the simple solution would be to put every game into a sandbox by default
this post was submitted on 21 May 2026
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Every program ideally should be in a sandbox and if it wants permission to access something it should have to ask for it.
Kind of like Android or iOS.
Flatpak tries to accomplish this on Desktop, and it works, but isn't as comprehensive as something like Android or iOS.
On the extreme side, there is QubesOS, which runs every app in a dedicated virtual machine, including the networking stack.
Flatpak also doesn't ask for permissions. If an app requires a new one does it just add it upon update?
I believe so.
I think either Bazaar or GNOME software center does tell you if an app asks for more permissions, I forgot which one though
I've never seen a flatpak prompt me for permissions. If it needs something it didn't have it just silently fails for me and I have to guess what permission it needed manually using flatseal. Is that normal or am I setup wrong?
Is that what proton does on Linux?
No, that's just to make Windows programs/games run on Linux. But you can e.g. use the Flatpack version of Steam to Sandbox Steam and its games (https://docs.flatpak.org/en/latest/sandbox-permissions.html)
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Those are my favourite type of game.
/s
And compaines wonder why we have trust issues.
Joke's on them. I just put games in my library and never install them.
That's the horror part. It's part of the immersion.
Shouldn't Valve be scanning for these types of things!? The alarming part is that players had to find it
There are so many games on Steam and every day a few hundred more are added. I assume there are automated checks and rudimentary malware scans in place but those aren't fault proof.
This appears to have originally been published as a totally different non-malware game. Either the original dev got their account taken over or turned heel, because the entire game was replaced with the malware game as an update to an existing game rather than a new published game.
I'm only speculating as I don't know much about the Steam publishing process, but I wonder if that helped the malware sneak past more rigorous checks which would happen on a totally-new upload.
Couldn't they just put the malware in encrypted compression files that the game unpacks on the client end?
When I first published a game on steam, valve kept blocking it because I had checked "controller support" and they tested it and said it didn't work with controllers. I tried to find any controller that didn't work, asked a lot of people to test it for me as well, no issues whatsoever. Gave up and unchecked that option. Game got approved. Players used controllers just fine, I went back and checked it and never heard anything from valve again.
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(3 replies)
Scanners are only going to pick up known "off the shelf" malware. They are never going to pick up something bespoke that the developers wrote themselves.
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When is valve removing windows 11?
Isn't that exactly what SteamOS is doing?
When you buy a Steam Deck or Steam Machine.
They can't. It's not sold through Steam.
"Valve removes free game"
What? Why are they removing free games??? Oooooh, they must want you to pick the paid games....
"after players discover it contains malware that steals your data"
Oh. Well that's a very good reason to remove it. Thanks Valve!
Once wasm 64 bit deploys more, we should migrate as much as possible to it.
That at least will make it harder to access random files and keys from disk due to the sandboxing.
Sandbox escapes are still possible, but that’s an additional level of control we can enforce.
Nothing's free in Waterworld.
to be devils advocate, that is pretty scary.
Yikes!
They had to do one thing...
But it was a "feature"
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