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Bans & Detections

ssAntiCheat separates detecting a cheater from removing them. A detection always alerts; a ban only happens once a module's threshold is met, and even then it is normally held back until the next ban wave. That delay is deliberate — it stops a cheater from correlating "I did X, and was banned one second later" and working out which check caught them.

The pipeline

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1. a detector fires
2. detection is recorded  ──> in-game admin alert
                          ──> Discord webhook
                          ──> dashboard (if enabled)
3. module reached its BanAfterDetections count?   ── no ──> done
                          │ yes
4. player is queued for a ban
5. the queue is executed on the next ban wave
6. execution: run AutoBan.ExecuteCommand, alert admins,
   and (if IntegratedBanSystem is on) write the ban row and kick
7. on their next join attempt, the ban is enforced at login

Steps 3–4 are per module — see BanAfterDetections. A module without that key detects and alerts, but never bans on its own.

Ban waves

A queued ban is executed when any of the following happens:

Trigger Notes
Every N world saves N is AutoBan."SaveWorld Cycles" — 2 by default. This is the normal path.
The queued player disconnects They are banned on the way out, rather than being left free until the next wave.
The module has InstantBan: true Reserved for detections with no plausible false positive.
An admin runs ssac.banwave Flush the whole queue now.

Between queueing and execution you can inspect the queue with ssac.pendingbans and empty it with ssac.clearbanwave. See Commands.

AutoBan

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"AutoBan": {
  "SaveWorld Cycles": 2,
  "ExecuteCommand": "banplayer {steamid} "
}
Field Type Default Description
SaveWorld Cycles number 2 Run a ban wave every this many world saves. With a 15-minute save interval, 2 means at most a 30-minute delay.
ExecuteCommand string "banplayer {steamid} " A console command run for each banned player. {steamid} is replaced with their SteamID64. Leave it empty to rely solely on the integrated ban system.

ExecuteCommand is how you hook ssAntiCheat into whatever you already use. The default adds the player to ARK's own ban list; you could instead call another plugin's ban command, or a cluster-wide one.

💡 Cluster tip. ARK's banplayer is per-server. If you run a cluster, either point ExecuteCommand at a cluster-aware ban command, or use the integrated ban system with a shared MySQL database across all your servers — every server then enforces every ban at login.

IntegratedBanSystem

The built-in ban store: bans are written to your MySQL database and enforced when the player tries to connect.

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"IntegratedBanSystem": {
  "Enabled": true,
  "UseIPBans": true,
  "UseHWIDBans": false,
  "Exclude IPS": [],
  "BanMessage": "You are banned from our server\nReason: {reason}\nBan id: {ban_id}\nUnban at: https://store.example.com"
}
Field Type Default Description
Enabled boolean true Store and enforce bans in MySQL. When false, only AutoBan.ExecuteCommand runs.
UseIPBans boolean true Also refuse connections from a banned player's IP address. See below.
UseHWIDBans boolean false Also refuse connections from a banned player's hardware ID. Requires the optional companion client mod to capture one — without it this does nothing.
Exclude IPS array [] IP addresses never treated as an association. Put shared/NAT addresses here.
BanMessage string see above The message the player sees.

Bans live in a single table (ssAntiCheat_bans) holding the Steam ID, IP, hardware ID, reason, ban date, and expiry. Point several servers at the same database and a ban applies across all of them.

Ban message

BanMessage supports two placeholders:

Placeholder Replaced with
{reason} The ban reason.
{ban_id} The numeric ban ID — the value an admin needs for ssac.unban. 
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"BanMessage": "You are banned from our server\nReason: {reason}\nBan id: {ban_id}\nAppeal at: https://yourserver.example/appeal"

⚠️ Replace the placeholder URL. The shipped message points at store.example.com. Always include {ban_id} — without it, a player appealing a ban has nothing to quote and you have to search the database by hand.

IP-association bans

With UseIPBans on, a player connecting from an address that belongs to an active ban is refused and recorded as their own ban, so the alt account is banned by Steam ID from then on. An alert goes to AssociationBans naming both accounts.

The check is deliberately conservative — it only fires when the IP genuinely matches, is not in Exclude IPS, and belongs to a different Steam account.

⚠️ IP bans catch households and shared connections. Siblings, roommates, an internet café, or a shared VPN exit will all look like the same player. Watch the association channel for a while before you trust it, and add legitimate shared addresses to Exclude IPS.

Ban durations

How the ban was made Duration
ssac.ban with d=… Expires after that period.
ssac.ban without d=… Permanent.
Automatic (a module's BanAfterDetections) Permanent.

To lift any ban, use its ban ID:

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ssac.unban 42

Reviewing a detection before it becomes a ban

The gap between detection and ban wave is your review window. A workflow that works well:

  1. The Discord alert (or in-game admin alert) names the player and the module.
  2. ssac.go — spectate them immediately, with no argument to jump to the last detection.
  3. !tracers — watch their shots; aim assistance is obvious to the naked eye this way.
  4. ssac.pendingbans — see whether they are already queued and for what.
  5. Decide: let the wave run, ssac.banwave to act now, or ssac.clearbanwave if you believe it is a false positive.

If a module produces repeated false positives on your setup, raise its threshold or set OnlyAnalysis on it rather than turning it off — see Tuning advice.

Next steps: