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Running any binary that you can't examine the source of (and confirm it was built from it without modification) is risky. It's mostly a balance of trust and risk. Even developers have been known to insert what we could malware.
That said, if you get your cracked content from a trusted source, I'd say it's generally safe. Otherwise, exercise extreme caution.
Is GMG an official reseller? Maybe I am out of the loop, but I thought they operated in the grey market.
DODI repacks 4 lyf
Also FitGirl. Often she repacks DODI's repacks, but makes them much smaller for those with slow connections or limited bandwidth.
I only trust two things when I pirate games: official GOG installers and FitGirl repacks.
GOG digitally signs their games and have no DRM, thus no need for cracks.
If you can get a hold of a GOG version, you can check its validity.
For games outside the GOG ecosystem, they are all unfortunately at risk.
I played Baldur's Gate 3 via a pirated GOG version on release with friends until I was able to afford my own copy, then moved the saved game over to the legit copy.
Run them in a sandboxed VM?
VM escaping is not impossible, but its probably outside of the ability of most cracked games with malware.
Even better; Go with a bare metal linux install, and then use a sandboxed VM.
Even less malware is going to be able to VM escape and then also have any idea of what to do in a linux environment, purely because the vast, vast majority of ~~exploits~~ (I should say malware, not exploits per se) are designed to fuck up Windows.
Is this perfectly safe?
No, but nothing is.
Any legitimately purchased game with closed source, kernel level anti cheat could be doing literally anything to your PC, and you wouldn't know.
No.
I pirate everything, but am very very reluctant to do so with software or games.
I only pirate in cases where the company involved is just too gross to support (looking at you, Adobe), or if there's absolutely no other option.
But I consider pirated software and games absolutely suspect 100% of the time, because I'm old enough to remember when every keygen was also a keylogger, and every crack was also a rootkit and touching any pirated software was going to give you computer herpes without fail.
So maybe it's not that bad anymore, but I mean, do you fully trust in the morals of someone who would spend the time helping you steal someone else's shit to not add just one more little thing to it for themselves?
every keygen was also a keylogger
Always worth rolling those dice - think of the amazing trackers jams!
Technically it is not stealing, because it is a digital good. 🤓
Exactly my thoughts. I already missed a deal on GMG twice because they're not super clear when they're discounts ends, and I were too late. I won't buy a game full price on steam so unofficial key resellers are probably what I'll use.
Since the money won't go to the developers for sure, I thought I may as well pirate it, but yeah I'm a bit concerned about safety tbh. It isn't anime or netflix we're talking about.
Search for this keyword : "Fmhy". It the acronym of free media heck yeah and It's a curated list of safe sites. Fitgirl repack are the safest you can get.
how do you know they are safe? who is auditing the binaries?
The users themselves. Everyone that use cracked software know the binaries could potentially contain malware, so the people that share these cracked software need to build trust from the community before being called "safe" and get recommended. If ten if not hundred of thousands people use the binaries from a specific "site" or "repacker" without ever getting a virus, then it's most certainly safe to use/download. Fitgirl is the safest and most known repacker ever (as long as you download from the official site and not some shady copycat, that is)
Yeah, i haven't had anything go wrong in at least a decade.
"cracked games" are different from "pirated games".
I'd be wary of cracked games. Pirated games that aren't cracked, much less-so
Plundering in the early-mid 00' was dicey but in the last ten years I think the only problem I've had was getting a tarbomb once and even that could have an honest mistake on the part of noob coder. I am a little wary of games that have online hacks and normally block all online features. Honestly you have to be more careful with torrent client than anything. Most of them try to back door a ton of garbage when you first install them. And yeah always use a vpn or you'll get angry messages from your isp.
Consider splitting the costs with your friends on GoG?
Nothing is ever really safe. If a developer or publisher gets compromised, an attacker could put malware in an official release and push it through Steam. https://outshift.cisco.com/blog/top-10-supply-chain-attacks
You should always use protective measures like antivirus and dropping unnecessary privileges, and use extra measures when running anything from a less trusted source.
No I am of few means and I wait until games are on sale. Like Solasta I waited for until I got a good deal. There's really no rush. As an exception I paid full price for BG3 because Larian have shown extraordinary community spirit.
Running executables from whatever source is scary.
I run them under a different user, but the same for non-pirated games.