Anti-cheat guide
This guide has been written to describe how you can fine-tune MTA's anti-cheat on your server.
You may want to fine-tune AC to prevent certain players have from having an unfair advantage or to ensure competitive integrity. The settings you provide depends entirely on the kind of server you run. Here are some examples on what can be achieved:
- Problem: Alice shoots Eve, and Alice can clearly see Eve being shot, but Eve is not getting hurt.
- Explanation: Eve has changed their player model to a model with a tiny hitbox.
- Solution: Disallow non-standard gta3.img
- Problem: Eve seems to be using wallhacks! She even seems to even be shooting through them!
- Explanation: Eve has replaced buildings so that they are either invisible (textures) or tiny (models).
- Solution: Disallow non-standard gta3.img
- Problem: Mallory seems to be solving complex maths questions instantly! It should take at least a second... for humans.
- Explanation: Mallory is injecting keyboard input via something like AutoHotkey
- Solution: Enable SD #31 to prevent users from injecting keyboard input. You can use SD #32 for injected mouse input (e.g. for scripts that require natural skill from mouse input)
- Problem: Mallory seems to be spamming my commands and GUI... and it lags my entire server!
- Explanation: You are running expensive user-initiated code without rate limiting players.
- Solution: You should write code that prevents players from spamming certain actions.
- Lazy Solution: Enable SD #31/#32 to make it more difficult for players to spam certain actions.
Server setup
Several settings in mtaserver.conf control AC behaviour for a server:
<disableac></disableac>
Comma separated list of disabled anti-cheats. This setting disables specific AC codes. If a detection is triggered and it's not disabled by the server, a player will get kicked and be shown the AC code corresponding to that detection.
DISCLAIMER: Please note that this will only void the AC # kick for using GTA singleplayer cheats and some very basic, outdated and patched MP cheats (such as s0beit). Hacks & cheats designed for MTA or other general hacking tools may trigger a Global ban. If you try to use a typical MTA cheat or hacktool under the belief using disableAC will save your day, and get banned for a while, it's your own fault, regardless of this setting being used to disable any of the AC classifications that it may fall under.
There is also a good chance that disabling certain detections won't enable your players to (even) use the majority of 'basic' GTA:SA trainers, but result in a kick only. Due to the current state of MTA anti-cheat, and its advanced heuristics, it's simply not feasible to try and create a freehaven for cheaters. You can experiment, but we don't recommend using disableac for these reasons.
Note: With trainer, cheats (for MTA or GTA) or forbidden cheat tools are meant. This is especially true for AC #4.
Please note that getting kicked for anything listed here isn't neccesarily (intended) hacking, someone can open hacktools that they plan to use for another game, while both that game and MTA are opened, and be kicked.
It's also possible that someone isn't aware of certain software containing hack/tamper features (making it prohibited) when they run it and get kicked.
Basically, (the intent of) cheating on MTA or your server can never be proven by triggering these detections alone.
Available codes are:
| Code for <disableac> | Displayed on detect | Required server version | Required <minclientversion> | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AC #1 | any | Classic health/armour hack detector | |
| 2 | AC #2 | any | Corrupted dll files | |
| 4 | AC #4 | any | Detects presence of trainer. Capital letters in the message are for tagging particular trainers | |
| 5 | AC #5 | any | Detects use of trainer. | |
| 6 | VF #6 | any | Detects use of trainer incl.: player movement, health/damage, weapons, money, gamespeed, game cheats, aimbot | |
| 7 | VF #7 | any | Detects use of trainer. | |
| 8 | VF #8 | any | Detects unauthorized mods | |
| 11 | AC #11 | any | More trainers | |
| VF #11 | any | Dll injector / Trainer | ||
| 13 | SD #13 | any | Data files issue | |
| 17 | VF #17 | any | Speed / wall hacks | |
| 21 | AC #21 | any | 1.3.1-9.05097 | More trainers |
| VF #21 | any | 1.3.1-9.05097 | Custom gta_sa.exe | |
| 26 | SD #26 | any | 1.3.4-9.05858 | Anti-cheat component blocked |
<enablesd></enablesd>
Comma separated list of enabled Special Detections (SD #). A special detection is a type of anti-cheat for (usually) harmless game modifications. Competitive servers or servers dealing with a certain problem structurally may wish to enable special detections, but most servers should leave this setting blank. Available codes are:
| Code for <enablesd> | Displayed on detect | Required server version | Required <minclientversion> | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | SD #12 | any | Disallow custom D3D9.DLL | ||
| 14 | SD #14 | 1.3.1-9.04605 | 1.3.1-9.04605 | Disallow virtual machines such as VMWare | |
| 15 | SD #15 | 1.3.1-9.04791 | 1.3.1-9.04791 | Disallow disabled driver signing | |
| 16 | SD #16 | 1.3.1-9.05097 | 1.3.1-9.05097 | Disallow disabled anti-cheat components. This is triggered when an anti-cheat component can not start. It is usually due to some problem with the PC and might be fixed by a reboot. Can also be triggered by a virus. | |
| 20 | SD #20 | 1.3.1-9.05097 | 1.3.1-9.05097 | Disallow non-standard gta3.img or gta_int.img (For servers not using onPlayerModInfo) | |
| 22 | SD #22 | 1.3.4-9.05884 | 1.3.4-9.05884 | Disallow resource download errors/corruption (Lua script files) | |
| 23 | SD #23 | 1.3.4-9.05884 | 1.5.2-9.07911 | Disallow resource download errors/corruption (Non-Lua files e.g. png,dff) | |
| 28 | SD #28 | 1.3.4-9.05884 | 1.3.4-9.05884 | Disallow Linux Wine | |
| 31 | SD #31 | 1.5.3 | 1.5.3-9.11204 | Ignore injected keyboard inputs (e.g. from AutoHotkey, macro's and on screen keyboard) | |
| 32 | SD #32 | 1.5.3 | 1.5.4-9.11528 | Ignore injected mouse button inputs and movement (this detection can prevent an ambigious type of aim hacks (bullet spread/recoil manipulation) | |
| 33 | SD #33 | 1.5.6 | 1.5.6 | Disallow software of the category 'Net limiter' (ideal for lagswitching or causing structural lag, but may also be used for benign purposes) | |
| 34 | SD #34 | 1.5.6 | 1.5.6 | Disallow internet café users (only use as last resort to combat mass ban evasion using café PC's) |
We are constantly working on keeping the definitions for above SD (special detections) up-to-date, so as to ensure all violating software or circumstances that you opt-in to disable gets detected once used. While we are pro-actively checking if new or unknown software/tools are still being detected under the same signature, it's possible that something slips through the cracks. Therefore, you can help us if you come across anything that should be detectable using SD # but is not currently; send a forum PM to Dutchman101 or ccw with your report.
<client_file name="data/carmods.dat" verify="0"/>
By default, clients may not join a server if they have customized GTA:SA data files. Adding one or more of the above lines excludes files from validation. The file names that can be used are:
- "data/carmods.dat"
- "data/animgrp.dat"
- "data/ar_stats.dat"
- "data/melee.dat"
- "data/clothes.dat"
- "data/object.dat"
- "data/default.dat"
- "data/surface.dat"
- "data/default.ide"
- "data/gta.dat"
- "data/surfinfo.dat"
- "data/peds.ide"
- "data/vehicles.ide"
- "data/pedstats.dat"
- "data/water.dat"
- "data/txdcut.ide"
- "data/water1.dat"
- "models/coll/weapons.col"
- "data/weapon.dat"
- "data/plants.dat"
- "anim/ped.ifp"
- "data/furnitur.dat"
- "data/procobj.dat"
- "data/maps"
Note 1: "data/maps" represents all the files and directories within "data/maps"
Note 2: "data/handling.cfg" is not included as it is always ignored by MTA because of the internal vehicle handling functions. See here if you want to load custom handling.cfg files
<hideac></hideac>
You can use this setting in mtaserver.conf to hide the AC info from the client, showing the following line upon join:
Server AC info: [Allowed client files: Undisclosed] [Disabled AC: Undisclosed] [Enabled SD: Undisclosed]
Values: 0 - disabled, 1 - enabled; default value: 0.
Client
When joining a server, the server AC info is displayed in the client console (F8)
Example:
Server AC Info: [Allowed client files: None] [Disabled AC: None] [Enabled SD: None]
Disabled AC contains the contents of the server setting from <disableac></disableac>
Enabled SD contains the contents of the server setting from <enablesd></enablesd>
Allowed client files contains numbers to indicate which client files the server allows to be modified. The numbers represent these files:
- 1 - "data/carmods.dat"
- 2 - "data/animgrp.dat"
- 4 - "data/ar_stats.dat"
- 5 - "data/melee.dat"
- 6 - "data/clothes.dat"
- 7 - "data/object.dat"
- 8 - "data/default.dat"
- 9 - "data/surface.dat"
- 10 - "data/default.ide"
- 12 - "data/gta.dat"
- 13 - "data/surfinfo.dat"
- 14 - "data/peds.ide"
- 15 - "data/vehicles.ide"
- 16 - "data/pedstats.dat"
- 17 - "data/water.dat"
- 18 - "data/txdcut.ide"
- 19 - "data/water1.dat"
- 20 - "models/coll/weapons.col"
- 21 - "data/weapon.dat"
- 22 - "data/plants.dat"
- 23 - "anim/ped.ifp"
- 24 - "data/furnitur.dat"
- 25 - "data/procobj.dat"
- 26 - "data/maps"
Note: If the info is marked "Undisclosed", it means that the server has decided not to disclose the AC info to the client.
Using modified files
If you want to use modified data files from your GTA:SA install directory, check this check box:
Settings -> Multiplayer -> Use customized GTA:SA files
(checkbox only appears if your GTA:SA data files are customized)
Note: This will restrict your access to some public servers as most do not allow customized data files.
AC Panel resource
An anti-cheat helper resource called acpanel is included with the default resources.
It shows the current anti-cheat status of your server, along with an option to keep your clients up to date and a basic implementation of onPlayerModInfo to block modified img files.