Generally I’d say they’re one of the most dangerous things you could voluntarily run on your PC. As someone whose education and profession is in infosec, games are one of the things I refuse to pirate because the risk is just too high for me.
Just running an untrusted exe from a shady source is enough to make my hair stand on end but the idea of intentionally replacing low level hypervisor components makes me run away screaming.
FWIW, the type of games that require HV bypasses are ones that I would pass on because the “legitimate” DRM is basically equally as scary from a security perspective.
Everyone’s risk tolerance is different though. 🤷♂️
I mean sure yeah you can “just” buy a whole new PC and then learn how to reverse malware without getting pwned so you can save yourself like $80 on some random AAA slopware. Be realistic, does it sound like OP is gonna do that?
I mean power to anyone who does take that route, but we have to acknowledge that 99% of people are not going to.
Generally I’d say they’re one of the most dangerous things you could voluntarily run on your PC
I disagree under some conditions. Doing anything sketchy from the same machine you log into your bank account from is extremely dangerous, but a dedicated gaming PC is a lot less dangerous. Especially if you are isolating the network on that machine and using it for single purpose. At that point, HV bypass becomes irrelevant to overall security. And by single purpose, I mean single purpose. No SSO or logging into sites. If you are heavy into this, I wouldn’t even put Steam on the machine.
In general, without HV bypass you could firejail processes and potentially put Steam on the box, but with HV bypass absolutely not.
they’re one of the most dangerous things you could voluntarily run on your PC.
This cannot be stressed enough.
If you have a PC that: 1. you only run games on, 2. have nothing at all on it otherwise, and 3. airgap the shit outta the whole thing, you’re still not safe. ☝🏼
Y’all do you, though. Do your research, vet all sources, and follow their instructions to the t. Good luck, fellow mariners! 😅
Generally I’d say they’re one of the most dangerous things you could voluntarily run on your PC. As someone whose education and profession is in infosec, games are one of the things I refuse to pirate because the risk is just too high for me.
Just running an untrusted exe from a shady source is enough to make my hair stand on end but the idea of intentionally replacing low level hypervisor components makes me run away screaming.
FWIW, the type of games that require HV bypasses are ones that I would pass on because the “legitimate” DRM is basically equally as scary from a security perspective.
Everyone’s risk tolerance is different though. 🤷♂️
Do you really work in infosec? Just have a separate machine/dual boot.
You can verify game files against known good hashes as well, and in non denowo cases run cracks in sandboxes or vms.
The same basis practices you’d use to analyse malware apply
I mean sure yeah you can “just” buy a whole new PC and then learn how to reverse malware without getting pwned so you can save yourself like $80 on some random AAA slopware. Be realistic, does it sound like OP is gonna do that?
I mean power to anyone who does take that route, but we have to acknowledge that 99% of people are not going to.
That is not what I said lol. Your reading comprehension is arse and your attitude is useless.
I disagree under some conditions. Doing anything sketchy from the same machine you log into your bank account from is extremely dangerous, but a dedicated gaming PC is a lot less dangerous. Especially if you are isolating the network on that machine and using it for single purpose. At that point, HV bypass becomes irrelevant to overall security. And by single purpose, I mean single purpose. No SSO or logging into sites. If you are heavy into this, I wouldn’t even put Steam on the machine.
In general, without HV bypass you could firejail processes and potentially put Steam on the box, but with HV bypass absolutely not.
This cannot be stressed enough.
If you have a PC that: 1. you only run games on, 2. have nothing at all on it otherwise, and 3. airgap the shit outta the whole thing, you’re still not safe. ☝🏼
Y’all do you, though. Do your research, vet all sources, and follow their instructions to the t. Good luck, fellow mariners! 😅