Yet again, another monthly update for Microsoft Windows is causing
machines to crash <https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/microsoft-blames-rgb-peripherals-for-crashing-windows-11-rgb-software-is-causing-blue-screens-crashes-and-game-freezes>.

This time, Microsoft is blaming an interaction between the drivers for
RGB peripherals (the ones with colourful LEDs that can be made to
cycle in different patterns) and anti-cheat mechanisms built into some
of the more expensive games.

Quote:

RGB software installed on affected PCs was interfering with core
system components, causing Windows 11 to become unstable.

Actually, no it wasn?t. The article goes on to make an educated guess:

Microsoft didn't explain the underlying cause, but it's likely
tied to anti-cheat not appreciating a kernel-mode driver in user
space. RGB software, like other apps, should be limited to user
space, but the driver it uses to interface with peripheral
controllers runs in kernel space. For anti-cheat software, this is
essentially an exploit waiting to happen, so it tries to block the
driver to make sure it doesn't inject malicious code.

(Of course, by ?malicious? they mean ?having the ability to snoop into
their game?.)

So the RGB drivers on their own were fine. But bring in something from
some paranoid multi-billion-dollar company that thinks it has a right
to control the way you use your machine, and then the wailing and
gnashing of teeth will start.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

Yet again, another monthly update for Microsoft Windows is causing
machines to crash <https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/microsoft-blames-rgb-peripherals-for-crashing-windows-11-rgb-software-is-causing-blue-screens-crashes-and-game-freezes>.

This time, Microsoft is blaming an interaction between the drivers for
RGB peripherals (the ones with colourful LEDs that can be made to
cycle in different patterns) and anti-cheat mechanisms built into some
of the more expensive games.

Quote:

RGB software installed on affected PCs was interfering with core
system components, causing Windows 11 to become unstable.

Actually, no it wasn?t. The article goes on to make an educated guess:

Actually it was: https://windowsforum.com/windows-news.4/kb5121003-remove-inpoutx64-to-fix-arc-raiders-crashes-megathread.442938/

inpoutx64.sys is an _ancient_ driver that allows userspace to poke any hardware. Of course that blows through lots of security barriers. RGB software uses it to poke their hardware registers from userspace, because
they were too lazy to write a proper kernel driver and get it signed by MS
so they just reuse this already-signed debugging driver from 2008.

In fact we've been here before: https://www.theverge.com/report/629259/winring0-windows-defender-fan-control-pc-monitoring-alert-quarantine
https://gitlab.com/CalcProgrammer1/OpenRGB/-/merge_requests/1036 https://github.com/ixjf/MSIRGB/issues/115

First they used InpOut32 but it was blocked by anti-cheat, then it was
WinRing0 and now it's InpOutx64. History keeps repeating.

Theo

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 23 Aug 2026 23:13:31 +0100 (BST), Theo wrote:

Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

Actually, no it wasn?t. The article goes on to make an educated guess:

Actually it was: https://windowsforum.com/windows-news.4/kb5121003-remove-inpoutx64-to-fix-arc-raiders-crashes-megathread.442938/

inpoutx64.sys is an _ancient_ driver that allows userspace to poke
any hardware.

How is this different from, say, libusb on Linux?

Of course that blows through lots of security barriers.

Not if the I/O access is itself protected behind suitable privilege protections. Again, there is a mechanism for this under Linux <https://manpages.debian.org/ioperm(2)>.

First they used InpOut32 but it was blocked by anti-cheat, then it
was WinRing0 and now it's InpOutx64. History keeps repeating.

Basically, on Windows, they cannot allow the user to do anything that
might require privilege on their own machine, because that could be
considered in some way ?cheating?.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)