An emulator is software that simulates an Android mobile operating system on a PC. It not only saves storage space on your phone and prevents overheating from prolonged gaming sessions but also allows you to control games using a keyboard and mouse. In certain gaming scenarios, this enhances the player's overall experience.
Initially, emulators were designed to enhance player convenience, but certain features have been exploited by the gaming black and gray markets. This article analyzes case studies of how these illicit industries use emulators for cheating and proposes solutions.
Root Access
Root access represents the highest level of privileges in the Android system, enabling memory access and modification capabilities. Some emulators only require locating a button within their settings to activate root access, thereby providing an environment for running game cheats.
JikGuard also discovered that certain cheats exploit emulators' ability to toggle root privileges in real time without requiring a reboot. This allows them to gain root access while remaining undetected by the game's anti-root mechanisms.
Auto Click
The auto click feature of emulators has also been exploited by Game Black/Gray Industry studios. Emulators can record the current device's click operations to create scripts, setting parameters such as execution frequency and intervals. Combined with multi-instance functionality, a single machine can run scripts 24/7 to acquire game resources, making this technique widely adopted by studios across various scenarios.
Asymmetric Advantage
When playing action or shooter games, players must juggle movements, attacks, crouching, and camera adjustments. With buttons crammed onto the narrow mobile screen, complex controls can be frustrating for some players. This is where using a keyboard and mouse on an emulator becomes exceptionally convenient.
However, for games featuring PvP scenarios, using keyboard and mouse controls on emulators reduces operational difficulty, creating inherent asymmetry that severely dampens mobile players' enthusiasm during matches. Emulator usage should be regulated based on specific game contexts.
Although emulators pose certain security risks in gaming, we cannot simply disable them outright. To address these issues, JikGuard has developed tailored solutions for different game genres and scenarios. These solutions have been integrated into multiple popular games and have demonstrated outstanding protection capabilities.
Security Risk Environment Detection
Unlike other products on the market, JikGuard employs deeper-level detection methods to precisely identify game runtime environments. It can recognize various risk environments such as ROOT, emulators, cloud phones, virtual machines, virtual frameworks, and jailbroken devices, while providing customized crash prevention strategies.
Anti-Cheat Functionality
To address the threat of memory-modifying cheats in games, JikGuard has dedicated itself to developing a “Behavior Detection Solution.” This solution requires no signature-based detection. Through an intelligent monitoring system, it can accurately identify memory-modifying cheats and their variants, providing effective protection.
Studio Detection
JikGuard's proprietary solution intelligently analyzes and mines featureless private scripts to identify and flag studio accounts. It automatically interfaces with game operators for account suspension, delivering highly efficient protection.
