this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2026
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Generally I'd say they're one of the most dangerous things you could voluntarily run on your PC. As someone whose education and profession is in infosec, games are one of the things I refuse to pirate because the risk is just too high for me.
Just running an untrusted exe from a shady source is enough to make my hair stand on end but the idea of intentionally replacing low level hypervisor components makes me run away screaming.
FWIW, the type of games that require HV bypasses are ones that I would pass on because the "legitimate" DRM is basically equally as scary from a security perspective.
Everyone's risk tolerance is different though. 🤷♂️
Do you really work in infosec? Just have a separate machine/dual boot.
You can verify game files against known good hashes as well, and in non denowo cases run cracks in sandboxes or vms.
The same basis practices you'd use to analyse malware apply
Dual boot isn't really a great idea for that. Too many root kits and worse sitting out there. You're always a zero day away from getting fucked over.
I think the ideal scenario would be to have a box just for the cracked stuff. Don't use that box to log into your real mail or your Steam account or anything.
For most people, gaming is easily the most heavy, slush, stressful thing their computer goes through, so just do all your other work on something less powerful and only run hacked shit on your more expensive box and keep it on isolation network.
I don't trust a box full of cracked software any more or less than I trust my microwave that refuses to keep time unless it's connected to Wi-Fi.
How many things have been able to jump through secure boot uefi? You don't really need to be max security all the time. Like realistically most people are installing dozens of completely untrustworthy pieces of software.
Safe from 99% of low effort malware is fine for most people. Toxic max security doesn't increase compliance
I mean sure yeah you can "just" buy a whole new PC and then learn how to reverse malware without getting pwned so you can save yourself like $80 on some random AAA slopware. Be realistic, does it sound like OP is gonna do that?
I mean power to anyone who does take that route, but we have to acknowledge that 99% of people are not going to.
That is not what I said lol. Your reading comprehension is arse and your attitude is useless.
I disagree under some conditions. Doing anything sketchy from the same machine you log into your bank account from is extremely dangerous, but a dedicated gaming PC is a lot less dangerous. Especially if you are isolating the network on that machine and using it for single purpose. At that point, HV bypass becomes irrelevant to overall security. And by single purpose, I mean single purpose. No SSO or logging into sites. If you are heavy into this, I wouldn't even put Steam on the machine.
In general, without HV bypass you could firejail processes and potentially put Steam on the box, but with HV bypass absolutely not.
This cannot be stressed enough.
If you have a PC that: 1. you only run games on, 2. have nothing at all on it otherwise, and 3. airgap the shit outta the whole thing, you're still not safe. ☝🏼
Y'all do you, though. Do your research, vet all sources, and follow their instructions to the t. Good luck, fellow mariners! 😅