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 with lists of clean sites/trackers/tools etc. As long as pirates stick to those, they generally don’t have to worry about malware. Such a list is not difficult to find.
Sure, it’s possible for someone to get caught out by one of these sites or users 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.
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.
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 with lists of clean sites/trackers/tools etc. As long as pirates stick to those, they generally don’t have to worry about malware. Such a list is not difficult to find.
Sure, it’s possible for someone to get caught out by one of these sites or users 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.
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.
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.