Gameguard legality

[Hurricanetracker]

There's a very intense discussion going on with regard to Nprotect/Gameguard being used by the new - very big - MMO by NCsoft called Aion.

Folks are debating not only how harmful it is but are also questioning the legality of bundling it with the MMO-client . As is known ,gameguard is a rootkit to prevent hacking and botting in MMO's .More info can be found here on its general description and the problems known - too date - with it with regard to other applications .

As can be seen two of the applications which seems "incompatible " are Kaspersky 2010 and Outpost Firewall Pro

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NProtect_GameGuard

What I'd like to know is just how much resources it gobbles up when you start any game and which processes it affects . Do any of you know of a good program to analyze this ( preferably it needs to start+forget and write a log ) .

The main reason folks are concerned is that it apparently so buggy they need to disable their AV software and/or firewalls to even startup Aion ( which is still in open beta I should add, not released yet in western hemisphere) and UAC under Vista and Win 7 .

[StevieO]

Nprotect/Gameguard is a Rootkit, so you would need to use an ARK = AntiRootkit to properly try to analyise it.

Here's a few i can recommend to be going on with -

GMER

Rku

IceSword

Rootrepeal

Radix

KX-Ray

Plus you " might " be able to view " some " processes with ProcessExplorer/ProcessMonitor/Autoruns

-

Some info in here you might find useful -

High possibility of nProtect Gameguard being a rootkit - http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=136414

[Hurricanetracker]

thanks . I'm assuming the problems folks are experiencing with all kinds of peripherals ( mice,keyboards , but also with windows processes like rundll32.exe ) stems from the fact Gameguard temporarily "hijacks " windows system files .

[xMarkx]

Hello,

I have GameGuard installed on my PC because I used to play MapleStory. I'm not really sure how GameGuard works but I believe it infects itself into every running process. You can't tell how much memory it uses really because from what I remember it hides its own process and even the game's own processes.

How do you remove it? There's a tool called npkgameuninst (nProtect KeyCrypt Uninstaller) in the MapleStory folder. Is this the uninstaller for GameGuard? Will it completely remove it (including its 1 running process npkcmsvc.exe)? I want to get it off my PC.

Regards,

Mark.

[StevieO]

xMarkx

If you don't use MapleStory anymore, have you tried uninstalling it ?

[xMarkx]

{QUOTE-> xMarkx

If you don't use MapleStory anymore, have you tried uninstalling it ? <-QUOTE}
Hello,

No, but the uninstaller for MapleStory may just uninstall MapleStory. I think npkgameuninst is for uninstalling GameGuard but I'm not sure.

Regards,

Mark.