Hacking
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Hacking is the use of third party programs to alter a game or gain an unfair advantage. Valve has a strict policy against hacking and will ban detected hackers with the Valve Anti-Cheat system. Most hacks are either engine hooks, which piggyback the client and report false information to the server, interceptions of game information, which record or report data that should be hidden from the player, or engine exploits, which alter the game to the player's advantage.
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Common Hacks
Aimbots
These hacks aim and fire for the player; They range from crude programs which fire at colored player models on the screen to extremely sophisticated engine hooks that detect the enemies' hitboxes by reading them from memory. The most effective aimbots won't even move the mouse or fire at every opportunity. The player activates it for the next shot and aims near the enemy, and the aimbot assists him with a final tweak as he fires.
Some aimbots are even capable of aiming ahead, firing slow projectiles where enemies are most likely to be.
Wallhacks
These hacks allow the user to see players through walls and other obstacles. They range from engine hooks which detect player positions to altered video drivers and game files which render clear or translucent textures. The most effective wallhacks help the player "preaim" or even "prefire," preparing to shoot a foe as he comes into view.
ESP
These hacks reveal information that would normally be hidden from the player. They range from updates about enemy health and position to detailed summaries of equipment, ammunition, and status. In Team Fortress 2, ESP is especially effective because it can reveal Medic Health and ÜberCharge levels. Most of these hacks function by hooking the client and reading game data from memory.
Speed Hacks
These hacks increase the user's speed. The hacker moves faster, reloads faster, fires faster, and so forth. Speedhacks work by altering the client's system clock. For every second that passes on the server, the client believes it has operated for several seconds. Whenever the server syncs up with the client, all the client commands are executed. While most of the time this produces obvious results, some sophisticated speed hacks modify the system clock only a fraction. The client then moves subtly faster, giving the player an edge that may be hard to detect.
Spinbots
These hacks alter the client's behavior on the server without disturbing the client's gameplay experience. Generally, the player appears to spin and crouch rapidly on the server, making his hitbox hard to gauge. On the hacker's client, the spinning and crouching are entirely invisible. These hacks either hook the engine and alter memory or perform a man-in-the-middle attack on outgoing packets.
Tapping Hacks
These hacks alter network traffic to create latency. Sophisticated programs allow packets from the server to the client but delay or lose packets from the client to the server, allowing the hacker to experience fairly low latency gameplay while the server reports that the player is extremely laggy. These hacks are almost identical to actual network issues that clients often experience.
Removals
These hacks remove or alter gameplay elements to make the game easier to play. A minor example would be a hack that removes the screen effects for bleeding and Jarate. A major hack would remove weapon spread. These generally rely on hooking the client and removing the feature or placing a man-in-the-middle program that alters incoming and outgoing packets.
Critical Hacks
Unique to Team Fortress 2, these hacks hook the engine and attempt to determine if firing a shot will produce a Critical hit. Once the determination is made, the hack fires, thus ensuring that every shot is a critical shot.
