To be honest, common sense is the best form of security. If you don't trust something, either run it in a VM, or don't run it at all.
To answer your question, Microsoft defender should be plenty.
this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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Virtual Machines are not a good way to test if something has malware. Most viruses are programmed to not do anything if they detect that they're being ran in a VM.
Did they say to test it in a vm? It looks to me like they’re saying to run it in a vm since it’s untrusted
Yes but in a VM you have to make sure you PASSTHROUGH a GPU. Maybe OP can execute games by another user without privileges. Like execute app as not admin, or user.
I would add increasing the UAC or just not using an admin account, if your on windows, is also a very effective way to keep yourself safe as it will prevent a lot of malicious programs from automatically elevating their permissions.
regarding websites, I never had troubles with TPB on Windows 7, how are the ones listed in the megathread considered?
Well, first of all you really should not be using Windows 7 anymore. For the TPB, I don't think they check the torrents, anyone can upload so it's not a trusted source. It's in the unsafe sites list on the megathread. And how would you know that you never had a malware on the TPB?
I stopped using win 7 2 years go when I got a new PC (I know it was late, but I never needed it before). So even the ones in the megathread are unsafe?
Not really. They are safe, specially the ones marked with a goat sign.
Though that said, i HIGHLY recommend setting up the security tips mentioned at the top of the megathread. As a casual pirate, they've been more than enough for me.
do you mean this "Not so fast sailor! Do this first" suggestions, like using VPN and such? (witch is useless where I live, I never heard of any legal troubles tbh)
Yes and No. You should be able to set some GroupPolicies, and execute games by that type of policies like Application Guard. (Search GPO).
Application Guard is a security feature that isolates untrusted applications in a separate container, so if an attacker does manage to exploit a vulnerability, they’ll be contained and prevented from doing any further damage.
Pirated apps are one of the top source for botnet operators to infect new machines and add them to their network. Try not to run any pirated app or game if you can, but if you can't avoid it, get it from trusted sources (e.g. directly from the cracker's homepage), not from random sources like TPB where anyone can upload anything.
ofc I can buy it in steam or something, but I'd prefer to pirate. Are the websites in the megathread unsafe?
It's generally safe, but doesn't mean it's bulletproof as sites has been removed from the megathread in the past when they suddenly serve malwares or miners. Just use your common sense when downloading apps and games and scan them before installing.
thank you, don't pirated games always trigger antimalware software (if so, isn't it pointless to scan them)? Forgive me I've not been pirating much for the past 10 years.
The scanners should tell you the reason they flag a file. If it's marked as trojan, obviously don't run it. Cracks are usually marked as crack by most antivirus.
You can also upload the flagged files to virustotal to see what other antiviruses flag the files for.
thank you
I think if it was enough, we wouldn't have viruses, as Microsoft Defender is enabled by default. I wouldn't rely much trust on it.
I'm going to install mbam in the future
Isn't CPG repacks in the megathread? It has visual novels
Considering the majority of malware we have to deal with nowadays, your best defenses are:
- A firewall that blocks everything by default. I use SimpleFirewall and give trust on a per executable basis.
- uBlockOrigin, because dear lord navigating some sites is almost impossible without blocking all that shit
- Avoid anything that asks for admin access
- Keep an eye on resource usage and be on the lookout for any weird looking processes.
There was one time I downloaded a piece of shit that started to encrypt my drive. Since the CPU fan started spinning loud, I immediately checked task manager, figured what was going on and ended the malicious root process. Next, it was time to scour my folders, especially inside %appdata%, for any possible leftover executables. All clean, restart PC, everything was fine. I lost a couple of files, but nothing personal, just other downloads.
ublockDefender
is this a new one? last Iheard gorhill was working on ublock origin
Ops, my bad, fixed
I've had great coverage a d low resource utilization with eset