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Safest way to run pirated games? (lemmy.getmeotter.work)

submitted 5 months ago by biscoot@lemmy.getmeotter.work to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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What's best practice to safely play pirated games on Linux? Looking to mitigate potentially malicious executables from wrecking havoc on my system.

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[-] lemmefixdat4u@lemmy.world 11 points 5 months ago

Have a machine dedicated to gaming, no Internet access, with a swappable SSD. Make a clean OS install. Clone it to an external backup drive, then disconnect the backup. Install and play. If you want to play another game, format the drive, clone the OS from the external backup, install and play. If you want to play multiple games, have them on different SSD drives.

It's hardware sandboxing.

[-] Toribor@corndog.social 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

If you're this concerned you might as well be running Windows in a VM with gpu passthrough.

[-] hackris@lemmy.ml 4 points 5 months ago

Very good solution. However, what benefit does the user get by formatting the drive every time a new game is to be installed? I mean, the thing already doesn't have internet access and no important data is on the drive anyway. Am I missing something?

[-] ridethisbike@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

Well you have to get the install files moved over to the sandboxed PC somehow. If it is infected and you plug in the USB drive or whatever that goes back and forth, you could spread the virus through it.