Riot Games has released a new update for the Vanguard anti-cheat in VALORANT aimed at stopping advanced hardware-based cheats that rely on Direct Memory Access (DMA).
According to a post by Pirat Nation on X, Vanguard now reportedly corrupts the firmware of detected DMA devices after identifying them. While the hardware can supposedly be repaired, the author claims that disabling or damaging hardware without the user’s consent or knowledge could be considered illegal.
The update specifically targets certain SATA and NVMe firmware configurations commonly used in expensive DMA cheating devices. These cheats rely on external hardware to read game memory directly, allowing them to bypass many traditional kernel-level anti-cheat protections. As a result, they have become increasingly popular in competitive games.
Some users also claim that Vanguard now triggers IOMMU-related warnings, which may temporarily block affected hardware from functioning until the system settings or firmware are updated.
To address firmware vulnerabilities related to DMA access, Riot Games is reportedly cooperating with motherboard manufacturers including ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, and ASRock.
Earlier, Grand Theft Auto VI was officially confirmed for release in November 2026.
