Yeah, I trust Riot and Valve more than I trust Sony or the developers of Lethal Company or Among Us. Even with higher privs than those other companies get.
Because if PubG is compromised, I’m just as vulnerable as I am if Riot is compromised.
I get the technical difference, but when you combine it with practicality, it doesn’t make much difference on one hand. On the other, it does remove cheaters from my games.
If I cared that much I’d have ALL my games on a separate OS anyway. Maybe I will at some point.
What are you talking about!? It makes all of the difference. I know a game can’t break my system, I know a game can’t erase files I keep under root user, I know a game can’t write outside of a very limited set of folders my user has write permissions, the moment you allow games to run on root all of these go out the window.
On the other, it does remove cheaters from my games.
Sure, because games that do this have no cheaters… What bubble do you live under? Do you think that games like Dota or CS have more cheaters than Ghost of Tsushima? Literally games that have a competitive scene which is so big that’s televised in sports channels don’t need root access, but a co-op map on a game does!?
And that’s without getting into the fact that client side anti-cheat is a losing battle, you could even have full control of the hardware and software and still wouldn’t be 100% secure.
a very limited set of folders my user has write permissions
On Windows?
files I keep under root user
On Windows? That’s not common practice.
a game can’t break my system
Is this like how you can’t get viruses without granting root?
Without root/admin access, on windows programs can’t write in several important folders. By root user they meant program files, system 32 and all those “system files”, which, surprise, are root files.
A hacked kernel level program can modify system files and set up a keylogger that doesn’t even register on the program monitor, and it can send your information and you wouldn’t even notice it without monitoring your outbound packets, so you won’t.
Any other program would ask you admin/root access and if that’s weird behaviour you can deny it and investigate, kernel level programs have it by default so if they have an exploitable vulnerability, you are fucked by default. It’s a huge difference and the fact that you are not acknowledging it makes me feel like you really don’t understand how code works.
Also, don’t put riot and valve in the same bag. PLEASE.
No, on Linux, like the Steam Deck that OP mentioned. Windows was never mentioned here until you brought it up, and even there you’re wrong, kernel level anti-cheat doesn’t have the same level of access than any random game, even on Windows. Even Windows, with it’s janky security measures, has some level of containment around users, even on Windows regular users can’t edit system files or other users files, even on Windows a virus without root has a lot less access than a virus you give root access, and by having an interface that allows games to gain root access you’ve given viruses a new path to privesc. I recommend you read some more on cyber security and programming before saying something like “userspace == kernel level”, because that’s the same as someone attempting to discuss astrophysics with people who have masters on it while claiming the earth is flat. There’s a whole field of study into how security can be compromised to go from userspace to kernel level, handwaving it away because you think your user’s documents are the important part of a system is reductive at best and malicious at worst.