TorchCheat

Overview

This is a lab for Windows internals and reverse engineering, not a cheat store. The architecture I wanted to actually build — not just read about — is a three-ring stack: Ring −1 with a hypervisor (VT-x / SVM) and EPT-style memory views, Ring 0 with a mapped research driver, and Ring 3 for the .NET overlay, input, and UI. Shared-memory IPC is the bridge so the layers can talk without a conventional handle-heavy path. I will not package, sell, or support this as a product.

Problem

Most ‘systems’ practice stops at user-mode. I wanted one project that forced me through CPU privilege levels, game-process layout, overlay rendering, and the ethics of the domain: private machine, educational purpose, never a commercial cheat.

Solution

A mixed C# / C++ codebase. The visible surface is a DirectX + ImGui overlay: ESP-style boxes and skeletons, aim/smoothing experiments, grenade arcs, bomb telemetry, a skin-changer lab, even joke modes like MS Paint and big-head. Underneath that is the part I care about: hypervisor, kernel, and user-mode rings working as one research stack in an insecure/private session only.

Technical implementation

• Ring −1: hypervisor research (Intel VT-x / AMD SVM) with EPT-style shadowing so the lab can reason about memory below the OS
• Ring 0: kernel-mode research driver mapped for the lab, rather than living only in a signed, always-on service
• Ring 3: .NET 8 overlay, LDR/thread/syscall experiments, and the ImGui menu, hotkeys, and click-through window
• IPC between rings via shared memory so game-state reads are not a pile of obvious process handles
• Lab overlay features: entity ESP, visibility/team filters, aim curves, movement assists, radar, grenade predictor, bomb HUD, client-side skin overrides
• WinForms / DirectX present path with a transparent layered overlay; CS2 kept in fullscreen windowed for the lab

Challenges

• Keeping three privilege levels in one mental model without turning the write-up into an operations manual
• Overlay timing: view-matrix sampling, input isolation when the menu steals focus, and not fighting exclusive fullscreen
• Drawing a hard line: interesting internals for me, never a live-server or for-sale cheat

Results

• A working three-ring lab: hypervisor, kernel, and user-mode in one CS2 research project
• A full overlay playground (visuals, aim experiments, world telemetry, skins, meme modes) on top of that stack
• A public stance: educational only, never a product, not for competitive play

Future improvements

• Keep the work in the lab and never productize it
• Deepen hypervisor and kernel notes for myself without publishing a playbook