiming that they made ‘…300,000 permabans worldwide since launch…’, they made another update in April claiming to have ‘…issued more than 475,000 permabans…’ and even gave players a look at how their system works.

As seen on the official Call of Duty website:

Removing cheaters and taking away their ability to move to alternate accounts is a key focus for the security teams.

As we’ve mentioned previously, we’ve increased our efforts in several key areas:

·      Utilizing 2-factor authentication to make it harder to access new accounts simply to cheat

·      Ramping-up additional resources to support our security and enforcement teams

·      Increased frequency of high-volume banwaves in addition to our daily banning of repeat offending accounts

·      Improving regular communications and updates

How We Work

Some have asked if we issue hardware bans. We do issue hardware bans against repeat, or serial, cheaters. This is an important part of our effort to combat repeat offenders.

So problem solved, Activision has everything under control, right? As the Arbiter would say, ‘If only it were so easy.’, Warzone still has a massive cheater problem along with fellow free-to-play titans, Apex Legends (EA/Respawn Entertainment/Panic Button Games) and Valorant (Riot Games). How is this even possible, how is it that these multi-million/billion dollar companies are still playing catch up when they all use state-of-the-art anti-cheat software? That is something that can only be answered by the people who continually bypasses these softwares and even profits from them, hackers.

I was fortunate enough to find multiple people who were willing to speak with me about the subject, some of the people I spoke with only used hacks, but I was also able to speak with some that actually makes the MW hacks that have been so prominent in many YouTubers’ and Twitch streamers’ compilation videos. In order to gain my interview I told each of the people I spoke to that they would remain anonymous, so all of the names from here on out will be made up (I spoke to these people via messaging, so I don’t know their real names to begin with), for the sake of avoiding repetition (many users and sellers answered my questions the same way) I will be using the most distinctive answers and the most common ones together while using Hack User/HU as their names.

BagoGames: As I mentioned in the post, you will stay anonymous, do you use hacks or create/sell them?

Hack User: Sure. No, I am a Consumer of these kind of products, and well for a reason many people don’t understand. They have a single viewed Mindset. We have multiple reasons for using them, should I state them?

BG: Please do.

HU: So the reasons are in this order 1) Backward Boosters. So Basically backwards boosters are people who are gods at the game, they basically make a new account and use their sweaty skills On the newbies. 2) Streamers. Same like backwards boosters, but have you noticed, they only get lobbies who don’t shoot back. 3) Many of these sweats also use hacks too. We newbies who are trying the game out for a first time, get sweated on. Due to pressure, we have no direction but to hack and get to a decent level, we usually hack to get to a normal level and from there play properly. This helps us escape that cage. Another problem we face is that hacks are paid, we need some free hacks too, so we can not have to pay to win.

Right off the bat, cheaters are using new hacks out of the fear that they are going up against smurf accounts, the use of alternative accounts is nothing new in online gaming. Many players who max out characters in games such as Call of Duty have created new accounts simply so they can start over and work on unlocking everything from square one, even though CoD has a prestige option that resets everything, that to can be maxed out, others use smurf accounts to play in lobbies that pairs low-level players together.

Turns out smurf accounts have a bigger impact than anybody thought, how many players have turned to hacks because they felt that they needed an advantage over players dominating matches through accounts made simply to destroy new players? And let’s not forget streamers, many streamers, and even eSport professionals have been caught using hacks during a match or live stream and as HU mentioned, these hacks come at a literal price and I soon found out why.

 

BG: What types of hacks do you use?

HU: I don’t at the moment, because I’m still on the lookout for good free hacks, these are the only way out for noobs, unless they have 6-7 hours to start sweating. I Installed a malicious link from YouTube and my PC got it, but I cleaned my PC up, I usually Play Roblox FPS with shooters and free executors and scripts. Warzone wise I’m searching for free hacks.

There are people creating hacks with malware in them? Yep, it shouldn’t come as a surprise, anything free on the internet should be seen as too good to be true. But just how difficult is it to find these hacks, surely our dear HU has found something that worked for them?

 

BG: How difficult is it to actually find a ‘legit’ hack?

HU: Very difficult if trying to find a free one, Paid are easily found , a entire Subreddit is made dedicated to this.

It’s true, even I, a person with no experience with hacks; and no desire to use them was able to find legitimate hacks (but we’ll circle back to that later).

BG: How much do hacks usually run?

HU: Mostly above the price of 25 Euros.

(Keep that in mind when I start to speak to a couple of hackers that not only use hacks, but create and sells them too).

BG: Wall hacks seem to be the most popular hack, seeing through wall and shooting through them. What kind of hacks do you prefer?

HU: I usually like Wallhacks, Aimbot and Esp. Also, constant Uav is pretty good.

(Later on I spoke with a person who create hacks and they explain what ESP means, to avoid repetition I will use that part of the interview to explain it and what it does.)

BG: Warzone seem to have a plethora of wall hacks, people are recording these hackers, aren’t you afraid of getting reported and banned?

HU: No, First of all because that’s how warzone makes money, The hacker buys something using Cod Points, and they don’t ban him/her It’s basically their money making Machine.

BG: So hackers are spending money for the skin bundles? Why haven’t you bought any hacks?

HU: Cuz I’m broke and many of them are expensive.

BG: What games have you used hacks in?

HU: Roblox,Minecraft, and Pubg

BG: You (say) that you use hacks in Roblox and Minecraft, those aren’t particularly competitive games, what kind of hacks do you use for those games?

HU: Well In Minecraft, I use Xray, which helps you see diamonds and other ores. In Roblox I use Aimbot for sweats in arsenal.

BG: How do you get around the anti-cheat programs?

HU: Injecting is the best method, Most of these keep getting new updates.

BG: What’s Injecting?

HU: Injecting is basically When a separate app, Injects into the game/Program, And executes any scripts given. If you want a video example I will send.

Our dear helpful HU then sends me a link to a video on YouTube, the video is only three minutes long but shows just how easy it is to add exploits to Roblox (For cautious, and hopefully, obvious reasons I am not going to actually link the video  here). The video show a program that viewers could install, the program is also linked in the uploader’s description section, the video has no voice overs explaining the steps and even has helpful timestamps on display.

The video was so easy to follow I could understand how children were getting into hacks, one of the comments on the video said, ‘…I can’t stop trolling with this exploit. It’s is addicting as hell…’ another comment exclaimed ‘Now I can take revenge of those people who is toxic to games and just use exploits to punish them!’.

So as HU mentioned before, some people use these hacks to battle other hackers and toxic players, guess even gaming has its share of vigilantes. But the video at hand also noted that in order to use the injections players would need to turn off their antivirus protection programs, the video even mentions that some of the exploits can be fake and carry real computer viruses.

At the time of this writing the tutorial video had amassed over 430,000 views and was published in June, 2020.

After speaking with HU I wanted to find somebody who was a bit more experienced, somebody who was willing to spend the cash in order to get the good stuff, the stuff that has been the talk of the virtual gaming town. It didn’t take long for me to find that person, enter HU2.0, this person was more than willing to speak with me about hacks and why they use them. In fact, HU2 was so willing to speak with me that they questioned me about my credentials before we even started, they asked about the site and if I had anything to vouch for my claims as a journalist.

I linked HU2 to our site and even to the page with all of my published work, it was enough to satisfy their query, soon we were speaking like two buddies catching up on our lives of hacking.

BG: How often do you use hacks?

HU2: All the time, lol, (in) multiple games.

BG: What exactly do you get out of using them in a multiplayer game? It makes sense in a single player game, but with MP you run the risk of getting banned.

HU2: Well that’s the thing. If we get banned we just come back. (There’s) no way to actually prevent us from doing it ever again, at least not for me and experience(d) people, if I get banned I come back within 2mins. I can’t speak for others, but it’s fun killing people out the sky or seeing exactly where you’re at and what gun you’re using. I mean I don’t suck on my legit account, but it’s a video game and it suppose to be enjoyable, you don’t want to sweat every single game lol.

BG: How many smurf accounts do you have?

HU2: I don’t know. Maybe 300k-500k.

How is it that HU2.0 has so many accounts, how many are banned and how many are used for trolling? I was sure this was just hyperbole, it had to be, right?

BG: Why so many, how often do you get banned?

HU: Depends how hard I rage. If I’m raging 100%? I can last about 10 full games, if you semi rage you can probably play on a account for 3 days or so. If I was to game all day, I’ll probably burn thru 10 accounts or more.

10 plus accounts, a day? Maybe HU2.0 is also going against hackers and they just turn the cheats to get back, surely it’s all about revenge.

BG: When you rage, is it after you try to play legit or after getting trolled?

HU2: I rage from the start of the game lol, it’s no on or off switch. I mean (there) is one, but I don’t use it. I think it’s pointless to hack to just see where people are, not all of us use aim bot, (there are) many users out there who just use hacks to see where you’re at. You won’t believe how many streamers I know that are out there right now using my software making money off Twitch and YouTube.

I mentioned earlier about YouTubers and Streamers getting caught with hacks, unfortunately HU2.0 wouldn’t give me any hints at the people using their software, but now we know that HU2.0 knows some mid to big name internet stars. I tried squeezing some innocent questions in hopes that HU2.0 would let something, anything, slip out; but they were able to sidestep my questions with, ‘Well I can’t tell you the name for obvious reasons. But I have my own. We can do everything you can think of’.

That just left me with even more questions, is this software so widely used that just mentioning the name would be enough to expose the identity of HU2.0? I decided to carry on while HU2 was still in a friendly mode and willing to talk to me.

BG: How easy is it to find a hacker? Many streamers have shown hackers live, but many people still say it’s hard to stop hackers, we do know that a few streamers have been caught cheating live.

HU2: I don’t know how many active COD members it is out there. But if it’s 20million users on the game. We only make up about 20k of that 20million. The community isn’t as big as you think or what people think. So finding a hacker and playing with him is very slim to none. You’ll probably cross a hacker 1/5000 games that you play. And the chances of him actually raging is probably 50/50. We join streamers lobbies on purpose so we can get on their lives and kill them.

BG: So like next level stream sniping?

HU2: Pretty much.

BG: How much does a hack usually run for?

HU2: Well it’s a subscription, on avg a sub to a chair is $35. It’s a great business investment.

‘Chairs’ are what hacks are called, it turns out the word ‘hack’ is kind of a no-no and people who create them will likely correct you if you use the word, HU2.0 seems to be ok with the it as they never really correct me during the interview and continued speaking with me.

BG: Monthly or annually?

HU2: Monthly. You can purchase a lifetime sub if you want, those on avg are $250.

BG:What kind of hacks do you use often? Wall hacks seem to be the most popular hack, seeing through wall and shooting through them.

HU2: Well I use everything, it’s all just one tool. However you want to use it is up to the user of the tool. I do every single (hack), aim bot, walls, auto pings, unlocking everything; etc etc.

BG: Isn’t that heavy on your CPU?

HU2: It’s a combination of CPU and GPU, regardless of what Kind of machine you have, you will drop FPS. Due to the nature of the tool, so if you avg 60 FPS, you will probably be at 30 with (a) chair.

BG: Recently it was said that Activision can’t make an anti-cheat that works in Warzone, are the hacks really that complex?

HU2: Yes. They have tried to put (in) a anti cheat, but it doesn’t really work, we find a way to bypass it after every major update. It’s pretty much them putting a bunch of teddy bears in front of a car with no brakes expecting it to stop. It’s not just Activision, Battle Eye and and all of them do the same thing, we cannot be stop at all. Hacks been around since MW2 and every game after that.

BG: Do any of the Warzone updates ever have an effect on your hacks, like you need to update your hacks often?

HU2: Yeah, after every update we get taken offline for like 20mins most the time, the longest we was offline was for like 8hrs or so. That’s because they put a new security feature in, but of course we figured that out and bypass(ed) it.

Imagine working hours on end trying to code a new security feature for a multi-million dollar game, just to have the same old issues resurface after just 20 minutes or even 8 hours, but how exactly is that possible? What are these chair creators doing that allows them to belittle a corporation’s security software within the time the coder goes to get coffee and sits back into their chair, or just as bad, an average work day? HU2.0 was pretty vague about their software, but I was hoping that they would let out a few secrets, but HU2.0 was just as on guard.

BG: What does it take to create a hack for a game?

HU2: You have to know how to code, lol. I can’t disclose what code and everything else to you for obvious reasons, but it’s pretty much just breaking down the source of that game then mod that code on top of there’s.

BG: What program(s) do you use to create and/or test your hacks? Do you create your hacks by yourself or do you work with a team?

HU2: I have a team, Can’t disclose the software.

BG: How long does it usually take to create a new hack?

HU2: Like from ground zero ? If you’re talking about a fresh start, it depends on the game. Warzone, for example, doesn’t take long because the source code is out there already; and multiple other scripts have been leaked. So most people just build off of those. Fortnite is a little bit tricky, to build a great chair for Fortnite you have to battle their complex anti cheat. We’ve been working on the ultimate Fortnite one for 3-4 months now. It’s one out there now, but you can easily get banned with it; and then again the Fortnite market is dying so…

Out of all of the games, Fortnite, with so many publishers following the battle royale game that blew up the genre (sorry PUBG, but at least everyone knows that you were one of the pioneers, well after The Culling of course.) it’s surprising to hear that hackers are having a difficult time bypassing its anti-cheat system. That’s not to say the game is free of cheaters, just that somehow it has a better system than Warzone or Apex Legends or even Valorant. (Valorant is created by Riot games who were purchased by Tencent in 2015; and Tencent also owns about 40% of Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite. You would think that Valorant would use the same anti-cheat tech as the world’s most popular game (arguably), but instead elects to use the controversial Vanguard software.

BG: How is it possible that hackers are working around anti-cheat programs??

HU2: We’re just smart. You can do anything if you put a bunch of smart people together, at least in the technology world.

Darn it HU2.0, I just can’t seem to get them to spill more details where I want them to.

BG: Gamers have been asking for anti-cheats, despite these programs taking a toll on there systems, do these programs actually help or are they just a waste of resources?

HU2: It’s a waste to be honest. Because COD has had this issue like I said since MW2; and it’s only going to continue, same with any other game. It’s just like in life bro, you have a evil and you have a good; but you can’t just have one, you need the other to coexist to balance nature out. Activision and all of these companies need us, rather you believe it or not, we are the reason their IT and security guys get paid big bucks. If no one was trying to point out your flaws, you wouldn’t need them. Just like the guy who made the first jailbreak for iPhones, Apple offered him a job.

BG: I’m sure many gamers would disagree about your take on balance, they see hackers as just evil with no remorse or care.

HU2: Well yeah the gamers will disagree, but in reality we helping COD make a better game.

BG: How exactly does that work? Many people have actually quit Warzone due to hackers, what can hackers actually help improve?

HU2: It works on the back-end, not necessarily the front end where users will see the difference. Because COD can stop us at any time; but they can’t. Legally they can’t. Because the source to what we do will limit their own customer database.

BG: So why do other companies use Anti-cheat systems, what’s so different about Warzone?

HU2: Warzone is the most popular game out of the big 3 I guess you can say. Fortnite is second. And the third spot is probably held to BF or R6. Fortnite doesn’t deal with hackers because their anti-cheat is too time consuming and expensive to bypass. (There’s) hackers on Fortnite, but nowhere near as many as Warzone, that’s because of their-anti cheat. Fortnite anti-cheat is so good that it cost us more time and money to make. That means customers who want to buy Fortnite hacks from me pay me $150 a month to use them or they pay me $700 for lifetime.

And of course most people aren’t going to pay that. So it’s very little hackers on those games. But bro, If you sent me $5 right now, you can get a Warzone hack. You see where I’m going here ? Call of duty is a popular game, so a lot of hackers are trying to hack it. Now if a million hacks are out there offering the same service as you, how can you charge a premium ? You will always be trying to undercut someone, so that’s why COD hacks are so cheap, because it’s so easy to make. Granted it’s not as easy to find, but it’s a lot out there.

Compared to Fortnite, which has very limited amount of devs out there who actually want to make hacks for (the game). So when we do, it’s uber expensive, because we’re offering you a premium that you can’t find anywhere because people don’t want to deal with the headache.

Who knew there was a price to pay for a game having a good anti-cheat program, also the economy of hacks is far more intriguing than I original thought, users have choices and the creators are bidding for every last player. Maybe I should look into finding a vendor myself and see how easy it can be to actually purchase a chair? For now I have a few more questions for HU2.0 and the way some of these hacks are being utilized.

BG: One hacker I spoke with said that many people who use hacks also buy the bundles within the CoD store. Has hacking made buying CoD points really that much more enticing?

HU2: It did. But they patched it. We had a way to get unlimited COD points, now we have a unlock all tool. Which is pretty much the same as COD points, but more risk.

BG: So now the people who use hacks are actually purchasing points?

HU2: No. Now the people who use hacks are buying tools that unlock everything in the store, we have tools that unlock every single thing in the game, rather it’s released or unreleased.

BG: And these tools work for every season?

HU2: Yes, season 1-4, it also unlocks all the camos; and all the attachments. It’s different levels to hacking man, not everyone wants to shoot someone a mile away or beam on their head, some people use these tools to show off to their friends.

BG: So from trolling to bragging rights?

HU2: Exactly.

BG: Surely Activsion can detect if someone is unlocking things too quickly?

HU2: Yeah but they don’t really care. It’s probably the safest thing to do to be honest, how does a kid running around with dark matter ultra give him any kind of competitive advantage? It doesn’t lol. It’s all about looking cool, that’s why kids with Fortnite buy skins lol. Unless we’re talking about the Roze Rook skin, that one did give players a little bit of a advantage; but again that was COD fault for making a all black skin that not even you can tell if it’s there.

BG: But that’s money out of Activision’s pockets, right?

HU2: No. Because again it goes back to the numbers, we only make up 0.1% of their active users, if 0.1% of kids are running around with unlock all tools that doesn’t hurt your pockets at all lol. Remember you can only do this stuff on PC, console users can’t do this, unless they know someone like me. Which again all of that falls into that 0.1%.

BG: With the introduction of cross-play, has hacks become even more popular with trolls?

HU2: No. Because most console users don’t even turn on cross play, unless they have to, or some don’t even know what crossplay is. And regardless, crossplay sucks for console users anyway, because PC users will always have a advantage over them. Our timing is more precise due to our ability to have higher FPS, better graphics, faster processors etc etc. Next gen consoles have help with that, but not by much.

BG: With the PS5 and Series X, do you think that gap will start to close?

HU2: Yeah definitely. It already has to be honest. I’ll even let you on in a secret. You know what a cronus zen is right?

HU2.0 is actually willing to tell me a secret? it must be something if they are willing to bring it up out of the blue and speak about it.

BG: Afraid not.

HU2: Ok cool well Cronus Zen is a aim assist for consoles. It looks very similar to aimbot, but that’s besides the point. All I’m (going) to say is it’s someone out there who found a way to take that to the next level; and it’s coming real soon.

Note that this interview took place a couple of days before news broke out that Activision had found and stopped a program that sounds very similar to what HU2.0 is talking about.

BG: So the playing field is getting leveled? Yet, wouldn’t that leave console players who don’t use crossplay at a disadvantage?

HU2: Well the days of saying, “well PC users have a better advantage over console gamers”, is getting very thin. But pretty soon console players will have hacks too. The cronus zen opened the door for it, that gave console users a very strong aim assist; and again like I said earlier if you put enough smart people together, you can make anything happen.

BG: So wall hacks will be on console pretty soon as well?

HU2: Yup. Just like they was before, trust that it will be very expensive. Because again like I said, less developers mean more expensive product, the Cronus Zen sales for $99-$300 right now. Imagine what hacks going to cost lol.

BG: Hacks are a big business, what are the most popular ones that get bought?

HU2: I mean I can’t say any names, but it’s three most popular providers out there, I’m sure some other hacker has told you. He was probably just a user of one them tho. I’m going to probably be the most knowledgeable one you probably talk to, since I know most of these people who make hacks, but I can tell you right now. The most popular hack out there, the dev makes 6 figures a year, he averages about $15k-$20k a month in sales.

Just to save you from doing the simple math, that’s $180,000 to $240,000 a year; and with more people getting into hacking and making money from YouTube videos, it makes sense why more people will eventually gravitate to the well known expensive hacks.

BG: Goodness, and does he make hacks for different genres of games?

HU2: Yeah he do, other providers with a avg server of 2k-5k users can pull in about $2k-$5k a month off this stuff.

BG: When I went searching for hacks for my research I noticed that hackers make singular programs that works on multiple games, like a singular wall hack program that worked on most first person shooters. How is it that you can make a ‘one size fits most’ kind of hack if you need the code from the games?

HU2: Well it’s not a single program. It’s more so of a style I guess you can say? It’s called ‘Extra Sensory Perception’. ESP is what the wall hacks and seeing all the items and player skeletons is called.

BG: So ESP works for most programs?

HU2: Yeah it’s required, it would be pointless to run aimbot with no ESP. That’s pretty much like you driving a very fast car at night, with no lights on.

BG: That makes sense, many times when you’re watching a hacker you don’t see the esp. But you can see them shooting through walls and across the map.

HU2: Yeah because it only shows on our screen, Not on spectators; and when we stream we have ways around it. So I can stream on Twitch right now without you seeing my walls etc. But you can see my aimbot working, or I can turn my aimbot down and you wouldn’t be able to tell that I’m hacking. Hence why streamers are being called out.

BG: Can you explain how that works, the tuning of the program during live streams?

HU2: Well it all depends on how your tool injects into the game. A great chair aka hack, we don’t use the word “hacks” around here we say chair, a good chair injects in a way that it builds a layer around what you see. Reason behind that is because Warzone’s anti-cheat takes screenshots of your game to see if you have hacks running. But we found a way to make a mirror effect, it’s like when you go to the arcade or state fair and you go to that room with the million mirrors, we found a way to project our hacks in a way that no other program can see it.

So when we stream it, for example let’s say you use OBS, we found the way OBS projects your game and built a mirror around it. So it doesn’t show.

BG: And that’s why the report system is flawed and streamers have been sneaking by with ‘chairs’. Does this only work with OBS?

HU2: Nah it works with a million other programs out there.

BG: This all sounds like a lot of work just to see through walls. How easy is it to actually use one of these ‘chairs’?

HU2: A 10 year old can use a chair lol. Everything is plug and play, aka run as admin and play CoD.

So the simple three minute video showing how to inject exploits into Roblox really was as simple as it seemed, so don’t be surprised if you’re getting beamed by the racial slur slinging 12 year old that claimed to have had intercourse with your birth giver in the lobby chat, chances are they’re locking onto you with the best aimbot mommy and daddy’s credit card could buy.

BG: And it’s as simple as flipping a switch?

HU2: Yup. You gotta remember, we don’t just have to battle the anti cheat, we also have to battle windows and their anti virus. Windows is always updating and changing the kernels and blah blah, then we got the CPUs making it harder in us too, like some chairs don’t work with AMD and some do.

BG: So users have to take into account their GPUs? But Windows and GPUs are being updated constantly, how are you keeping up with it so quickly?

HU2: Yes it’s a lot that goes into this man, you only touching the surface. Well the good thing about windows and the PC manufacturers is that they don’t release updates 4x a week, so once we bypass that bs, it doesn’t need to be updated until another few months usually. Like with Windows 11, we haven’t really explored too much, but it’s possible.

After all of that information I started ask HU2.0 about them, I mean we should get to know our friendly neighborhood chair creator/user, we began by talking about the times HU2.0 played against other hackers.

BG: How often do you run into hacker and what’s that like, going hacker to hacker?

HU2: Like every other game. It’s easy for me to tell a hacker than a avg user, it’s pretty fun for the most part, whoever has the better aimbot wins.

BG: There are anti-hero hackers who uses hacks to troll other hackers, is this something that you’ve faced before?

HU2: No, when we hack we usually have like a full squad of hackers, so (like) 4 vs 1, he’s going to have a hard time. A lot of people think that because we hack we can’t die or anything, I mean it still takes skill to play the game, can’t run into a building and just fire away because you got aim bot. We still play the game the way the average user plays, we’re just more aggressive because we know we going to win the gun fight.

BG: So it’s not just one person carrying, but an entire squad? Isn’t that a bit, dick-ish?

HU2: It depends. If we really want to be trolls yeah we roll 4 deep, I sometime run quads by myself and get 75 kills.

BG: What exactly do you get out of this?

HU2: It’s just fun at the end of the day, hearing people get so mad over a video game at the end of the day. The game was meant to have fun, and it’s (just) a game, you can play the game however you want. At the end of the day, if you want to play competitive that’s cool, if you’re a sweat that’s cool too; but if I paid $60 on a game, or if I bought DLC, best believe I’m going to play with it however I want.

BG: Even at the expense of your fellow gamer? What about being competitive for the sake of it, are hacks really that addictive?

HU2: For starters, I wound never bring cheats into a competitive environment. Unless you’re hosting a tournament, jumping into a game with a bunch of random skill level players isn’t competitive to me. That’s why people hate (Call of Duty) Cold War, because Cold War puts you in lobbies with people who share the same skill as you. In Warzone, you can have a 3.0 KD and get into a lobby where the avg KD is 0.2, does that make you a good player because you playing against trash players ? No, Cold War doesn’t do that; and I (can) see everyone classes when playing with hacks. It’s a lot of people who use trash guns and then wonder why they’re dying all the time.

BG: How long have you been creating ‘chairs’? You mentioned that you’ve been using them for a while now, but what got you into hacks/chairs?

HU2: I’ve always been into technology and building my own stuff. I was building PCs when I was in middle school for fun, so this stuff just comes natural to me. I started charing on MW2 and did it every since. I skipped a few games like Ghost and advance but just been doing it every since, I like knowing how things work and the only way to find out how things work is to take it apart and build it back together. So I look at creating chairs the same way, breaking down their code and patching it again but making it better.

That was quite the journey into the mind of an experienced hacker, HU2.0 was the most informative person I spoke to, while they kept some things vague they still provided me with a lot. One thing HU2.0 didn’t provide me were links to their operations, something I would have loved to have seen, but it made sense seeing how they obviously tried to keep me away from exposing too much.

So now I wanted more, I wanted to find the legit hacks and find somebody who would lead me to an actual program. I virtually met with another person who not only created hacks but gives them out to friends (they mentioned that they don’t actually sell their creations), I was sure that this person was going to be my ticket in, but I was wrong. The person I met with was far less chatty than ol’ HU2.0 and opted to only giving me very simple answers, I don’t think they trusted me enough, but I did get a few things that HU2 wouldn’t tell me.

When I asked about the difficulty of creating new chairs and the time it took for them, my contact told me

Its not easy. You need to know how to code and how to create cheats. Both public information. (It takes) a week or so, it varies.

They even told me that they use Visual Studios to code and test their hacks, whats more, they are a solo act. So from we’ve learned that hackers are using programs live Visual Studio to create and test their creations, it’s big business that can rack up some serious revenue, that hackers are using the actual game codes to modify said code and free to use programs like OBS are being used to help bypass anti-cheat software. It sounds like too much work just to troll legit players, but it’s so simple that children are using them in games like Roblox.

My contact didn’t tell if their friends were streamers, like HU2.0 mentioned, but I needed to find someone who wasn’t going to be as vague as my chair creators. I quickly got my wish, HU3, they used hacks and even promoted them. Finally, somebody who could possibly lead me to a community and I could discover how the legitimate hacks gets spread around.

BG: What exactly do you get out of using them in a multiplayer game? It makes sense in a single player game, but with MP you run the risk of getting banned.

HU3: Yes, you do run the risk of getting banned but with the right amount of money you can buy cheats and never get banned. I like the ability to win every game or if you don’t rage cheat you can show off being good at the game like most streamers do now a day, cheating. But using (a program to) OBS proof a cheat that’s undetected could cost you 100$ a month and its a private server so if you don’t get invited for free the invite its self could cost 200$

I asked HU3 about how long they used hacks and about their smurf accounts

HU3: I’ve been using hacks since august 2019 (cs-go) and December (2019) call of duty MW and Warzone and cold war soon as it came out i especially enjoy cheating in call of duty because its a popular game without an anti cheat. I’ve never been banned, (I play) Warzone only with hacks but Cold War and Zombies I play legit.

BG: How often do you run into hackers?

HU3: All the time its crazy right now on Warzone, its why I play less, I’m looking forward to next CoD or Battlefield.

BG: So even you are tired of the hackers issue?

HU3: Yes, I use to play games and legit cheat it was fine, then Covid came around and people got introduced into the cheating world. Of course companies love it but legit players and long time cheaters don’t like it, the more users the higher the chance of bans.

HU3 proceeded to tell me some of the hacks that not only did they use, but they knew were popular, for the sake of integrity I won’t say the names given to me; but I did research them to see what made them so trusted.

One of the names given to me was a chair that HU3 called their favorite, the site that hosted the hack even advertised they product with:

We believe that everyone should have the ability to win and enjoy online matches.

I’m sure many gamers wouldn’t see the product in such a caring light. The site showed the multiple games that their hack was ‘compatible’ with, the oldest game being CoD MW3 to even the still-in-early-access multiplayer shooter, Splitgate. For now I will just list what this one program is capable of in Warzon alone, the following list is lifted directly from the site:

It’s no wonder people are willing to pay for these programs, but what did this particular program run cheaters every month? Only $20 a month or $40 for a three months deal, but if potential users are unsure that they’ll want to keep using the program, there is a three day option that will run users only $5 just like HU2.0 told me.

Another program HU3 told me about was created for CSGO hackers, the software did more than just allowed players to see through walls, it also disabled visual altering affects like smoke, flash, fog, shadows, disable blood and even teammates. It wasn’t just the visuals that got attention, movement is also tampered with auto bunnyhop, strafe assistance, auto strafe, edge jump and in-air ducking. Instead of exhausting you with more long lists, I will just say that the software even has a ‘Rage’ option, this option allowed users to create fake lag. Yes, the program can even give the user control over the ‘limit’ of the lag.

One of the sites I went to was in German and another accepted payment in Bitcoin, but they all roughly had the same features and monthly price tag, business truly is booming in the world of online gaming hacks.

HU3 then sent me a screenshot showing what one of the hacks looked in-game for Warzone, they said it was a UAV tool, the hack allows the user to have a UAV activated for the entire match and it activates as soon as the user enters a lobby.

To end our conversation HU3 invited me to a Discord group they help run, yep an entire Discord channel dedicated to spreading hacks, the lobby was filled with different channels selling UAV tool and even lobby bots. As I joined I noticed the number of people joining in after me, this wasn’t just some rinky dink channel, this was a whole operation running with efficiency and people were continuously joining every few minutes.

Announcements on new and updated chairs were flying in like a news broadcast, contests were being held to give random members lifetime membership to certain hacks, channels for each tools worked as advertising boards and channels for users to show off the hacks they purchased and proclaim their pride. There were even channels set up to allow members to become sellers themselves, the idea is for the member to pay a set price and then they would be allowed to create ‘keys’ that could be sold to others, so now we know how these legit chairs are produced and sold off.

There is an entire ecosystem and marketplace for hacks, and these things are happening in plain sight, yet gamers and corporations will always struggle to keep up. For console players, honestly, the best way to avoid most hackers is to turn off cross-play if the game supports the feature. Unfortunately PC players are going to have a much harder time avoiding these hackers, not even Roblox is safe from exploits.

 

Editor note: The featured image used for this post comes from a thumbnail to a YouTube video by Daily Dose Of COD Warzone

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