Remember when Sony put Windows-Rootkits on Audio-CDs

[Ko-Duke]

good old sony didnt tell you, that if you insert a Audio-CD(2005ish) in you PC it will install a rootkit, a microsoft developer who worked on anti rootkit software found it on his private PC.....
Wiki-Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal#XCP_rootkit
How it was found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqWjq2SdzpI (the dude is a legende, he makes great videos )

From the Wiki "Soon after Russinovich's first post, several trojans and worms exploiting XCP's security holes appeared.[13] Some even used the vulnerabilities to cheat in online games.[14]" lol

[Khaylain]

Indeed

[Kiggles]

^^ probably until people understand the risk they're getting into. So long as there is another innocent consumer defending the decision on faulty grounds that the devs won't spy, this topic needs to be repeated.

Sometimes I wonder if people need to shoot themselves to believe russian roulette is dangerous. Sadly, even between this and other examples of unscrupulous use/exploitation of rootkits goal posts will be moved to demand harmful examples for the specific rootkit.

https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2005-0295/

When it is provided people will again move goal posts claiming "it's old! Give a recent example.", "The exploit doesn't exist in the version we're getting." As if they can't understand precedent.

And for anyone reading, I'm included among rootkit apologists. I'm the guy perfectly willing to grant installing this stuff if the 'protected' software in question can reasonably stand to benefit from that protection.

[DudeBro69]

Gamers are too weak.

We've lost every battle and have now reached the rootkit era and this game is another lost battle.

[00]

does steam test for that kind of stuff? if a rootkit was to be found now in a game, could that dev be sued? How do we go about checking to see if there is a rootkit already on our pc?

[Khaylain]

Originally posted by 00:

does steam test for that kind of stuff? if a rootkit was to be found now in a game, could that dev be sued? How do we go about checking to see if there is a rootkit already on our pc?

You have a list here that includes a bit more than just rootkit anti-cheat, but anything with BattlEye, Easy Anti Cheat, Game Guard, XIGNCODE3, Ricochet Anti-Cheat, or EQU8 seems to be compromising your kernel. See https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_games_with_anti-cheat_technology
From what I gathered PunkBuster and FairFight are not kernel level.
So you can search up how to remove those kernel level ones, they might have slightly different ways to try to remove them.

Kernel level anti-cheat can generally be called rootkits[en.wikipedia.org] because they "enable access to a computer or an area of its software that is not otherwise allowed"

There's some help in some curators: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/31718523-Rootkit-Anti-Cheats/
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/26136058-Games-That-Hate-You/
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/26095454-Denuvo-Games/

You can probably find some others that cater more specifically to you as well, this was just a few I know about already.

[Kiggles]

Originally posted by 00:

does steam test for that kind of stuff? if a rootkit was to be found now in a game, could that dev be sued? How do we go about checking to see if there is a rootkit already on our pc?

Most any anti-cheat in PC gaming today is a "rootkit".
You probably have some of them installed, naive to the risk they pose (it is a very small odd of being exploited, just a matter of severity).
Check the list
https://levvvel.com/games-with-kernel-level-anti-cheat-software/

Have one of those games installed? You have a 'rootkit' on your PC.
EVER have (some) of those installed, but since removed? You may STILL have a 'rootkit' on your PC. Gameguard USED to not uninstall itself with associated games. That's sort of changed in the last few years.

But that's the problem. Steam DOES tell you about these things. But it's still up to you to understand the risk and weigh the risks.