It seems like CS2 can’t catch a break from bugs and exploits, as players have now discovered a way to enable wallhacks through the NVIDIA drivers. The exploit involves fidgeting with the GeForce experience filters, allowing one to see players through active smokes.

CS2 has been experiencing issues related to certain driver features since release. AMD’s Anti-Lag+ technology had to be completely scrapped from Adrenaline Drivers due to CS2 players getting unwarranted VAC bans with the feature enabled. Though NVIDIA’s Reflex survived the onslaught, another issue appears in its GeForce Experience drivers, with players able to use its color filters to see players hiding behind smokes. The exact date the exploit was discovered is unknown, but it reached the public eye through a Dec. 22 Reddit thread.

CS2 player rendering behind the smoke with Nvidia driver exploit.

In the Reddit thread, mockingly titled “new features in CS2,” a player plays around with the various color filters in Nvidia’s GeForce Experience overlay. Several filters appear to make players behind smokes completely visible from angles where they would typically be shrouded. Those standing behind or within the smoke aren’t rendered entirely, and only their silhouettes show, which is more than enough for CS2 players to land lethal shots. Essentially, the filters give players wallhacks—hacks that aren’t detected or considered by the Valve Anti-Cheat (CS2‘s primary anti-cheat software).

Reddit users replying to the thread defended Nvidia, saying Valve shouldn’t allow third-party software such low-level access to the renderer. The point holds, especially when Anti-Lag+ (a latency-reducing software feature that injects itself into the game’s process) was flagged by VAC, and people got unwarrantedly banned for it, even when they didn’t have gameplay advantages such as these.

It should be mentioned that, for one to utilize these filters, CS2 requires the “-allow_third_party_software” launch command, which may lower a player’s Trust Factor when enabled. A lower Trust Factor means getting matched with players flagged as suspicious, reported numerous times, or who recently abandoned several matches. Nevertheless, the Elo gains are still the same, no matter how good or bad your Trust Factor may be, and this exploit can be abused for Elo gain.

Valve typically acts quickly on such matters, and I hope they remove this exploit as soon as possible. It may also lead to Nvidia recalling these features like AMD did, though we won’t know until it happens. Until then, maybe avoid official matchmaking for a few days.