English

Addressing Network Packet-based Cheats in Multiplayer Games: A Secret Sharing Approach

Cryptography and Security 2025-01-22 v1

Abstract

Multiplayer online gaming has witnessed an explosion in popularity over the past two decades. However, security issues continue to give rise to in-game cheating, deterring honest gameplay, detracting from user experience, and ultimately bringing financial harm to game developers. In this paper, we present a new approach for detecting network packet-based cheats, such as forgery and timing cheats, within the context of multiplayer games using an application of secret sharing. Our developed protocols are subjected to formal verification using AVISPA, and we present simulation results using a Python-based implementation. We show that our proposal is practical in addressing some widely used attacks in online gaming.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2501.10881,
  title  = {Addressing Network Packet-based Cheats in Multiplayer Games: A Secret Sharing Approach},
  author = {Yaqi Cai and Konstantinos Markantonakis and Carlton Shepherd},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.10881},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T21:10:23.259Z