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PayPalKernel-level anti-cheat feels like it's everywhere now, and will remain a thorn in Valve's side for the new Steam Machine powered by SteamOS Linux.
On Linux, there's no kernel-level mode available for anti-cheats like they would use on Windows. I know plenty of readers, and gamers across the net probably see it as a benefit due to privacy concerns, and that's fine - but it doesn't change what a lot of people want to play that can't.
This is something many bigger games simply don't want to pull away from including the likes of Call of Duty, Vanguard from Riot, EA Javelin for Battlefield and so on. While we do have some anti-cheat vendors that support Linux like Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye (and a few others), it's user-mode with no kernel-level and many developers really don't like that.
Valve's Steam Deck helped a fair bit, with a number of titles that do have something enabled for Linux systems at least, like with the popular ARC Raiders. What about the Steam Machine though? And even the Steam Frame since it also uses SteamOS, and can play standalone games?
Eurogamer spoke to Valve on this, with Valve believing it will help things:
"While [the] Steam Machine also requires Dev participation to enable anti-cheat, we think the incentives for enabling Anti- cheat on Machine to be higher than on Deck as we expect more people to play multiplayer games on it. So ultimately we hope that the launch of Machine will change the equation around anti-cheat support and increase its support."
The problem is, the Steam Machine needs to actually sell, and probably a lot more than the Steam Deck has managed so far to actually put a dent in things for the bigger publishers to even begin to take notice and certainly above the 3% Linux overall is at currently on Steam.
Not just the AAA lot, but games like Rust too. Alistair McFarlane from Facepunch Studios recently replied on Reddit to a request to have it enabled, and replied to note:
"There are no plans to support Proton or Linux. It’s a vector for cheat developers, and one that would be poorly maintained by both us and EAC due to the low user base. When we stopped support for Linux, we saw more cheat users exploiting Linux, than actual legitimate users.
When monitoring cheats for Rust, we keep a close eye on wider cheat communities across several major games. We look at what cheat developers are doing, and how other studios are responding.
From that experience, I’m very comfortable saying that if a game supports Proton or Linux, they’re not serious about anti-cheat. The only exception would be if they have a fully mature, dedicated in-house anti-cheat team, even then, I'm not seeing anyone handle Proton and Linux well.
Apex Legends also dropped Proton support in October 2024 for the same reasons as we did several years ago.
Could we limit Proton to Premium servers? yes, but I think it's total bullshit asking Proton users to buy the game and then $15 worth of DLC. I'd be pissed if I were forced to do that.
When we stopped supporting Linux, users made up less than .01% of the total player base, even if that number has doubled, or tripled, it's not worth it.
I know that every time I post something like this, some Proton and Linux users call us lazy or dismissive. The reality is that fighting cheaters on one front (Windows), is already a never-ending battle. Adding more fronts multiplies that challenge without adding meaningful benefit to the wider player base."
A similar story for Apex Legends where their team noted they saw a "meaningful reduction in the amount of cheating recently" once they blocked Linux. In that article we also referenced the same McFarlane from Facepunch, who made a similar comment years ago. Nothing there has changed it seems.
So even if the Steam Machine sells a bunch, this is a technical problem that needs solving. Who will be the ones to do it? Valve or game publishers / developers? It's going to be complicated.
We're currently tracking it on our own curated dedicated anti-cheat compatibility page. You can see just from that how some of the most popular games around simply won't work at all. You can also follow our anti-cheat article tag. We'll be sure to keep you up to date on the Linux / SteamOS anti-cheat situation as it develops.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I may seem like an amateur, and I am, but why not create a specific linux kernel for this kind of games ?These only try to fix the symptoms, not the problem. The problem isn't that they cannot keep all the cheaters out. Cheaters will always exist. The problem is that we cannot control the servers and kick them ourselves. And the solution to that is dedicated servers.
An other option is that when you enter the steam gamemode, and a game is launched, the steam environment with the game is sandboxed.
Third solution: reimplement user kick voting
Last edited by Aron on 14 Nov 2025 at 10:24 am UTC
Kernel updates come at least on a weekly basis ...yes, this is why I was thinking that trusted companies could push the hashes to a server. This is something that could be easily automatized.
From my own viewing of Rust gameplay videos, it is clear to me that the game suffers loads of cheaters, entirely from the Windows side of the game, because they can't play (on those servers) without Anti-Cheat in place. My impression is that even if the (estimated) 1% marketshare of Linux players was playing Rust, that number of players in the system would still be dwarfed by the total Windows cheaters.
Garry - It's only an attack vector if it seriously dents the marketshare of Windows cheaters (which it clearly doesn't, especially if we go with your 0.01% Linux marketshare).
Mountain Man 1 hour ago
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@ElectricPrism
If your game doesn't FULLY work on the new 2026 STEAM MACHINE, you are ineligible to be in the FEATURED GAMES BILLBOARD on the HOMEPAGE.Great solution... assuming your goal is get Valve sued for monopolistic practices.
Last edited by Mountain Man on 14 Nov 2025 at 1:10 pm UTC
I mean Red Hat develop tainted kernel a long time ago: https://docs.kernel.org/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.html
and a big part of anti-cheat is just improvement over that.
Of course, you would need signed kernel, which would be a deal-breaker for a lot of user.
That would also make anti-cheat unusable with proprietary drivers (so no Nvidia GPU), and would mean that a big part of the anti-cheat would be Free software, and I'm sure peoples working on anti-cheat have no idea how to contribute code.
But if some company starts doing that, I guess this is doable.
Also, kernel-cheat might be a problem today, but kernel anti-cheat can't do anything against hardware cheat, so at some point most anti-cheat will move from kernel-side to AI side. (no sure if it is good news though)
Turkeysteaks 49 minutes ago
And I do agree that (kernel level) anticheat is... not great, and obviously has the potential to be a really dangerous backdoor. But the truth is that many, many players DO enjoy these types of games - I personally love battlefield and still play BF4 frequently; I used to enjoy COD and played WWII up until it was no longer safe to play and I spent years waiting for MW2019 to work on linux before it was obvious that would 'never' be possible.
I love Counter Strike, and I'm very glad it has had a native client for as long as I can remember - but the fact is that it does have a large cheater problem. CS2 in particular had the top ranks of premier filled with cheaters (whose name advertised their cheat configs) and I have personally seen several cheaters throughout my gameplay. Even 'ragehackers' were fairly common, though it has gotten a little better in the last few months. Cheaters stay cheating unbanned for months sometimes. I use leetify to track when cheaters are banned.
Valorant? barely has any cheaters. Players are notified that the odd cheater they do find is banned the same game they play against them. Their anticheat clearly does work, and unfortunately that is a fact. FaceIt for CS2 is pretty similarly cheater-free from my understanding, and that is Windows only due to anticheat reasons.
For highly competitive games, it can be a necessary evil - MW2019/Warzone players begged for a kernel level anticheat in the hopes it would even alleviate their issues.
What I'm trying to get at too is that this is not just a problem for the people that play those games - Linux just won't be able to grow as much as it should if there is not some way or another to get round these issues. It is a problem that will honestly effect every linux user, not just competitive FPS/MOBA players. Serverside anticheat is not as easy as it sounds, and it's not just because of server costs that companies don't rely on it. I hope it will one day solve the issue though.
One question, could we not just sign the linux kernel and other parts, so that the anti cheat program would know that nothing has been altered? I am thinking about something like steam hosting a list of trusted hashes and that any company that is trusted by steam can push new hashes for theier compiled linux kernels there.What you're describing is measured boot + remote attestation (typically implemented using Secure Boot and a TPM). It is indeed the technical solution to ensure that a remote peer only runs approved software. I'd agree to use such a solution for official competitions with a cash prize but not for casual gaming where I want to keep full control on my system.
IMO cheating in casual gaming is more of a social problem and requires social solutions. An obvious solution is to stop making free-to-play games. Another one is to link accounts with real identities using eIDs or such − I'd personally be OK with that if done properly, your opinion may vary.
IMO cheating in casual gaming is more of a social problem and requires social solutions. An obvious solution is to stop making free-to-play games. Another one is to link accounts with real identities using eIDs or such − I'd personally be OK with that if done properly, your opinion may vary.
How would any of this solve the cheating problem, without technical anti-cheat?
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