Wallhack

## Definition

A **wallhack** (or wallhacks) is the most common type of vision assistance hack, and is designed to allow the user to see other players or objects, regardless of anything blocking their view.

## Details

Depending on the quality of the wallhack, it will exhibit at least one or more of these qualities on the user’s own screen:

* shows the other player’s location
* shows the location of another player’s bone position(s)
* shows the other player’s bounding-box
* shows an outline of the other player’s player model
* shows a skeleton of the other player’s player model
* shows the other player’s player model entirely

*TODO: Explain how the wallhack is able to obtain player information, and how a wallhack is able to be shown on screen.*

## Evaluating

To determine if a player is using a wallhack can be extremely difficult. It is important to remain objective when judging if a player is using a wallhack, because many actions a skilled player may perform could be similar to those a player with a wallhack would perform.

A personal suggestion for evaluating a player for having a wallhack is to leave X-Ray Mode off the first time a demo is watched. This helps to keep first impressions leaning towards the more reasonable assumption that the player is *not* using a wallhack, and also helps to emphasize events in the demo that don’t seem to make sense given the information that the suspect would have known.

### Culling Non WallHacking Activities

Speaking of which, there is much information that can be attained at any given moment in time, and any one piece of information could explain a legitimate player’s unusual behaviour that may seem to suggest that they’re using a wallhack (like prefiring, shooting through smoke, shooting while flashbanged, wallbanging, etc...). As mentioned in the section on Evaluating a Demo regarding "Smoking-Gun" Evidence,

> *"...it’s important to assume a player is completely innocent until they provide “smoking-gun” evidence of their crime..."*
>
>

and as such we must always ask the question

> *“Could this be done without hacks?”*
>
>

Here are some possible explanations:

#### Callouts

> Could any player on their team - dead or alive - have told their teammates about an enemy's positions and/or activities?
>
>

#### Radar

> Could the enemies, teammates, deaths, and objectives shown on the radar have suggested what an enemy was up to and hinted at an enemy's location?
>
>

#### Sound

> Could any player on their team have heard an enemy or an enemy's activities (firing a weapon, throwing a grenade, etc…) which could be used to determine their approximate position?
>
>

#### Bodies

> Were there any recently deceased bodies that could have suggested where an attack came from?
>
>

#### Shadows

> Could any player on their team have seen a shadow cast by an enemy?
>
>

#### Hotspots

> Given the elapsed time of the current round (or the events that occurred prior), is it probable that an enemy would be at a given location on the map?
>
>

Grenade Paths

> Could any player see the path of a recently thrown grenade, and could they have traced its path back to the enemy who threw it?
>
>

#### Bullet Paths

> Could any player on their team have seen or heard evidence of bullets passing nearby or passing through walls (particle effects, bullet hole decals, smoke trails, gun flashes, etc…), indicating the path of the bullet, which could be used to determine the enemy’s approximate position?
>
>

It is only after we run out of possible explanations that we can safely assume a player is using a wallhack.

## Documented Examples of Wallhacks

### Third Person Recordings

* TODO: Find third person recordings of wallhacks.

### Demo Recordings

* Example of a player attempting to wallbang while using a wallhack, from the suspect's perspective.

### Client Recordings

* Example of a cheat-style wallhack that shows player-models, recorded from the suspect's computer.
* Example of a wallhack combined with ESP hacks and an aimbot, recorded from the suspect's computer.