DMA

DMA (Direct Memory Access)

Hardware-level memory access where a PCIe device issues Memory Read/Write TLPs against host RAM via Bus Master, without executing attacker code in the gaming OS. In game security this usually means an FPGA card (often M.2) linked to a separate cheat PC.

Why it matters

Software anti-cheat sees a “normal” PCIe endpoint. Classic process/handle/injection signals may be absent. Defense shifts to PCIe fingerprinting, IOMMU policy, hypervisor containment, and TPM/measured-boot attestation.

Typical stack

Cheat app → LeechCore/pcileech/MemProcFS → FPGA firmware → Memory Read TLPs → walk CR3/page tables → game state; optional HID actuator for input.

Related

IOMMU · HVCI · DMA Attack · Anti-Cheat