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1. General
1.1 What is the difference between a "Signature" and a "Version" and why are "new signatures" considered safe?
2. Privacy
2.1 Is Warden cause for privacy concern?
3. Scans
3.1 What does Warden scan for?
3.2 Is it safe to bot if I use ProcessGuard?
3.3 Should I worry about my account if I read cheat web sites while playing?
3.4 Does Warden scan files on my hard drive?
3.5 Is it safer to use an in-process bot or one that runs outside?
3.6 Do they have to release a new Warden to start detecting [some program]?
4. Other
4.1 What is "The Governor" about? Is it accurate? It says Warden is looking at everything on my computer!
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1.1 What is the difference between a "Signature" and a "Version" and why are "new signatures" considered safe?
A version of Warden is a specific set of functionality, such as scanning routines. There is one version of Warden active at any given point in time, for each set of servers (US, EU, etc). To make life more difficult for hackers, Warden is a bit dynamic -- there are hundreds of slightly different copies of any given version of Warden, which may be sent to your computer for usage. The different copies contain the same functionality, but with slight modifications in the code that would have no effect on the functionality. Each of these copies is identified by its signature.
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2.1 Is Warden cause for privacy concern?
Probably not, in its current form. In fact, I fully support what they are attempting to do, which is protect their game. Games that dont enforce integrity are simply not as much fun (try playing Diablo 2 on Battle.Net without running into hordes of cheaters). The simple fact is that Warden is not relaying private information back to Blizzard. It is determining whether you are using a specific hack, or have a specific program loaded, and sending back a yes or no response. It is a common myth that it is relaying tons of information back for them to peruse later. They dont know you're looking at porn, man.
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3.1 What does Warden scan for?
Every 15 seconds or so from the time you log into character selection until the time you log out, the server sends your client a set of things to scan for. Out-of-process scans include checking window names, process names, specific bytes of processes. In-process scans include memory modification scans, and DLL names. Additionally, Warden does include MPQ modification scans. Historically, the average Warden version has about a dozen scans.
3.2 Is it safe to bot if I use ProcessGuard?
No. ProcessGuard will prevent Warden from having certain access to programs that it shouldn't, but Warden will still be able to find any in-process modifications, as well as scan the names of running programs and windows. ProcessGuard does not protect against the vast majority of Warden scans.
3.3 Should I worry about my account if I read cheat web sites while playing?
No. Warden checks for specific window titles, and it would be silly for them to check for a web page, because you could have any browser loaded and the window title doesn't necessarily have to match the title of the web page. Besides, a lot of people read such web sites simply to find out things that cheaters are doing so they can whine about it to their friends or on the official forums.
3.4 Does Warden scan files on my hard drive?
Dont worry, Blizzard isn't looking for your hidden stash of child porn, man. Your secret is safe, at least until the FBI enables the government backdoor built into Windows on your system. Whoops, you forgot about that one? In short, scanning your hard drive to find your secret stash of cheating programs would take a long time and slow down your PC. Have you ever tried using the Search function in Windows? It's not quick, especially if you have a lot of files.
3.5 Is it safer to use an in-process bot or one that runs outside?
Neither. The safety of a bot, as far as detection from Warden goes, is equal to its protection from Warden.
3.6 Do they have to release a new Warden to start detecting [some program]?
No. When a Warden is released, it gives them the ability to perform a specific set of scans with any parameters they wish. The parameters they want to pass to a scan, and get results for, are sent to you while you play. For example, if one of the scans was "Find the window with this name", the parameter could be the name of the window, and while you play, they could send an instruction to use that scan, with, say, "My Cheat Program". The scan would look for a window named "My Cheat Program" and send back the result of the scan. They could send any parameter they wish to the same scan, without releasing a new Warden, potentially resulting in detection of a program that was not previously being detected.
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4.1 What is "The Governor" about? Is it accurate? It says Warden is looking at everything on my computer!
The Governor is a sort of "API Spy" program, which hooks into the code that calls into Windows functionality, like listing all of the programs running on your system. While it's true that Warden has access to all of the information displayed in the Governor, this information is not relayed back to Blizzard. The information relayed to Blizzard for this type of scan is a simple "yes" or "no" response -- they look for something specific, and Warden tells them if it's found or not. They don't know everything that's running on your computer or the web pages you have open.
Update: The Governor never listed information from more than half of the Warden scans. Most of the scans spied by The Governor are not in present use.
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