Call of Duty posted on October 23, 2026 that it launched new RICOCHET Anti-Cheat detections targeting DMA cheats, and that the detections went live ahead of the Modern Warfare 4 DMZ Early Access window that opened on October 20. The post explains the category rather than the enforcement: DMA, or Direct Memory Access, cheats use external hardware to pull game information a player should never have, including where opponents are standing, and because that hardware operates outside the PC running the game it is built to slip past software-only protection.
Confirmed. This is the official Call of Duty account saying in its own words that the detections shipped, so their existence is not in question. What the post does not carry is a single number, a list of protected titles, or any before-and-after measurement, so read it as a confirmed action and not a confirmed result.
Why Hardcore SnD cares
Hardcore Search and Destroy is the mode where stolen information does the most damage. One life, no respawn, a bomb to plant or defuse, and every round decided by who reads the other team's shape first. A DMA wallhack does not just win gunfights. It deletes the entire read layer that competitive Search is built on.
- Fakes stop working. A dry peek, a bait plant, a slow rotate: all of it is theater if the other side is reading positions out of memory.
- Audio stops mattering. Footstep discipline and Dead Silence timing are only worth something against a player who has to listen.
- One round ends it. In respawn modes a cheater costs you a slow bleed of score. In Search they cost you the round the moment they know where the stack is.
- Scrims inherit the problem. Pubs are where crews warm up and recruit, so anything that works in pubs poisons the pipeline into organized play.
What the post does not say
The statement names no numbers. It does not say how many accounts or devices the new detections have flagged, it does not list which titles they cover, and it does not say whether console players benefit through cross-play protections. It also makes no claim that DMA cheating is solved. The standing RICOCHET page was still describing the kernel-level driver and server-side tooling with no mention of DMA when we read it the same day, so for now the detection launch lives in the post and not in the documentation.
A detection that ships is good news. It is still a promise until the ban waves are public.
What would verify the scale
A #TeamRICOCHET progress report carrying DMA enforcement numbers, a RICOCHET page update that names the detection category, or an Activision support article covering DMA hardware would turn a stated launch into a measured one. Until one of those lands, treat the ban-wave size as unknown and keep reporting suspicious lobbies, because report volume is still the input the enforcement side runs on.