Secure Boot Required to Run Battlefield 6 Anti-Cheat
In August, Electronic Arts (EA) announced that players participating in the Battlefield 6 open beta on PC would need to enable Secure Boot in both Windows and BIOS settings. The decision immediately sparked controversy, with many players concerned about granting EA’s anti-cheat software such deep access to their systems.
Ahead of the beta launch, EA explained that Secure Boot provides functions that can counter cheats attempting to load during the Windows startup process. According to the company, access to the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) through Secure Boot allows its developers to detect and block:
- Kernel-level cheats and rootkits
- Memory manipulation techniques
- Spoofing and code injection attempts
- Hardware ID tampering
- The use of virtual machines to evade detection
- Interference with anti-cheat mechanisms
Christian Buhl, Battlefield 6’s technical director, later apologized to players in an interview with Eurogamer. He acknowledged the frustration:
“Actually, I wish we didn’t have to use things like Secure Boot. It really prevents some people from playing. Some computers can’t handle it, and they can’t play—it’s really terrible. I wish everyone could play the game without problems, so we wouldn’t have to deal with such things.”
Buhl admitted, however, that even Secure Boot will not completely eliminate cheating in the long run. Still, he emphasized that EA’s Javelin anti-cheat system—which depends on Secure Boot and kernel-level access—remains “one of the most powerful tools in the arsenal for fighting cheaters.”
The results were immediate. Within the first 48 hours of the open beta, EA reported that Javelin had blocked more than 330,000 attempts to bypass or tamper with anti-cheat protections. Players also submitted 104,000 in-game reports of potential cheating, which EA said could help improve detection methods going forward.
As Buhl put it:
“The fight against cheaters never ends. It’s a constant game of cat and mouse. We will never win. But hopefully, they won’t win either. Ultimately, we strive to provide the utmost security and reliability for players.”
