Bukkit

Note: Currently being tested. Please use it at your own risk. Not recommended to be used till this message is here. If you like the idea, please leave a comment though.

TL;DR for Server Admins:

Description for Server Admins

FairCraft is a powerful client side anti-cheat/grief plugin for Bukkit. It comes in two parts: server-side and client-side.

Server-side consists of a Bukkit plugin. When a player joins your server he/she is redirected to download the client-side installer (which is available for Windows/Linux/Mac and installs in seconds even for a person with no technical skills). Once this is done the player can join your server without being redirected. He/she can play normally without interruptions. The client-side software that the player installs is an extremely powerful memory scanner that uses state of the art cryptographic methods to securely communicate with the server. If it catches the user cheating it does not allow the user to log on to your server while he is cheating and gives you the ability to ban the player if you wish to.

It simply blocks any client modifications. It scans all running instances of Minecraft, and bit by bit scans for modifications. The software itself is immune to any modifications. The only exception here is Forge, which the user can use to install Optifine/Shaders. Any other external mod is simply blocked off.

Your server is bound to be absolutely clean of any client mods. Just follow the following guidelines or FairCraft might not work properly:

• If you are using a secondary authentication plugin, please allow the FairCraft.faircraft permission before login for the plugin.
• Please disable your spam filter for the FairCraft.faircraft permission. FairCraft is internally protected for spam.

Description for Players

All you need to do is install the FairCraft client software on your computer. And be happy that you won't see hackers on any FairCraft protected servers.

FairCraft comes in two flavors: Forge Mod or Standard Installer

You will be allowed to join any server given you are not cheating. Be happy, you will not see any hackers on servers protected by FairCraft. Just follow the following basic rules while playing on a FairCraft server: (not doing so may get you kicked from FairCraft protected servers)

• Do not run two instances of Java programs at the same time. Close the launcher after Minecraft has started. Make sure there are no other Java applications running while playing on a FairCraft protected server.
• Please don't change any default jar or config names. Don't rename any Minecraft files. Don't rename Forge jars/folders/profiles. The server will kick you if you do so.

Features

• Scans in game memory akin to popular proprietary anti-cheat software in FPS games.
• Meets NIST cryptographic standards for communication and authentication
• Software is shielded against reverse engineering.
• Instead of scanning for cheats it scans for changes to the actual game.
• Allows you to make your own cheating policy.
• Ensures performance.
• Randomly keeps checking memory to prevent sandbox attacks.

Why?

You ask, we tell. Because we hate hackers. We want Minecraft to be a fair game for fun, not a battlefield against cheaters. I admit, I used to hack hard. Every game, I hacked. Then while playing a game I got a message from PunkBuster - "You have been banned" and I asked how did they know? I simply couldn't cheat on this game. I coded my own hacks, built around a lot of protection but with no luck. This gave me a motivation to do something like this for Minecraft. Thieves are better cops, no?

How is this different from Anti-Cheat or No-Cheat Plus?

While NCP and other anti-cheat plugins are amazing, they are not perfect and never will be. This is because they are trying to scan server-side. It is like a teacher reading exam answer sheets and trying to see if the student cheated. FairCraft is like the invigilator, it keeps an eye client-side. i.e. on the computer of the player.

Disclaimer: FairCraft is currently beta. Future versions of FairCraft are on their way. These versions allow admins to fully customize the behavior of the plugin. The current version is not customizable. While utmost importance and a lot of work has gone into making an extremely secure system, the system is not completely fool-proof. The chances of this happening however is extremely slim. If it does happen, the system will take no time to update, to patch the bug. Also, the code is not open-sourced and is obfuscated for security reasons. However, if you would like to contribute to the development, you can always contact me. Also, please continue to use any server-side anti-cheat plugin.