this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024

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Steam games will now need to fully disclose kernel-level anti-cheat on store pages (www.gamingonlinux.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

150 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Now if only they could more clearly communicate when games are playable offline.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

I wonder if you phrased it the way the Play store does: This game wants permission to:

send SMS messages
make calls
know your location
stalk your family
raid your fridge
access, read and upload files
manage and add contacts
cup your balls
go through your trash
irritate your boss

etc.

Think anyone would install them?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

i dONt hAVe anYThinG To HIdE

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 hours ago

Anyone who says that while wearing pants is a filthy liar.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

of course, people don't even look at play store permissions

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

I suppose they do suffer from the "Known in the state of Cancer to cause California" problem. A bubble level app wants in-app purchases and GPS access.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I bought Sea of Thieves about 5 years ago. Recently, they added kernal-level anticheat (which does precisely fuck-all to actually stop cheating). While that is annoying, I'm not particularly worried because the studio that makes that game is owned by Microsoft, and like all Microsoft products, it was banished to my windows partition with the rest of the spyware.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

Well... kernel level software can access everything on your computer. That includes other partitions and unmounted drives

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 hours ago

Only if those other partitions are not encrypted. Sure, it could still wipe them - but that's something that backups are good for, and something you would certainly notice immediately :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

Anything sensitive is encrypted and I never decrypt it while running windows.

[–] [email protected] 70 points 16 hours ago (5 children)

Easy Anti Cheat - requires manual removal

Wait, so this sketchy, privacy-invading stuff remains even after a game is uninstalled?! I had no idea.

How is this stuff not classed as malware at this point?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

Plenty of games use it, if it uninstalled with each one then others would stop working.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago

Do you remember when Sony released cds that when inserted into Windows computer auto ran an installer that installed a rootkit that made it impossible for Windows to see any processes or files that started with a certain sequence of characters instantly turning any malware that named its files or processes similarly powerful rootkit. Oh and it installed a cd driver that made it impossible to copy their music.

Suggested removal was a full reinstall of windows.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 hours ago

Oh it was initially classed as insanely intrusive malware when kernel level AC was introduced about a decade ago, by anyone with a modicum of actual technical knowledge about computers.

Unfortunately, a whole lot of corpo shills ran propaganda explaining how actually its fine, don't worry, its actually the best way to stop cheaters!

Then the vast, vast majority of idiot gamers believed that, or threw their hands up and went oh well its the new norm, trying to fight it is futile and actually if you are against this that means you are some kind of paranoid privacy freak who hates other people having fun.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 hours ago

I've been shouting from the rooftops for years that this stuff is malware. I'm not the only one. No one listens.

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[–] [email protected] 69 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Any program having kernel level access is spyware. This is getting ridiculous.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 17 hours ago

Vanguard anticheat...

[–] [email protected] 26 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

W steam/valve

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago (3 children)

Is this a Linux problem? I've never had to look for this detail before in Windows.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

It does prevent Linux compatibility, but even if it didn't, it's a computer security problem, for those who care. You're essentially allowing different game companies to install a rootkit on your computer so you can play a video game.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

You’re essentially allowing different game companies to install a rootkit on your computer so you can play a video game.

Put like that, makes it even more obvious how insanely stupid slash desperate slash addicted some gamers are, doesn't it?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 hours ago

Most gamers don't know that easy anti-cheat is a rootkit to begin with.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Mostly, and even some Windows users don't want to install software that has such a great amount of permission over the entire system just for a game's anti-cheat.

It's nice that users can now know beforehand if a game uses such software. Avoids refunds.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Unless, of course, they add it months after release drastically limiting your chances of refunding (looking at you EA WRC 2024 😡)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago

If they change the deal they should have to offer refunds. This makes it an expensive choice after the fact.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

That sucks : (

[–] [email protected] 293 points 1 day ago (16 children)

FYI - the owner of this site, gamingonlinux, was a mod on the [email protected] community until they were caught abusing their moderator powers. Then they deleted their account and complained on mastodon that it's stupid design that mod logs are public. [Screenshot]

Instead, here's a link to the official post https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/4547038620960934857

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[–] [email protected] 342 points 1 day ago (25 children)

Ooh and it's a giant yellow banner you probably won't miss, and not some two-shades-ligher-than-the-background nonsense.

Good job, Valve.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 14 hours ago

If only they let you filter out games from being seen on your store page or showing up in recommendations using this as a criteria.

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