Anti cheats on linux
Anti cheats on linux
The launch of BattlEye on GTA Online and the growing use of Linux via Steam Deck have increased attention on anti-cheat matters. Despite recent shifts in Windows and the popularity of Linux, there seems to be less focus on ensuring anti-cheat systems function well on Linux. And will there ever be a future where this issue is fully addressed?
Anti-cheat solutions like BattlEye are fully compatible with Linux. Many businesses, such as Rockstar, have opted out of this feature when they integrated BattlEye into GTA Online. Additionally, the YouTuber SomeOrdinaryGamers successfully circumvented the anti-cheat using a virtual machine and applied a kernel-level patch from a GitHub source to run GTA Online on Linux. Overall, I’m more worried about the fact that the anti-cheat operates at the kernel level than about Rockstar abandoning Linux support entirely.
Sure, if Linux has strong kernel-level anti-cheat support, it can be more secure than Windows. Security concerns are serious, especially with powerful companies like Nvidia involved.
However seriously... does Linux warn you when a program is about to significantly alter your kernel? On Windows there isn't such a feature, which means users might not be fully aware of what they're installing. Most often it just asks if you want to let the program modify system settings—which is essentially what almost every game does, so people usually agree to it in order to play!
When game developers realize that purchasing the game on Linux platforms surpasses the development costs of anti-cheat systems—especially when turning those tools into kernel modules for each distro and kernel version—the expense becomes very steep. This approach would likely be more aggressive than on Windows, since Linux is fundamentally different. Support for SteamOS could emerge only if most Linux users rely on Steam Deck, making it a console experience rather than a traditional PC setup.
It's also relatively less concerning on SteamOS since it's mainly for gaming, which means the chances of someone stealing your bank details through a rootkit are much lower. Still, using kernel-level anti-cheat seems like a poor fix because if the cheat operates at that level, you're essentially wasting effort. It doesn't seem like a viable path forward without forcing the game onto a dedicated machine where users have no control, such as consoles. Moving it to a streaming-only setup would eliminate client-side code, which is ideal for competitive gaming but sacrifices low latency and image clarity. I often questioned whether they could simply sandbox the game, though I think the real issue is detecting if someone is exploiting the sandbox from the hypervisor. My interest in online gaming faded long ago because I kept getting unfair advantages and never knew if it was me or others cheating.
I don't believe it will ever be resolved at the prevention stage. The detection in GTA V was so minimal it looked suspicious. You're suggesting someone could trap all players in a room without any server-side intervention, and no system seems to notice anything odd. Probably the problem lies in the fact that there are very few servers, just peer-to-peer connections... still, basic player safeguards might be necessary to stop another client from performing clearly impossible actions. Regarding Linux, it's essentially a straightforward math challenge for Rockstar. Whether the 2% of Linux gamers is worth the effort and investment they put into supporting the platform remains unclear. It seems they've chosen not to proceed.
The cheat possesses all the same capabilities as the anti-cheat and can identify any odd behavior.