Short answer: no
Long answer: only the most important things should even have such low-level access to the system. A fucking game is not in that category. Nooooooo
this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2025
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Obligatory Fuck Denuvo. If I had virtually infinite money, I'd do a hostile takeover of Denuvo and burn it to the ground.
It's relatively trivial, you just need to write a kernel module. You'd just need/want to make it gpl so everything it does is fully audited and transparent. That's not a problem, is it? Right?
From a technical standpoint, you could argue that someone could create a fork of the kernel that spoofs the interface that the anticheat uses to make it ignore things. You can, of course, also do something similar in Windows, but security theatre never let practicality get in the way.
Every IT-literate person fights kernel-lvl malware disguising as games with everything they got.
Since Linux has a high percentage of those, I hope those "solutions" will never spread
I can't wait until I am able to give random programs kernel access on my system! That doesn't sound problematic in the least! After all, I have the fullest confidence that for companies developing anticheat, my security is their highest concern! /s
@phantomwise @SpiderUnderUrBed Every program on your system has "kernel access", it's called "syscalls", but actually being able to modify the kernel, that is another matter.
lol 🤣. Aren't you a tech guy?
He's just being pedantic.
Technically 'ls' has kernel access because it depends on system calls in order to produce its output.
System calls are the mechanisms through which programs request services from the Linux kernel, allowing them to perform tasks like file management, process control, and device management. Any program that's running on your machine has the access required to make syscalls and so you could say they have access to the kernel. They won't have kernel-level privileges, so they can't act as the kernel, but they do have access. Obviously the original user was referring to kernel anti-cheat modules which act as the kernel with all of the same privileges.
Doesn't Splitgate 2 have kernel level anti cheat that works on Linux? Maybe it is "trapped" inside wine/proton but they explicitly made it work and people are thanking them on steam discussions.
Helldivers 2 works (or at least used to when I played it) as well, while requiring kernel access on windows
From technical point of view it is possible. eBPF already has almost everything needed for doing that. And I think it can be done with a simple LKM but if they want it included in the main tree I'm sure they'll get some colorful email from Linus.
I really want to see that email.
No.
No Wine/Proton cannot translate calls that run too deep into the Kernel
Couldn't it use some kind of partial kernel emulation to make kernel level anticheat think it's working?
I surely hope they never will, no user program should ever be allowed to run at kernel level, that's what malware does.
I personally avoid those kind of games, but those who won't can dual-boot.
Or...just don't play those games.
99% of their communities are more toxic than radioactive waste. And, they are not open source and they don't respect privacy. Because they are greedy.
All true. And yet, plenty of people do want to play those games. And there are other games (Borked) which also cannot be played no matter what. Really annoying, that.
Yeah, some people are just stubborn. By some i mean most. You gotta adapt, what do you think evolution's trying to tell you?
Same
I sure hope not. Play on someone else's pc if you want them to have control.
kernel level anti cheat is malware
abandon ranked, return to private lobbies
It is probably actually easier to create on linux as it is foss and there are also good projects like eBPF which can maybe even simplify and make it more secure.
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