I am looking for help on how to run closed source / pirated games on linux within a virtual machine. I would like to start by saying if I could walk into a shop and buy with cash, a game on a CD like in the old days I would. I have recently become very privacy conscious and until I figure out a way to anonymously and privately purchase things like this I am going to stick with pirating. Also, it is helping me to archive content as everything seems to be moving online and I want to stick with offline applications / media etc in my control.
Now, I am familiar with virtualbox but of course, it is no good for gaming. I have read about other applications that offer much better performance with support for GPU passthrough or similar (but how does this affect the security side of things when running pirated games). Forgive me, this is all quite new to me.
What I want is a virtual machine capable of gaming so that I can more safely run pirated games on linux. Also, I am very new to linux and some help in how I should actually go about running games on linux in the first place. I do not want to just install steam because it has closed source elements and being more privacy conscious now, I’m not sure I want to. Though I am aware I can use the proton layer to enable gaming support which I believe is fully open source. For my purposes lutris sounds like it may be the route to go. Thoughts on this welcome.
As a side note, I am thinking of signing up to GOG as they, to me, seem like a better alternative to steam where I can actually own a DRM free copy of a game that I buy. On a pirating note I thought locating signed, hash checked GOG installers to be a good option for security for dipping my toe into pirating games on linux. I am much, much more comfortable with detecting and removing malware in a windows ecosystem. Linux, completely foreign. So I am trying to be careful.
Once I get fully set up I plan to buy the games I enjoy on GOG, I think that will be the path I can be most comfortable with. At the end of the day I will own a DRM free copy of the game itself. That is the best I can do where I cannot get it on physical media I think. I already do this for CD’s and DVD’s etc.
Any help would be appreciated, thank you.
Doesn’t wine expose your system disk as disk Z to programs? Any info stealer can potentially find your
.mozillaor.chromiumdirectory and upload it to some server.The point is, none of this is a security layer. The risk is probably low, but it should be properly understood and mitigated - which OP is trying to do.
that’s where a system like flatpak comes in. you shouldn’t have easy rw access to you entire home directory.
i know flatpak has holes but if that complicates malware made for windows, that’d be it for now.
not saying the risk doesn’t exist though. maybe firejail or something would be more complete security.
Exactly my thoughts. If the credential stealer is coded halfway competently, it doesn’t matter if the creds lay on C: or Z:
After all, WINE is trying to emulate Windows with all its quirks and features, which will also mean that it runs Windows viruses perfectly fine. Heck, I think WINE can probably run Windows viruses better than Windows itself.