Call of Duty RICOCHET Call Stack Unwinding: How Activision Flags Obfuscated Cheats

The Subtlety of Modern In-Memory Cheat Injection

In Call of Duty: Warzone, cheat developers frequently use advanced injection methods like Manual Mapping and Thread Hijacking. Instead of loading a standard DLL from the hard drive, malicious code is unpacked into unallocated RAM pages to evade conventional file scanners.

How RICOCHET Unwinds the CPU Call Stack

Activision RICOCHET Anti-Cheat counters in-memory exploits through continuous Kernel Call Stack Walking:

• Instruction Pointer (RIP) Validation: Whenever a game function executes (e.g., raycasting bullet trajectories), RICOCHET inspects the Return Address at the top of the stack frame.
• Module Backing Verification: The anti-cheat checks whether the calling memory address originates from a signed, legitimate module (such as ntdll.dll or cod.exe) or from unbacked, dynamically allocated memory (MEM_PRIVATE / PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE).
• Hardware Breakpoint Trap: If an unbacked return address is identified, RICOCHET logs the cheat memory pattern to Activision cloud telemetry servers.

The Bridge from Detection to In-Game Mitigations

Once call stack anomalies are verified, RICOCHET activates in-game mitigations (Damage Shield or Hallucinations) to gather statistical telemetry before issuing a permanent hardware ban. Learn more in our article on how CoD nerfs cheaters via live telemetry.

Verify your connection latency and check your outward IP on our free online IP scanner.