361
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz to c/steamdeck@sopuli.xyz

Developers will be required to disclose if their game uses kernel anti-cheat. This applies to both new games and existing games. Non-kernel anti-cheat is encouraged to be disclosed as well, but it's only mandatory for developers to declare if they're using kernel anti-cheat for the time being.

It's worth mentioning that many games use kernel anti-cheat on windows, but only use user space anti-cheat on Steam Deck and Linux.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 31 points 1 day ago

I should probably mention some notable downsides to kernel anti-cheat as well:

  • Because kernel anti-cheat has full access to your PC, if any virus/etc can take advantage of a security vulnerability in the anti-cheat program, it gains absolute access to your PC.

  • Kernel anti-cheat needs special signing keys to get access to the kernel, but the more companies that get access to the keys the more likely it is to have compromised keys. Genshin impacts keys were compromised and used to sign ransomware, giving it full kernel access on any computers it was able to get on.

  • Devs have used kernel anti-cheat to secretly install Bitcoin miners on users machines

  • Kernel anti-cheat can be compromised and used to directly gain control of a users PC. Some apex legends streamers had their PCs compromised and cheats installed remotely through their anti-cheat during a tournament.

  • A lot of anti-cheat programs are created by Chinese companies or companies that are mostly owned by Chinese companies. China is well known for spying on users, and there's a ban on a lot of Chinese hardware due to spying concerns and backdoors that the Chinese government requires to be in their devices. I think the invasive nature of kernel anti-cheat makes it an obvious spying platform, and I think it's absurd to think that any anti-cheat coming from China isn't actively spying on you.

[-] A7thStone@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

I think it's absurd to think any anti-cheat ~~coming from China~~ isn't actively spying on you.

Our data has proven to be very lucrative. The companies that make anti-cheat are also the types of companies that would want to cash in on our data.

this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
361 points (98.9% liked)

Steam Deck

14751 readers
281 users here now

A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.

Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.

As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title

The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.

Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.

These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.

Rules:

Link to our Matrix Space

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS