Revenge sure is sweet. Called “CoD Dropper v.0.1”, at face value the program looks like any other cheat menu that illegitimate players have been using to get an unfair advantage and ruin the gaming experience for other, decent folk pretty much ever since Warzone launched. Droppers, essentially, are pieces of malware that on their own don’t do much direct damage, but are instead a delivery system of sorts for other, more harmful hacks. Droppers either have other malware loaded already, or create hidden backdoors into systems that hackers can later use. It was only a matter of time before some hackers would think of hacking the hackers. The way actual cheats work - as described in an official Activision security report - open the users up to these kinds of attacks. It’s common practice to disable anti-virus software, firewalls and other security measures when installing cheat menus or other game hacks, while also grating the new software administrator permissions. Essentially, cheaters need to lower every layer of security to cheat, making things much easier for hackers. Naturally, most cheaters are aware of this risk at least to some degree, and cheating communities tend to keep an eye out for malware. Even so, CoD Dropper v0.1 is bound to hit the mark at least a few times, and likely spread before it was discovered. While this won’t be enough to stop cheating - nothing is ever going to achieve that - it is definitely a satisfying bit of renegade justice. So much for honor among thieves. Just so players don’t need to rely on the hacking community shooting itself in the foot every now and then, Activision has been taking steps to secure Warzone and Black Ops Cold War too, with major ban waves that strike over 30,000 cheaters in one go, as well as continually updating the game’s anti-cheat software. Things are still, to be honest, pretty bad. We’re not quite at the cheat peak of last Fall, notable for several top content creators being unable to run a community event due to rampant cheating, but it’s still hard to get into a lobby with just clean players all around. Despite the immense popularity of the game - or perhaps because of it - the developers are still struggling to stay a step ahead of the cheaters. Hopefully soon the cheating situation in Warzone will take a more favorable turn for legitimate players. Meanwhile, may as many cheaters get slapped with malware as possible.
