A new independent audit of FACEIT’s anti-cheat system has concluded that it is currently one of the most difficult anti-cheat solutions to bypass in Counter-Strike 2. According to cybersecurity company Intorqa, no credible DMA bypasses are currently available despite cheat providers charging up to $1,500 per month for products claiming to evade detection.
Independent audit analyzed the FACEIT cheating ecosystem
The report, titled “Face Off – Auditing FACEIT’s Anti-Cheat for CS2,” summarizes several months of research into the modern FACEIT cheating landscape. Rather than focusing solely on technical exploits, Intorqa monitored public and private cheat communities, tracked vendor activity, tested available products, and analyzed how long bypass methods remained effective.
Researchers identified 88 cheat vendors by March 2026, with firmware and DMA-based solutions accounting for the largest share of the market. Other categories included AI cheats, VMD firmware, spoofers, SMM exploits, and lag-switch solutions.
Despite the large number of products being advertised, Intorqa says the overwhelming majority quickly became ineffective after detection updates or ban waves.
Across the audit period, we observed a consistent pattern: a new bypass technique emerges, gains traction for a few weeks, and is then either detected or hit by a ban wave.
No reliable DMA bypasses despite expensive subscriptions
One of the report’s main conclusions concerns DMA cheats, which have long been viewed as the most effective method for bypassing modern anti-cheat systems.
According to Intorqa, FACEIT’s gradual rollout of stricter IOMMU (Input-Output Memory Management Unit) requirements significantly reduced the effectiveness of traditional DMA hardware. Attempts by cheat developers to move toward VMD firmware, SSD/NVMe emulation, and custom motherboard solutions ultimately failed to establish a consistent bypass.
The audit concludes:
- No credible DMA bypass is currently confirmed.
- Many vendors continue marketing expensive products despite poor reliability.
- Some subscriptions cost between $250 and $1,500 per month while still being vulnerable to detection.
The researchers described the current state of DMA bypasses as unreliable and increasingly difficult to maintain.
AI cheats becoming the next major challenge
Although DMA appears to be losing effectiveness, the report highlights AI-powered “2PC” aimbots as the most credible emerging threat.
Unlike traditional cheats that directly access game memory, these systems analyze HDMI video output on a second computer and generate mouse movements through external USB devices. Because they never interact directly with the game’s memory, they present a different detection challenge.
However, Intorqa notes that FACEIT has already begun deploying machine-learning behavioral detection capable of identifying suspicious aiming patterns, reaction times, and movement trajectories—technology that closely matches FACEIT’s recently announced Human Input Detection system scheduled to launch with Season 9.
Community divided over the findings
The report quickly sparked debate across the Counter-Strike community after content creator Ozzny shared its conclusions on X. Some players agreed with the assessment, pointing to their own experiences on the platform:
There are problems with FACEIT but I have never seen a cheater there. Lots of smurfs and toxic 3rd wonders but not cheaters.
Others remained skeptical and questioned the report’s objectivity:
- “Paid propaganda…”
- “Funny joke.”
Several users argued that FACEIT’s stricter security comes at the cost of compatibility issues:
I still haven’t figured out what’s wrong with my completely clean PC. Driver error…
Meanwhile, another player suggested Valve should adopt similar protections:
@CounterStrike is it a problem to update SteamOS in the Steam machines so it will support intrusive AC as well? You guys should be working together with Faceit, Google, Intorqa and more.
Arms race continues
While Intorqa concludes that FACEIT currently holds the advantage, the researchers stress that the battle against cheating is far from over. According to the report, cheat developers continuously experiment with new techniques, but the lifespan of successful bypasses has become increasingly short. For now, the audit concludes that cheating on FACEIT has become more expensive, less reliable, and significantly harder to sustain, even as AI-assisted cheats emerge as the next front in the ongoing anti-cheat arms race.
