ohshit604@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
For folks who pirate games, how the hell are you confident malware isn’t being injected into the executable?
For one to pirate I would assume source code has to be available and recompiled without DRM, right? How can anyone be confident that nothing else is being added to fry or takeover folks systems?
Pirates vet things. Take a look at rentry.org/pgames for an example of a list of pirate sites that is meticulously vetted and updated. As long as pirates stick to those, they generally don’t have to worry about malware.
Sure, it’s possible for someone to get caught out by one of these sites deciding to turn bad, but that’s only going to work for like a day. It’s like kicking a hornet’s nest in the pirating world.
Im sure whoever injects malware would be harassed and threatened to be doxxed. it’s a point of pride and the release groups very small. Ironically, the “risky” cracked version actually looks and runs better than the version you buy legitimately.
In many cases, legit games have more malware (spyware, DRM, rootkits, etc.) and the cracked versions remove it. It’s annoying to pay for a game and it won’t work offline because the company wants to collect your data, but the cracked version does work offline.
How are you confident the binary you install from the developer doesn’t contain a malicious payload?
The issue is not that pirated executables might contain malware, but that people don’t have a clue how to identify safe sources. As consumers we use corporate trust (reputable company). As pirates, we use social trust (scene, fitgirl, etc… Neither method discovers malware.
I’ll trust a pirate giving me something for free over a company selling me something for free.
Folks that hire games, how are you confident malware isn’t being injected in the streaming software?
Don’t download from a shady looking website, go to reputable sources. Fitgirl, Internet Archive, etc. Read the comments if the website has them, don’t have to read thoroughly, just a quick skim to see if other people reported things and whether they’re false positives. Don’t download things before they’ve released, or download things for other platforms but "for Windows"somehow. Make sure what you’re downloading takes up the kinda space you’d expect from that game, (don’t download GTA V but it’s a 40mb download).
Yeah, we basically rely on blind faith. Honestly I trust pirates to keep their stuff clean more than the developers and the publishers themselves who just so often inject the malware called DRM in the first place.
99% of things on Steam can be pirated by switching one single dll with one that’s been around ages and known to be fine.
This is the number one reason why I’m not doing that anymore.
Also (foilhat) number one reason why so many people are urging people to do it.
I trust the sources I acquire the game from.
I also don’t do anything but play video games with my PC so even if it gets infected with something, it’s just a minor inconvenience to reformat it.
PolarPirate@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
There are relatively few people who “crack” the games and the community around it is very verbal. Some people go deep on inspecting things, and if something gets found they’re added to a list of untrusted sources. From what I’ve seen it’s hard to get that trust back.
So yeah it’s definitely a risk, but not a super dangerous one. Especially if you use Linux and a VM
crypt0cler1c@infosec.pub 1 week ago
You’re gaming in a Linux VM?
Flatfire@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
Other way around. In a Windows VM on Linux
Magnum@infosec.pub 1 week ago
You are playing in a VM on Linux? So you have 2 GPUs?
PolarPirate@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
I am. I run cachyos which I run most of my steam games from. If I pirate something I do it in a VM to test it out, and if I like it then I buy it on steam/GOG.
The VM has very little performance loss either because they’re just that good now or because I have a pretty good pc I’m not sure. I also run games like BanderLord in a VM so I can mod with vortex. (Yes the setup is very stupid, but it’s a glass castle and I’m scared to move anything)
barryamelton@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Steam already runs games in a form of container (pressure vessel) in Linux, it’s quite secure.
crypt0cler1c@infosec.pub 1 week ago
Steam does not run games in a container at all…
WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
not half of that is true.