Sentinel is a Windows anticheat system focused on detecting DMA (Direct Memory Access) hardware cheats -- external FPGA boards that read game memory from a separate physical device, invisible to traditional software-only anticheat. It operates across kernel mode and user mode with a web dashboard for real-time monitoring and configuration.
+----------------------------------+
| Sentinel Dashboard | Web UI (status, config, logs)
| + REST API |
+----------------------------------+
| Sentinel Service | Windows service (C++)
| - Process monitor |
| - Signature scanner |
| - Module integrity checker |
| - Detection orchestrator |
| - REST API server |
+----------------------------------+
| Sentinel Driver | Kernel driver (C, WDM)
| - PCIe/DMA detection |
| - Memory integrity |
| - Device monitoring |
+----------------------------------+
Communication: Driver <-> Service via Windows IOCTLs. Service <-> Dashboard via REST API (localhost only).
- CMake 3.20+
- Windows Driver Kit (WDK) -- required for the kernel driver
- MSVC (Visual Studio 2019+ with C++ workload)
- Node.js 18+ -- for the dashboard
- Windows 10/11 x64 -- build and test environment
# Configure cmake -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" # Build all C/C++ components cmake --build build --config Release # Dashboard cd dashboard npm install npm run build
Note: The kernel driver requires WDK and must be built on Windows. Source editing can be done on macOS with the project directory shared into a Windows VM for compilation.
sentinel/
CLAUDE.md Project conventions
CMakeLists.txt Top-level CMake
README.md
driver/ Kernel driver (C, WDM)
CMakeLists.txt
src/ pcie_enum, dma_detect, memory_integrity, device_monitor
include/sentinel/ Driver-private headers
service/ User-mode service (C++)
CMakeLists.txt
src/ process_monitor, signature_scanner, detection_engine, api_server
include/sentinel/ Service-private headers
shared/ IOCTL contract (headers shared between driver and service)
include/sentinel/
ioctl_codes.h IOCTL control code definitions
shared_types.h Data structures passed through IOCTLs
dashboard/ Web dashboard
src/
public/
docs/ Design specs and documentation
tools/ Dev utilities