Call of Duty Warzone’s ‘kernel level’ anti-cheat driver rolls out to PC players

The next step in the Call of Duty series’ anti-cheat plans is rolling out this week to PC players.

The series’ anti-cheat department Team Ricochet is adding a ‘kernel level driver’ which will be implemented in the PC version of Warzone first, before also being carried over to the PC version of Vanguard.

The kernel level driver, which was previously announced in October as part of the general anti-cheat tech plans for Call of Duty going forwards, gives the game access to the rest of their PC.

According to Activision‘s FAQ, this allows the game to detect any anti-cheat software that may be running in the background.

The FAQ states that cheating software has become more sophisticated and is now able to manipulate the game’s code without actually running in the game itself. This can make it impossible to detect with in-game anti-cheat methods.

The kernel-level driver allows the game to monitor any other applications that may be running at the same time as the game, which lets the game’s anti-cheat team figure out whether a player was using an unauthorised process to manipulate the game.

Although the kernel-level driver will be required to play Warzone when it rolls out, Activision claims that the driver will only run while players are playing the game, and will shut down as soon as they exit.

Further reading

CoD updates its anti-cheat policy: players can now be banned from the entire franchise

"We're working hard to make things as frustrating as possible for cheaters"

The driver is rolling out this week to players in the Asia-Pacific region, before expanding worldwide, and won’t be available on the console versions of the game.

Activision updated the security policy for its Call of Duty games last month, stating that players found cheating in Call of Duty games may now find themselves banned from the entire franchise, including all previous games and titles yet to be released.

The updated text now reads: “Permanent suspensions are lasting and final, and can apply across this title and past, present, or future titles in the Call of Duty franchise.”