NoTextureRotations
A Fabric modification that protects against coordinate exploits based on texture rotation and position offsets. Can also be used simply to change the visual style of the game!
Compatible with vanilla Minecraft, Sodium, and custom textures/resource packs.
How It Works
The mod offers two protection options:
- Completely disables block texture rotation and offsets
- Replaces the standard random function with a secure implementation while maintaining the familiar visual appearance of the game
Configuration
The mod can be configured in two ways directly in the game:
- Install YetAnotherConfigLib and ModMenu libraries
- Use Sodium - a separate configuration page for NoTextureRotations will appear in video settings
The configuration file is located at: .minecraft/config/no-texture-rotations.json
What is the Vulnerability?
Many blocks such as grass, dirt, and stone have texture variations that slightly rotate or shift.
Texture variations themselves are good - they make the game visually more interesting by preventing a monotonous appearance when many identical blocks are placed next to each other.
The problem is that the "random" number used to select the texture variant is based on the block's position in the game. This does not require the world seed.
Offsets work similarly - some blocks, such as flowers, offset their position from the center of the block using "random" offsets.
Any screenshots or videos showing examples of such blocks are vulnerable to attacks that can determine block coordinates.
On anarchy servers, this can be particularly dangerous - bases whose images or videos have been published can be easily found.
This is not a new discovery, the method has been known since at least 2018 and is still regularly used, for example, in determining seeds from panoramas. Example: https://youtu.be/gE1dMNCyofs?t=57
There are several public tools for performing this attack:
