EA Javelin Anticheat

Everything in this section is EA's own public description.

EA sorts cheats into two families and says Javelin covers both: "On a technical level, cheats can be grouped into two main categories - internal and external. This has to do with whether the cheat is injecting code into the game process or simply reading and doing actions outside of the game." EA states the product "is built to protect against both of these, with hundreds of specific detections, more generic telemetry signals, and a variety of other protections to block cheats from being able to do anything at all".

That work runs in kernel mode. EA says that "like many other products in the anti-cheat space, EA Javelin Anticheat operates in the kernel by necessity", and its stated rationale is that "PC cheat developers have increasingly moved into the kernel, so we need to have kernel-mode protections to ensure fair play and tackle PC cheat developers on an even playing field."

Detection is not purely automatic. EA describes an operations team of "analysts and reverse engineers who perform investigations, issue cheating enforcements", and a data team that builds "advanced machine learning and AI models".

Some enforcement happens at launch rather than after a match. EA Help says Javelin "will shut down the game and our services if you use cheat tools, debuggers, or other conflicting software", and it maintains a denylist: software on it triggers an error because it "is on our denylist for security reasons".

For Battlefield 6, EA says requiring Secure Boot "provides us with features that we can leverage against cheats that attempt to infiltrate during the Windows boot process", and that Javelin "is customizable and offers a unique and modified approach for Battlefield and other EA FPS games".

On scope, EA says Javelin "does not gather any information about your browsing history, applications that are not connected to EA games, or anything that is not directly related to anti-cheat protection", and that collected data is hashed "to create unique identifiers and discard the original information".

Per game by default, escalating to the full EA Account for repeated or extreme violations; EA also references penalties applied to a device

Javelin does not publish a ban policy of its own. Enforcement runs through EA Account penalties. EA defines a ban as: "Depending on the severity of the activity, we'll remove your access to a game, part of a game, or your EA Account for an extended period of time or permanently." Whole-account bans are the exception, not the default: "We reserve full EA Account bans for repeated or extreme violations of our EA User Agreement or Rules of Conduct."

EA also references penalties tied to hardware, noting it may email you if "you have a lock, ban, or suspension on your EA Account, on a specific game, or on your device".

Appeals exist. EA states: "If you think the lock, ban, or suspension on your EA Account was a mistake, you can appeal the decision." The route is the Penalty History tool, and "Appeals are reviewed by our moderation team, who will re-evaluate the original enforcement action and any additional information submitted as part of the appeal process." EA claims it has "maintained an accuracy rate of over 99% when banning cheaters", and says it has "overturned enforcements where investigation indicated that enforcement wasn't warranted".