On March 20th, 2026 MSI released a BIOS update for B650 Tomahawk Wi-Fi motherboard. One of the changes says “Implemented the anti-cheat mechanism.”

I looked around their forums and people seem to agree that it refers to Microsoft Pluton security processor.

Does anybody know what this change is actually about? Is it another initiative by Microsoft to further lock people out of their computers? Would it somehow hinder using Linux with this motherboard?

  • moonpiedumplings@programming.devEnglish
    48·
    9 hours ago

    https://www.riotgames.com/en/news/vanguard-security-update-motherboard

    I am so deeply annoyed that

    1. Vanguard demands this level of control over user systems

    2. Vanguard seems to be the only entity handling a threat vector most people simply ignore. I suspect not even crowdstrike and the like could handle malicious pci devices. Well, vanguard can’t either, it’s just a cat and mouse game. But they are definitely trying in an area where most seem to have given up, but it’s absurd that it’s a fucking game anticheat that’s doing this.

    • WereCat@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      8 hours ago

      Ah yes, people who don’t even know what motherboard they have will have to update their BIOS

      • moonpiedumplings@programming.devEnglish
        17·
        8 hours ago

        They do it though. People all of a sudden are motivated and able to enable bitlocker and secure boot and update their bios when they need it to play le funni video game.

    • Gladaed@feddit.orgEnglish
      3·
      6 hours ago

      When the arms race with cheaters has gotten there you should change strategies in fighting them.

      • moonpiedumplings@programming.devEnglish
        5·
        5 hours ago

        Sometimes I wonder if Vanguard is actually a government pet project for practice blocking and executing malicious pci devices.

        You take one of those pci dma cheat cards, put a modem in them, and you’ve broken secure boot. And nation states have done such a thing to compromise laptops or other devices after getting physical access to them for a bit.

    • unknownuserunknownlocation@kbin.earth
      3·
      7 hours ago

      So glad I stopped playing league of legends over a decade ago. (And it wasn’t even because of this, you could play it on a completely normal computer back then, I just ended up liking Dota more)

      • Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        5 hours ago

        Yeah the QoL on dota is insane and for league it’s non existent. Watch any replay, watch friends, sandbox for testing heroes. Idk to me league is unplayable for that.

  • Mwa@thelemmy.clubEnglish
    31·
    8 hours ago

    Has very intrusive kernel level/bios level anticheat
    still has cheaters.
    mfw

    • FauxLiving@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      4 hours ago

      In the video game ‘black market’, boosting/carry services and selling accounts is big business. You can hire minimum wage employees in whatever country has the cheapest labor costs, throw them in front of a PC with aimbot software and have them escort customers for US $30/hr.

    • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.caEnglish
      30·
      6 hours ago

      Why would a game owned by China want full control of a PC?

      Maybe cheating is the excuse because selfhosting and server mods just banning cheaters would work if they actually cared about cheating.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        6·
        4 hours ago

        Why would anyone want root kernel access to a PC?

        Oh, uh, to be able to read anything on the entire PC, also be able to interdict and then modify literally any ongoing process or command.

        … Palantir is very very hungry for data, after all.

        And you can make money, if you sell it to them.