Running any binary that you can’t examine the source of (and confirm it was built from it without modification) is risky. It’s mostly a balance of trust and risk. Even developers have been known to insert what we could malware.
That said, if you get your cracked content from a trusted source, I’d say it’s generally safe. Otherwise, exercise extreme caution.
Is GMG an official reseller? Maybe I am out of the loop, but I thought they operated in the grey market.
GreenManGaming is a legitimate reseller, in a similar fashion to humble bundle or similar sellers.
I also do not like them because their keys if you are buying on sale for a new launch, their keys are usually UK based as they are UK based and they will not let you play on sooner launch dates, as I learned with Mirrors Edge Catalyst’s release when I wanted to play on day 1 and should have bought direct through origin, but instead now I had to wait a week, and they did not offer a refund policy.
So instead I bought the game again on origin and gave away the other key as a free giveaway to spite them 😂
I had seen other comments mentioning the same and had considered mentioning that is out of reach for a lot of people but then didn’t.
Like my PC is running STALKER 2 great on the lowest settings, but if I had to run it through a VM first I would lose a lot of performance and probably dip below 60fps.
Most games people want to pirate are brand new so telling them to do something like reformat their (probably only) PC to run baremental Linux with a Windows VM for the game is just silly and unreasonable. At that point you may as well just buy the game if you need a whole extra computer to pirate it safely.
I couldn’t possibly run brand new games in a VM and I only have one computer that can even play modern games. Silly suggestion.
If it’s a “trusted” source, as in a popular one, such as a certain link from a certain girl that is fit, yes.
Otherwise another option I’ve done for a while was buying cheap keys from greymarket type resellers, though for those I only did them from AAA publishers never putting their games on sale and on a second account (idea being you minimize risk and if something did turn out to be a stolen key, which was a problem for a while on those kinds of sites, a chargeback isn’t going to hurt a AAA publisher as much as an honest small published in house indie dev team).
GOG digitally signs their games and have no DRM, thus no need for cracks.
If you can get a hold of a GOG version, you can check its validity.
For games outside the GOG ecosystem, they are all unfortunately at risk.
I played Baldur’s Gate 3 via a pirated GOG version on release with friends until I was able to afford my own copy, then moved the saved game over to the legit copy.
Well, since I run them in Linux, they’re basically sandboxed in an environment that most malware isn’t made for, so as long as I’m downloading from reputable sources like Fitgirl or DODI, yeah. I figure my chances of picking up a virus from a source like that, given my setup, is highly unlikely.
I would say that online games anti cheat systems are probably about as bad as it gets for privacy.
As others have said its more risky to use pirated games from a digital security perspective especially if you are running it as an administrator. So its good to try and find a source you trust and monitor your system for suspicious activity.
My bet is most users here do not practice good data security and assume their “common sense” will prevent them from malicious files.
I pirate everything, but am very very reluctant to do so with software or games.
I only pirate in cases where the company involved is just too gross to support (looking at you, Adobe), or if there’s absolutely no other option.
But I consider pirated software and games absolutely suspect 100% of the time, because I’m old enough to remember when every keygen was also a keylogger, and every crack was also a rootkit and touching any pirated software was going to give you computer herpes without fail.
So maybe it’s not that bad anymore, but I mean, do you fully trust in the morals of someone who would spend the time helping you steal someone else’s shit to not add just one more little thing to it for themselves?
Exactly my thoughts. I already missed a deal on GMG twice because they’re not super clear when they’re discounts ends, and I were too late. I won’t buy a game full price on steam so unofficial key resellers are probably what I’ll use.
Since the money won’t go to the developers for sure, I thought I may as well pirate it, but yeah I’m a bit concerned about safety tbh. It isn’t anime or netflix we’re talking about.
Search for this keyword : “Fmhy”. It the acronym of free media heck yeah and It’s a curated list of safe sites. Fitgirl repack are the safest you can get.
The users themselves. Everyone that use cracked software know the binaries could potentially contain malware, so the people that share these cracked software need to build trust from the community before being called “safe” and get recommended. If ten if not hundred of thousands people use the binaries from a specific “site” or “repacker” without ever getting a virus, then it’s most certainly safe to use/download. Fitgirl is the safest and most known repacker ever (as long as you download from the official site and not some shady copycat, that is)
Considered safe only because people haven’t noticed anything malicious happening? Yeah, that’s still a no go for me; just because people haven’t noticed, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
If You can afford to pay, then cool. Most people that pirate can’t afford the games/apps anyway, so it’s not really a matter of asking if it is safe to pirate but what site are safe to pirate from. Also, Pirates tend to be tech savvy from getting screwed a few times when they were younger (Ex: me), so a good chunk most certainly know how to detect viruses.
You think you know how to detect a virus, but you only know how to detect a virus that doesn’t hide it’s actions.
It’s not about paying for software or pirating it. It’s about if you pirate software, should you run it on bare metal, a VM, or on a machine with nothing else on it.
I think pirating software is perfectly fine, but I’d never run it on bare metal on a machine with other stuff on it.
You should always use protective measures like antivirus and dropping unnecessary privileges, and use extra measures when running anything from a less trusted source.
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Running any binary that you can’t examine the source of (and confirm it was built from it without modification) is risky. It’s mostly a balance of trust and risk. Even developers have been known to insert what we could malware.
That said, if you get your cracked content from a trusted source, I’d say it’s generally safe. Otherwise, exercise extreme caution.
Is GMG an official reseller? Maybe I am out of the loop, but I thought they operated in the grey market.
GreenManGaming is a legitimate reseller, in a similar fashion to humble bundle or similar sellers.
I also do not like them because their keys if you are buying on sale for a new launch, their keys are usually UK based as they are UK based and they will not let you play on sooner launch dates, as I learned with Mirrors Edge Catalyst’s release when I wanted to play on day 1 and should have bought direct through origin, but instead now I had to wait a week, and they did not offer a refund policy.
So instead I bought the game again on origin and gave away the other key as a free giveaway to spite them 😂
Probably G2A you’re thinking of, I’m pretty certain GMG are official.
thats why i always run close source software in bwrap. not only cracked games.
hmm… lets see. Do I buy and download the game filled with a rootkit or download the version that doesn’t have one?
DODI repacks 4 lyf
Also FitGirl. Often she repacks DODI’s repacks, but makes them much smaller for those with slow connections or limited bandwidth.
💯 been using FitGirl repacks since 2014, never ever had any issues.
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depends on the source, but generally no, run the game in a vm or container
do you need a powerful PC for that though?
for a vm yes, but depending on the game you can just firejail and block internet access
You do, especially if its a new game.
I had seen other comments mentioning the same and had considered mentioning that is out of reach for a lot of people but then didn’t.
Like my PC is running STALKER 2 great on the lowest settings, but if I had to run it through a VM first I would lose a lot of performance and probably dip below 60fps.
Most games people want to pirate are brand new so telling them to do something like reformat their (probably only) PC to run baremental Linux with a Windows VM for the game is just silly and unreasonable. At that point you may as well just buy the game if you need a whole extra computer to pirate it safely.
I couldn’t possibly run brand new games in a VM and I only have one computer that can even play modern games. Silly suggestion.
Consider splitting the costs with your friends on GoG?
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If it’s a “trusted” source, as in a popular one, such as a certain link from a certain girl that is fit, yes.
Otherwise another option I’ve done for a while was buying cheap keys from greymarket type resellers, though for those I only did them from AAA publishers never putting their games on sale and on a second account (idea being you minimize risk and if something did turn out to be a stolen key, which was a problem for a while on those kinds of sites, a chargeback isn’t going to hurt a AAA publisher as much as an honest small published in house indie dev team).
GOG digitally signs their games and have no DRM, thus no need for cracks.
If you can get a hold of a GOG version, you can check its validity.
For games outside the GOG ecosystem, they are all unfortunately at risk.
I played Baldur’s Gate 3 via a pirated GOG version on release with friends until I was able to afford my own copy, then moved the saved game over to the legit copy.
Well, since I run them in Linux, they’re basically sandboxed in an environment that most malware isn’t made for, so as long as I’m downloading from reputable sources like Fitgirl or DODI, yeah. I figure my chances of picking up a virus from a source like that, given my setup, is highly unlikely.
That is not entirely true. You can still get windows viruses true wine. And wine isn’t sandboxed.
I think he mean bottle(flatpak) when he talk about sandbox
I would say that online games anti cheat systems are probably about as bad as it gets for privacy.
As others have said its more risky to use pirated games from a digital security perspective especially if you are running it as an administrator. So its good to try and find a source you trust and monitor your system for suspicious activity.
My bet is most users here do not practice good data security and assume their “common sense” will prevent them from malicious files.
No.
I pirate everything, but am very very reluctant to do so with software or games.
I only pirate in cases where the company involved is just too gross to support (looking at you, Adobe), or if there’s absolutely no other option.
But I consider pirated software and games absolutely suspect 100% of the time, because I’m old enough to remember when every keygen was also a keylogger, and every crack was also a rootkit and touching any pirated software was going to give you computer herpes without fail.
So maybe it’s not that bad anymore, but I mean, do you fully trust in the morals of someone who would spend the time helping you steal someone else’s shit to not add just one more little thing to it for themselves?
Technically it is not stealing, because it is a digital good. 🤓
Always worth rolling those dice - think of the amazing trackers jams!
Exactly my thoughts. I already missed a deal on GMG twice because they’re not super clear when they’re discounts ends, and I were too late. I won’t buy a game full price on steam so unofficial key resellers are probably what I’ll use.
Since the money won’t go to the developers for sure, I thought I may as well pirate it, but yeah I’m a bit concerned about safety tbh. It isn’t anime or netflix we’re talking about.
IsThereAnyDeal.com helps a lot with knowing when it’s worth to buy a game.
Search for this keyword : “Fmhy”. It the acronym of free media heck yeah and It’s a curated list of safe sites. Fitgirl repack are the safest you can get.
how do you know they are safe? who is auditing the binaries?
The users themselves. Everyone that use cracked software know the binaries could potentially contain malware, so the people that share these cracked software need to build trust from the community before being called “safe” and get recommended. If ten if not hundred of thousands people use the binaries from a specific “site” or “repacker” without ever getting a virus, then it’s most certainly safe to use/download. Fitgirl is the safest and most known repacker ever (as long as you download from the official site and not some shady copycat, that is)
Considered safe only because people haven’t noticed anything malicious happening? Yeah, that’s still a no go for me; just because people haven’t noticed, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
I hope you compile all your own software from verified sources then rather than downloading a ready-built Linux distro with binary packages.
If You can afford to pay, then cool. Most people that pirate can’t afford the games/apps anyway, so it’s not really a matter of asking if it is safe to pirate but what site are safe to pirate from. Also, Pirates tend to be tech savvy from getting screwed a few times when they were younger (Ex: me), so a good chunk most certainly know how to detect viruses.
You think you know how to detect a virus, but you only know how to detect a virus that doesn’t hide it’s actions.
It’s not about paying for software or pirating it. It’s about if you pirate software, should you run it on bare metal, a VM, or on a machine with nothing else on it.
I think pirating software is perfectly fine, but I’d never run it on bare metal on a machine with other stuff on it.
Nothing is ever really safe. If a developer or publisher gets compromised, an attacker could put malware in an official release and push it through Steam. https://outshift.cisco.com/blog/top-10-supply-chain-attacks
You should always use protective measures like antivirus and dropping unnecessary privileges, and use extra measures when running anything from a less trusted source.
I only trust two things when I pirate games: official GOG installers and FitGirl repacks.