Redditor builds an anti-wallhack plugin for CS2

Counter-Strike players are fully accustomed to the game's rampant cheating problem and have flocked towards third party matchmaking services like FACEIT, when looking for an actual competitive experience. The community slowly stopped believing that Valve would roll out a reliable anti-cheat to improve player experience but this one redditor took things into his own hands.

A user going by the alias u/karola3vax on Reddit, posted a thread in the r/cs2 sub-reddit which instantly blew up. Titled "I built an anti-wallhack for CS2", karola3vax shared his recent plugin called "CS2 Fog of War" or CS2FOW which quite literally just does not send unnecessary information to the client. For instance, when a player is completely hidden behind map geometry, a player using wallhacks would not be able to see them as the server just doesn't send that information to the client.

If an enemy is fully hidden behind solid map geometry, the server stops sending that enemy data to the player. No enemy data means nothing for the wallhack to draw.
karola3vax, Reddit

Currently, CS2 sends information about all the players on a map regardless of visibility. Cheaters abuse this system to expose hidden enemies. karola3vax also claims that the current system where the client processes players it cannot see might also take a toll on performance.

The plugin is available at the following GitHub repository:

karola3vax/CS2FOW

While CS2FOW restricts information, it does not make cheating impossible. Cheats like wallhacks and radar hacks become much more unreliable while aimbots and other stuff will still continue to ruin games for legit players. karola3vax has an expansive Q/A on his GitHub repository addressing key points around how the plugin works, what cheats can be restricted and up to what extent.

The community ridiculed Valve after karola3vax revealed the plugin, with some even alleging that Valve turns a blind-eye to the cheating problem to keep player numbers from falling.