Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

I realized a lot of players (more than 1.000) got ban by CONSOLE in my servers. The reasons are related with SMAC/KAC
ConVar sv_consistency violation
ConVar sv_cheats violation
ConVar r_drawothermodels violation
etc...

When SMAC/KAC ban players that did those thinggs, is it really true? I mean, a friend got ban due ConVar r_drawothermodels violation and he didn't anything. He is noob doesn't know how to do those things. He got a L4D2 crash and when back to game shows the message that he was banned.

Do you guys use this? How do I disable it?

Re: Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

I found a cvar to set the time from the automatic bans what about to disable?

Re: Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

ConVar violations are without a doubt correct, your friend lied to you.

Re: Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

Yep ConVar violations are 100% positive. Tell your friends to play fair, or ban them, lol~

Re: Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

Than whats the point of running smac?

Re: Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

+1

Re: Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

I'm getting one particular player getting banned over and over again for the same reason:
SMAC 0.8.5.2: ConVar sv_consistency violation

I have searched through the alliedmodders website and google. Tried looking through smac_cvars.sp but for a non-programmer it's kind of overwhelming trying to understand it. Also have sv_pure set to 2 in server.cfg

Can someone explain what this ban is for in layman's terms? or what exactly sets it off. Thanks

Re: Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

A cheat.

https://forums.alliedmods.net/showth...89#post1561689

Re: Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

I was looking more for an explanation on how the cheat worked and any potential false positives. I’m not sure exactly how a client would go about trying to force their own cvars (intentionally or otherwise) but I’m trying to be fair as an admin, and I’ve seen this ban quite a bit on other server groups.

I’ve noticed lots of hearsay on forums saying there’s potential for false positives, or just differing opinions coming from server admins. Really I was hoping by posting here I’d get something more useful.

Re: Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

Cvars are used to store configuration by both the server and client. Replicated cvars (what the module checks) always have the same value on the client as the server. Cheats interrupt the replication process to set their own value for the cvar rather than the servers value. Why they do it and how they do it is specific to the cheat and the cvar in question. A replicated cvar’s value not matching the server always indicates a cheat is being used (and a badly written one at that), the game client itself has no functionality to bypass cvar replication.

Re: Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

Thank you asherkin

Re: Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

Ok - I was able to replicate a false-positive ban scenerio with this ConVar violation:
SMAC 0.8.5.2: ConVar sv_consistency violation

Basically I did the same thing I did here:
https://forums.alliedmods.net/showpo...2&postcount=25

Except replacing the cvar "mat_postprocess_enable 0" with "sv_consistency 0". Sure enough smac thought I was trying to enforce my own cvar (which I was because the vpk addon was enforcing it) and banned for it.

No hacks or advanced multi-hack tool. Just a badly configured addon VPK file. So anyone could download an addon from the Steam workshop that alters a cheat-protected cvar, like an admin menu, and unknowingly get banned for it. Which is what I'm sure happened to some of the players on my server who are known to be legit and professed it was a false positive (I didn't believe them until now).

Re: Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

That just proofs that SMAC is still working. sv_consistency shouldn't be in a vpk in the first place, no replicated cvars should be in vpks. If you inject sv_cheats 1 into a vpk, you can change all cheat convars from the dev console (or put into autoexec.cfg) on valve servers for example. If you don't want smac to ban, just change the action to kick and recompile the module?

Re: Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

I was making more of a "what if" scenerio.

Like, one potential scenerio, if a casual player was playing with the admin system and happened to change any of their cvars ( !cvar sv_consistency 0 ) in their local server, and unknowingly forgot to change them back before joining a smac protected server afterwards. Another scenerio is if perhaps they where to download a workshop addon that forced some of the cvars client-side without them knowing. etc.

I'm making these arguments cause I see that server groups ban permamently for this detection (and others) and server admins assume it must be a hack (cheat) client. Yes, ofc changing cvars is cheating - but in these cases it's not ban worthy and server admins might stumble upon posts like this and wrongfully assume someone was deliberately trying to use hacks.

Re: Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

And "what if" a stranger sent you an .exe file, would you blindly open it?

Simply don't install or run anything you don't know is from a trusted source, problem solved.

Re: Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

0.8.5.2 (which isn't even an official version and is simply 0.8.5.1 with some comments about licensing added) is very outdated and shouldn't be used. This specific false positive you're describing is not the only one 0.8.5.2 has. Even the latest development version (0.8.6.0 b244c49794c6) is quite outdated but as long as you don't use the smac_eyetest module (only incase of CS GO) should still work fine.

Re: Banned by CONSOLE SMAC/KAC
 

Hmm any links to the latest version? Or would you recommend using Kigen's Anti-Cheat in addition to using SMAC?


@ arne1288
I think you missed my point. I myself am about as paranoid about security as one can be - I NEVER download torrents or run untrusted programs, always keep my anti-virus and software / OS updated and even go as far as using a VPN when I play on servers where I don't trust the admins or browsing untrustworthy websites.

Steam workshop mods however are a completely different story. Nothing like an executable file. When you see a mod that looks cool you simply subscribe and don't think twice about the author or how the mod works. Apples and oranges.

I went as far as testing my addon mod on the steam workshop and getting banned from my server group temporarily, as a proof-of-concept that someone could innocently subscribe to an addon and get banned without knowing why.