I will be adding information about the well known Anti-Cheat VAC within this section, and keep it regularly updated if I can for you.

All about VAC!

VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) is an anti-cheat solution created by the Valve Corporation and a component of the Steam Platform.

VAC was released in [b]2002[/b], following on from [b]Punk Buster[/b] as a new solution to help prevent cheating.

VAC1 ran quite successfully for a period of time until March 2004, when updates were limited due to the progression of their latest update in the VAC series.

VAC2 was released in June 2005, and since we have seen a decrease in the amount of public cheaters, and numbers are rising everyday.

Disadvantages of VAC:

1: Experienced cheat coders can use relevant coding methods to deter VAC from detecting their products such as Polymorphism, PEB, ASM.

2: There are a few detection methods running within VAC, but mainly cheats are added to a database and then flagged up for a delayed reaction, so cheats that are not publically produced are harder to be detected.

3: Their detection methods detect infractions individually and not over a packet of running sectors, which is beneficial in the way they detect a single infraction, but a dis-advantage when there is more than one instance active.

Advantages of VAC :

1: Since the release of VAC2 there have been enormous amounts of detections, making the game still one of the safest around for secure players, also in 2006, there was a reported 10,000 bans within a very short space of time due to new methods being used.

VAC Updates:

The last VAC update was recorded to be on the 17th January 2007, information shown below about the update;

Checksum: 2208041f489c34ae2eb33fcf5b8043cf

CRC32: [c73c90ad]

The above Checksum and CRC32 change basically means that they have updated their database and all infractions that do not bypass this change will be included into the next set of flagged detections, during this point there is thought to be some immediate bans but more information is not known at this time.

Cheats to look out for :

There are a number of cheats available at the minute that are classed as being VAC proof, I have commented these below for your reference;

CS 1.6

b0ns4i v4.0.1
b0ns4i v4.0
AbsoHack v8.713
OGZ Remake v1.6
AbsoHack v8.712
OGC Xtreme Codename v6 (1858)
OGX Reborn v1.4.1
Project VDC - Catalyst v1.24
OGZ v1.6
Viral Hack v4

CS: Source

HL2 Hook v12.1.2
HLH P7 v1.3
Tea Hack v1.1
coconuT v2.4.1
FkN Catalyst Tactics Recode v1.1

Cheat Features (Terms & Descriptions) :


The most common feature of a cheat would be Wallhack, which would enable to player to see other players through walls, then Speedhack which would give the player an increased speed, Aimbots which assist the player at aiming more accurately at enemy targets, ESP which displays information about other players such as Name; Weapon; Health; Distance; Reload, AntiFlash/Smoke which removes the effect, Bunnyhop which allows the player to continuously hop while holding a particular key, 3rd Person which would allow the view of the cheater to be at a raised angle to gain an advantage fromreal-time view.

I hope you find this information usefull, I will update this accordingly as new information is brought to light.

Thankyou!

x3

VAC Status - By Ike - 03/22/06

Cheaters are at it again. In the past couple months, we have seen an influx in cheating. At this point, cheating is at a comparible level to that of the pre-VAC2 days. The cause of this is not, as some think, the failure of VAC to detect, but rather the belief of cheaters that their so-called "Undetected" hacks are truely undetected. VALVe has succeeded in creating uncertainty in the cheat community, but it is the wrong kind if you ask me. The delayed ban system while initially gave cheaters a fright, is now encouraging them by allowing them to cheat problem free for a month or more at a time. The bans are eventually handed down, but this leave the legit community with the same burden it faced BEFORE VAC2. The problem is ESPECIALLY bad in CS 1.6, where a new copy of the game costs only 10USD; a small price to pay for a month of play. All in all, VAC is SUCCESSFULLY banning cheaters and the like, but i would rate its performance as POOR in the deterrent category. That said, i understand that it is a work in progress, and look forward to what VALVe can do.

VAC Status - By Ike - 10/20/05

Site with information on number of VAC bans: Vac Bans∞

VAC Status - By Ike - 7/14/05

We are entering a new day in the Half-Life anti-cheat world. The VAC of the past is now long gone, and the cheaters have grown in number and indeed spread like wildfire. However, with the introduction of Valve Anti-Cheat 2, the Half-Life Gaming Community has seen a substantial decrease in cheaters, and expects to see a continued decline. VAC2 has only just been made the default setting for dedicated servers, and is said to include protection for "All Valve games". It remains unclear how effective it will be at ridding the game of cheaters, but current confidence within the Anti-Cheat Community seem high. With the VAC2 related updates of late the majority of public hacks have become obsolete, often leading to game crashes and permanent bans. While many who have already been banned fill the steampowered forums, we continue to wait for the inevitable flood of cheaters proclaiming their innocence to hit the scene following their shiney new VAC bans.

VAC Status - 9/11/02

Even though Valve has been releasing updates for VAC as of late, there still remains to be a substantial quantity of hacks that remain undected. There are four relatively new wallhack/aimbot combinations that work on secure servers. Furthermore, the ogc site states that one of their older hacks (a month at least) is still not detected by VAC. While i was conducting my own research, I also discovered a wallhack with a few options (no aimbot) that is quite old and NOT detected by VAC. Since this hack's original release valve has fired up a few updates and it is yet to be dected. HL Guard has a wallhack block, and it is quite effective. While Valve updates their anti-cheat, I suggest you put HLguard on your server. Though it may not detect the cheats, it will stop them to a certain extent.

All in all, the average cheater does most likely not have a working VAC proof hack, but a minority of them (especially the ones in clans) might.