Mere days after the announcement of Call of Duty RICOCHET Anti-Cheat, it appeared that the source code for the kernel-level drivers had leaked online. This caused a wave of concern that the new Call of Duty anti-cheat, which would make for a more fun and fair environment in Warzone, was going to be dead on arrival. However, it doesn’t seem like Call of Duty, Activision, or the team behind RICOCHET are too concerned about the leaks. Shortly after reports of the leaks went live, the Call of Duty Twitter issued an update from the RICOCHET team saying that it’s going out to third-parties for controlled live testing before its launch, and that everything is “all good.”
RICOCHET Anti-Cheat response has been wild this week. So yeah, all good
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) October 15, 2021
The full response from Call of Duty outlines three main points regarding RICOCHET Anti-Cheat and the leaks:
- RICOCHET Anti-Cheat is in controlled live testing. Before putting it on your PC, we’re testing the hell out of it
- Testing includes providing a pre-release version of the driver to select 3rd parties
- Readying server-side upgrades for launch
The primary piece of this is that RICOCHET is still undergoing rigorous testing, and that includes sending out pre-release versions of the driver—which is reportedly what “leaked”—out to select third-parties to help with that testing. The certificate for the leaked source code lists it as two weeks old. Sending out the early pre-release code also helps RICOCHET identify vulnerabilities and holes to continue evolving and updating the Anti-Cheat as promised, even before it gets to the general public. Even if it is cracked by bad actors, the launch version could have already patched out those vulnerabilities. Additionally, the kernel-level driver isn’t the full anti-cheat, which includes server-side anti-cheat measures which are being worked on ahead of launch.
Finally, Call of Duty wanted to put concerns at ease, telling players that things are “all good.” The official Twitter account posted a follow-up tweet that said, “RICOCHET Anti-Cheat response has been wild this week. So yeah, all good,” followed by an explosion emoji.
Inevitably, hackers and cheaters are going to try to bypass anti-cheat measures, particularly with a game as enormous as Warzone. It’s also in the interest of their own ill-gotten profits to not appear worried about anti-cheat, which would driver potential “customers” (read: cheaters) away. In this case, news of the leak seemed to be aimed at not not creating a panic among the people who pay for Call of Duty cheats, but the teams behind RICOCHET don’t seem too concerned that it’s anything to worry about.
Call of Duty RICOCHET Anti-Cheat launches with Vanguard on November 5th, with the kernel-level driver to launch with Warzone’s Pacific update later in the year. The driver will then come to Vanguard at a later date.
