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Blue Mammoth Games announced that later in October that the platform-fighter Brawlhalla will be getting Easy Anti-Cheat. Thankfully, they've put up a Beta for Linux users playing it on Steam Play Proton and it works.

Easy Anti-Cheat is not yet in the main version which works as normal but once they do put it live for everyone, it would have blocked Linux players using the Windows version with Steam Play Proton. When asked on Reddit, a developer mentioned this:

Thank you for the information on this. Our intent is to support as many people as possible and this should be configured correctly to support Linux. If you are able to, please use the tech-test Steam beta and check to see if EAC loads correctly. Thanks!

Testing the tech-test Beta it myself today with Proton Experimental, it does in fact work just fine and Easy Anti-Cheat is correctly loaded. When looking in the file located here (exact location depends on your Steam Library setup) "steamapps/compatdata/291550/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/EasyAntiCheat/service.log" it notes this nice and clear:

[EAC Setup] [324] [11:20:32:514] [Info] Process started, running as admin: true.
[EAC Setup] [324] [11:20:32:514] [Info] Started with 'install 2a5901f5be6545b39f551a92214978d6'.
[EAC Setup] [324] [11:20:42:522] [Info] Argument handling done, requested action: 1.
[EAC Setup] [324] [11:20:42:561] [Info] Operation 1 completed successfully.

So once Blue Mammoth Games roll out the EAC update for all players, there should be no issue continuing to play it on Linux with Proton.

How difficult is it then for developers to upgrade to a newer version of Easy Anti-Cheat to get the Proton support working for Linux players? Epic originally said it was "just a few clicks" but the reality is a little different. Developers need time to test it of course. When asked about it this developer said:

The steps are to upgrade to EOS SDK 1.17 (released September 23rd) and then enable a client module for Linux. I suspect you'll see more games with support over the next few months, especially with Steam Deck being Linux based. Most developers have longer patch timelines than we do.

All good news then, especially since Brawlhalla is a popular game that sits firmly in the top 100 on Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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mylka Oct 15, 2021
so the first EAC proton game isnt one from epic? hmmmm

Brawlhalla looks like a game made for the steamdeck. makes sense to support it
Raaben Oct 15, 2021
I'm curious though I doubt we can ever fully know, how bad is this Proton/WINE implementation of EAC security/privacy-wise? Yeah I know it'd be better to be safe and sandbox or still never play those games at all if concerned, but I'm just wondering if there's insight how it operates.
Gryxx Oct 15, 2021
QuoteHow difficult is it then for developers to upgrade to a newer version of Easy Anti-Cheat to get the Proton support working for Linux players? Epic originally said it was "just a few clicks" but the reality is a little different.
I disagree. Epic said that turning Linux support will be few clicks, not that upgrading EAC will. I fully expect that upgrading and testing EAC is not a easy task. Hopefuly most publishers will upgrade it for other benefits besides Linux support, so it will really be one flip of a switch at some point.
Corben Oct 15, 2021
Quoting: RaabenI'm curious though I doubt we can ever fully know, how bad is this Proton/WINE implementation of EAC security/privacy-wise? Yeah I know it'd be better to be safe and sandbox or still never play those games at all if concerned, but I'm just wondering if there's insight how it operates.
Same, I'm also wondering how effective EAC on Linux is, if it's not running on Kernel level as it does on Windows. I guess only time will tell. But this would also mean that more people will have to switch over to Linux (which is kinda good), if it would be easier to bypass EAC there than on Windows (which would be very bad though).
And I recently heard that even with EAC enabled there are still people successfully cheating in Fall Guys?

On the other hand, it's an evolving progress. So first we'd like to have devs enable EAC with the Linux module, then probably Epic and devs will be able to improve EAC including Linux to make it safe(r) for everybody.

And in the end, I hope those settings will become default, and not something devs have to do explicitly. I'd even prefer to have it the other way: devs would have to actively de-activate EAC in the backend for Linux (or Windows :D )
Gryxx Oct 15, 2021
Quoting: Corben
Quoting: RaabenI'm curious though I doubt we can ever fully know, how bad is this Proton/WINE implementation of EAC security/privacy-wise? Yeah I know it'd be better to be safe and sandbox or still never play those games at all if concerned, but I'm just wondering if there's insight how it operates.
Same, I'm also wondering how effective EAC on Linux is, if it's not running on Kernel level as it does on Windows. I guess only time will tell. But this would also mean that more people will have to switch over to Linux (which is kinda good), if it would be easier to bypass EAC there than on Windows (which would be very bad though).
And I recently heard that even with EAC enabled there are still people successfully cheating in Fall Guys?

On the other hand, it's an evolving progress. So first we'd like to have devs enable EAC with the Linux module, then probably Epic and devs will be able to improve EAC including Linux to make it safe(r) for everybody.

And in the end, I hope those settings will become default, and not something devs have to do explicitly. I'd even prefer to have it the other way: devs would have to actively de-activate EAC in the backend for Linux (or Windows :D )
According to developers of Robocraft it is worse. At some point they disabled EAC for anything other then Ubuntu family (on Linux Native), arguing that there were too many cheaters.
Lofty Oct 15, 2021
Quoting: RaabenI'm curious though I doubt we can ever fully know, how bad is this Proton/WINE implementation of EAC security/privacy-wise?

Quoting: CorbenSame, I'm also wondering how effective EAC on Linux is, if it's not running on Kernel level as it does on Windows.

il third that concern.


for me it's creating a situation where by i have to consider running a dedicated Linux gaming machine
((as afaik some implementations have been known to be looking through browser data, indexing file names, ip logging, sniffing packets, hardware ID data-basing etc.. and having complete machine control while the game runs)).

And then i have to potentially use another machine for even casual consumption or when im dealing with sensitive files / productivity, where as now it's all on one machine. Of course the steam deck satisfies this requirement.. that would be if it was actually more powerful than a dedicated midrange GPU from 2015.
This is paradoxical, because with terrible privacy why don't i fork out for or get a promo code for Windows and run it isolated and have 100% compatibility. Or even just get a console ? And although subscription fees maybe an argument, how much is my data privacy worth to me that could be gleaned from my anti-cheat DRM laden wine games running on my 'private' Linux machine.. on Steam + origin.
you get the picture.

Still, i understand everything is a compromise but having some knowledge as to how it works and how secure/private it is VS the windows implementation would be nice. In the end it's obvious that my next Monitor choice has to include a KVM in order to quickly switch between a DRM free Linux machine and the 'practically windows at this point' Linux gaming console.
F.Ultra Oct 15, 2021
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Quoting: RaabenI'm curious though I doubt we can ever fully know, how bad is this Proton/WINE implementation of EAC security/privacy-wise? Yeah I know it'd be better to be safe and sandbox or still never play those games at all if concerned, but I'm just wondering if there's insight how it operates.

You are already running a closed source binary (the game itself and Steam for that matter) on your system that can already do whatever they like with your system, I don't think EAC brings anything more evil to this table since it does not run in the kernel and does not require root(?).
Raaben Oct 15, 2021
Quoting: F.UltraYou are already running a closed source binary (the game itself and Steam for that matter) on your system that can already do whatever they like with your system, I don't think EAC brings anything more evil to this table since it does not run in the kernel and does not require root(?).

True, but at the same time it is an anticheat's specific job to spy on what one is doing right? It might not have root/kernel access but it can also do alot of snooping around without it.
hell0 Oct 15, 2021
Quoting: Corben
Quoting: RaabenI'm curious though I doubt we can ever fully know, how bad is this Proton/WINE implementation of EAC security/privacy-wise? Yeah I know it'd be better to be safe and sandbox or still never play those games at all if concerned, but I'm just wondering if there's insight how it operates.
Same, I'm also wondering how effective EAC on Linux is, if it's not running on Kernel level as it does on Windows. I guess only time will tell. But this would also mean that more people will have to switch over to Linux (which is kinda good), if it would be easier to bypass EAC there than on Windows (which would be very bad though).
And I recently heard that even with EAC enabled there are still people successfully cheating in Fall Guys?

I used to provide servers for several popular games years ago. I've tried to keep cheaters at bay (which is a real pita when you only partially control the server), that's how I've acquired most of my knowledge on the topic.

Client-side anti-cheats are fundamentally flawed. They try to render the client trustful by wrapping it in some thin protection, whilst running in an untrusted environment. That's the same as putting a padlock on a cardboard and leaving it without surveillance in a park overnight, expecting it to be fine and unaltered next morning. It might happen, but it won't be because of the padlock.

The truth is that any somewhat popular game will have cheats available for it. Though almost all cheats that are reliably updated to bypass anti-cheats are paid for.

Quoting: GryxxAccording to developers of Robocraft it is worse. At some point they disabled EAC for anything other then Ubuntu family (on Linux Native), arguing that there were too many cheaters.

I've played robocraft. Whilst the game was fun and enjoyable to play, they're a prime example of trying to make up for jokingly bad cheat-proofing by using third party tools. Their servers trust everything the clients send: that weapon with a fixed unalterable 10 seconds reload is ready to fire again after 0.1s you say? Sure, go ahead! That speed you can't reach with your current setup is what you're cruising at? Seems alright!

They had cheaters before using EAC, they have cheaters after adding EAC, they will have cheaters from every OS until they implement server-side counter-measures (or the game loses enough players to no longer warrant cheat creators to bother any more).


Last edited by hell0 on 15 October 2021 at 10:15 pm UTC
TheRiddick Oct 16, 2021
Quoting: hell0I've played robocraft. Whilst the game was fun and enjoyable to play, they're a prime example of trying to make up for jokingly bad cheat-proofing by using third party tools. Their servers trust everything the clients send: that weapon with a fixed unalterable 10 seconds reload is ready to fire again after 0.1s you say? Sure, go ahead! That speed you can't reach with your current setup is what you're cruising at? Seems alright!

I've been saying this allot lately too. EAC/BE as a AC measure and nothing else is called 100% lazy development! Server side rule breaking checks need to be done. I think Mortal Online 2 has server side AC going on since they discovered early on that client side only was completely pointless!
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