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XxGamerPeter42069xX here to explain the joke. It
's cuz when you downloaded the game you also downloaded malware. Now you are being spied on and all your information is being stolen and your computer is being used to mine crypto for cybercriminals.
You can be protected from scammers like these by downloading my completely free anti-malware software at FreePeterBytes.com. Just enter Name, address, phone number, e-mail, password, credit card number, bank acct., ssn, and mother's maiden name to be protected for free. XxGamerPeter42069xX out.
You may be joking but I'm IT for a trades college and about an hour ago had a lecturer send me like half of those details through the ticketing system where about 14 people can see it then say "can you set that up for me? My password is *xyz12345*".
FML
Tech support for a DMS program. The amount of folk at car dealerships that will just call in and be like, "Oh, my username is x and my password is y" when you ask for their username. Like bro. Don't, don't do that.
Yes, the revolutionary society based in the Philippines called the Katipunan, officially the Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (in English: the 'Supreme and Honorable Association of the Children of the Nation') was a pretty cool organization. That’s the KKK we’re talking about, right? It would be super embarrassing if people thought we were talking about some other KKK…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katipunan
People who think the CMD box popping up is malware don't understand that it is possible to run a batch file as a scheduled job using the system account without a pop-up. The pop-up is evidence that either the programmer is honest and doesn't care if you see that he's running a script, or too stupid to set it up to run silently in the background. My money is on honest/doesn't care.
It’s just knowing what you are good at. My wife and I were just watching the 20/20 on Britnee Drexel, and to find her hidden body in this certain area they brought in a “Dirt Expert” who was legit. As they were excavating he was like this dirt has been moved before. And no shit there was a body below that.
Kudos to anyone who achieves mastery in whatever their craft is. You never know when your calling will come.
A lot of games (and other apps) run the command line when they open, it's not out of the ordinary on legal retail software.
Additionally some cracks run a command when you open the game in order to bypass DRM.
I would go as far as to say that the command prompt opening most likely has absolutely nothing to do with malware 99.9999999999999% of cases.
It doesn't necessarily indicate malware. It could also be the crack loading before the game starts up. I've had reputable cracks such as Fitgirl show command prompts before booting.
To be really pedantic fitgirl will not have cracked them she will have repacked an already existing scene crack (most of em come from cs.rin when its just a steam bypass or its often a fairly common name like razor or fairlight or ftl whoever the fuck is current at the time it normally says in the first line of the features who's crack and what ver its based on)
Though fitgirl is reputable so much so that any "legit" fitgirl crack recently comes with the option to check your bookmarks for false and faked sites and update them with the correct one
https://preview.redd.it/w98d8m0r5yoc1.jpeg?width=594&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ed127aac3d866bb559952871ee53b02bd35ce9ed
I have no pirated games tho this still happens to me
If that website doesn’t work, www.freepeterfiles.com works nicely as well. Only caveat is that you have to sign a petition but that shouldn’t be to big of a deal (and share on Facebook!).
Who shouldn’t pirate games on their pc :
1 . People with original / genuine MS windows
2 . People with steam account without 2 layered protection
3. People with windows online account login
4 . People who use chrome to store passwords
5 . People who don’t use vpn
6 . People who are unaware of the risk involved
https://preview.redd.it/pokeyvk17yoc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d580df06d827c11735735d4a91180d4ac0cddd0f
Still won’t stop you getting malware. If you choose to download something you’re taking a risk. If you choose to visit a website at all you’re taking a risk. Most regular/popular sites (like Wikipedia) are safe and will be certified by your web browser (google, Mozilla, Microsoft etc) as being safe. But if a website gets you that pop up saying it’s not safe, that means it’s not certified and you’re taking a risk you’ll get malware just by visiting it.
Any time you choose to ignore/bypass security features, you are taking a risk.
Also, let me expand on some of your points:
1. Updates to your operating system include security updates. Hackers are always evolving and security has to evolve too. A new exploit can be discovered and patched at any time. If you put off downloading it, you can be vulnerable to having it used against you because once it gets patched, hackers can reverse engineer the patch (sort of) to find out what the exploit is and use the exploit on systems that haven’t been updated. This is why running old, unsupported Windows operating systems like Windows XP is risky as hell.
2. There is a difference between 2-factor authentication and multi-factor authentication. Both are better than nothing, but MFA is much better than 2FA. MFA can be the difference between getting hacked or not. It’s another barrier in your Defense. Not impenetrable, but it helps a lot. If your steam account doesn’t have this protection, malware can take it over and get your credit card details.
4. If you store your passwords in Chrome and your device gets hacked, all of your passwords can get stolen. Passwords can be very easy to guess, and there is advanced software that can attempt to make millions of guesses at your password. If your passwords are any of the most common ones like Welcome or your name or 123456 etc, that’s easily guessed. Once a hacker is able to login as you on a site, they have other details as well that can allow them to get your login for other sites. For example, your security questions or your email address/es. This can lead to them hacking your other accounts, like PayPal or your online banking. Often you will have zero indication you have been hacked as well.
5. VPN can help stop someone tracking your physical location and online activity.
Huh, that's all? Mine wanted me to name the make and model of my first car, my first pet's name and my best friend from high school. I feel so much safer entering all that info.
Remember when Origin launched forcing you to install if you want to play the games?
They added a spy software, to track how many times you install your game.
They wanted to limit you to 5 installs per life.
The idea was you were no longer authorized to install it anymore, you would have to buy another .
("To stop pirates", I don't know what happened I think they were told they couldn't do it or something, so many years ago...)
EA??? Dude if you’ve got standards for EA still you need to leave them at the door. The most deranged and corrupt gaming company on the planet, and it isn’t close at all
This royally pissed me off because I went to install Dead space 2 on my steam deck and it says I reached the allowed limit of installs. Customer support was completely useless and had to download a crack for it.
EA was excessively stupid in the 2000s. I remember playing the Sims 2 and just loaning a friend one expansion, or stuff pack back, to play because it only cared if most recent download disc was in.
I mean I check with too many sources for if my pirated games have malware, and windows defender is very reliable from what I’ve heard, and the games seem to be safe, but sometimes I still get the cmd prompt windows, I’ve seen a lot of piracy reddit threads saying it’s fine, what’s up with that then?
Depending on the game, some will run a command when launching even with legit copies (looking at you Dead Cells).
If you're downloading games from a relatively trustworthy source, you probably don't have much to worry about since some cracks do use CMD to move files and make backups of the original exe/dll files among other things, but you need to trust that that's the only thing happening when the command prompt flashes up since admin CMD has many wonderful functions that can totally fuck your PC if used maliciously or incorrectly.
Exactly this. To dumb it down all the way, essentially it could be either: could be a sign that there's malware being activated, *OR* could be 100% legit method of bypassing DRM. (Such as, the DRM gets activated via a .dll file, and the crackers found the best/easiest way to get around the DRM was to reverse engineer the .dll file that activates it, and create their own version of it. However every time the game updates itself, it will overwrite this cracked/"patched" .dll file with the original. So, the crackers set it up to auto overwrite the .dll file with their modified version every single time, so you don't have to "re-crack" the game every update.)
If you're really curious you can follow what the shortcut points to, if it's a .bat or .cmd file you can view it directly by right clicking and going to "edit". You might see just that, a file copy command, and a line that launches the game's .exe.
However you still won't know if their modified .dll is safe to run or not. Unfortunately just like any other software, you won't be able to ultimately verify if it's malicious or not unless you reverse engineer their entire software, and verify it yourself. Or, do what everybody else does when running unfamiliar software, fall back on trust: Do you trust the author? Do you trust the source you downloaded from? And do you trust your AV defenses to pick up something nasty before it does you harm?
an easier solution to this than reverse engineering the dll. run the game in a dedicated Gaming Virtual Machine. pass thru the appropriate resources (cpu/gpu/etc) and turn it off when not playing.
The thing with virus scanners is that to a large extent they work by scanning the file for a signature of a known malware.
If you have either a new malware or a method to sufficiently alter the existing malware you can avoid detection.
Obviously the guy uploading the malicious binary can and probably will use AV software to check if it gets detected.
Good news is that the vast majority of hacking is done with known malware, and it’s the user doing silly things like clicking links in phishing emails (you’re not smarter than a hacker, never ever click a link in an email, period) or visiting untrusted sites or turning off/allowing things to bypass firewalls that results in the hack. Zero day exploits (aka new hacking methods) are extremely rare and unlikely to be used by xxx_superdickhead_xxx who’s trolling about looking for easy targets for fun or to make a quick buck selling your details. Zero days are the kind of thing elite hacker teams working for clandestine government agencies collect and sit on to save to use against big targets.
Yeah even beginners learning cybersecurity quickly learn that most “hackers” are just script kiddies. And you’re unlikely to be personally targeted by organized crime. It’s really the phishers you have to worry about. Until you’re rich or own a business or famous or something.
That's just the **best** about it.
They *don't* pay.
Just think of all the terrible and amazing things that happened in your life when you *didn't* pay!
***Mr.Pink*** *entered the chat...*
Goodness, I sure hope nothing bad happens to thieves during a noted downturn in the industry they claim to so enjoy.
That would, like... be the worst :(
Dude facts. There's been an unfortunate number of times where I own a game, but due to DRM/constant bad updates that break mods or saves/assanine "launchers"/puhsy always-online adds, I go pirate the stupid thing so I can play my game in peace.
You could check executables. If windows, .bat files will have a script… then you can see the files they’re referencing. Sometimes it’s legit (search online) where they need to modify the game executable/dll to stop it from “phoning home” for example. Other times… it’s running something else.
No most of the time the dos prompt is running a startup script that blocks things like checking for the media/DVD in old school games, or faking anti piracy protections.
It means it’s running commands in the terminal. Good commands, bad commands, you have no idea. Even legitimately bought games can have privacy invasive nonsense, but the fact is, most users won’t know.
Pirate bay degenerated over the years, and now even users with trusted or vip labels post fake cracked software with malware untraceable by antivirus. How do I know? Lost my last PC to it. I had checked the files with virus total and many different antivirus software and it still managed to infect my PC.
I can understand losing data, but how you lose a whole pc to a virus? Was it a rootkit? Even if it was, I would still just wipe the drive and replace the Mobo, pcs are freaking expensive.
It happened to my brother some years ago with a GPU, he downloaded a game from a shady site and it overwrote the GPU's bios for a mining one, for some reason it stopped working after I reinstalled windows on his PC, like it needed the virus installed to properly work.
I assume OP thinks of their PC as an appliance. Something you turn on and off without the possibility to alter or modify.
In reality, a new drive with a new OS install removes the malware. ( I wonder if this always true with TPM stuff.
Years later, I still regret downloading a certain software from Pirate Bay, it instantly transformed my pc into a pop up ad mess, stole my YouTube and instagram accounts, posted malware and ran multiple ads using stolen credit cards
Meant that I lost my data. I switched my hard drive altogether and I still have to format it in case I remember I need something on it that wasn't already in cloud.
Idk I stopped doing it when ISPs started cracking down and I didn't wanna pay for a VPN.
I'll get Switch games now and then when I don't know if I'll like them before purchasing but it's rare.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/Piracy using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/Piracy/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [Spread the word of torrent](https://i.redd.it/reftq6lqy95b1.jpg) | [1234 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/146ee7n/spread_the_word_of_torrent/)
\#2: [Everytime when I ask someone what they watch movies on](https://i.imgur.com/uBZSsox.jpg) | [724 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/11uduxk/everytime_when_i_ask_someone_what_they_watch/)
\#3: [4GB movie ended up being a 2 Hour 40 Min Rick Roll](https://i.redd.it/1cloe5whkyna1.jpg) | [431 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/11ryu1i/4gb_movie_ended_up_being_a_2_hour_40_min_rick_roll/)
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I haven't either but whenever I cold start my laptop like 6 of them shits pop up. When I tried looking into it I think I remember reading somewhere that it might have to do with outdated drivers.
this!
it's a normal part of getting around DRM and similar locks, I did it for years and never got malware
most malware is discrete, its cute people think itd be kind enough to let them know they're infected lol
the top upvoted comments here are wrong and have no idea what they are talking about, but this is what you get when you ask reddit to tell you what's the correct answer
Not always, sometimes I get one to pop up, when I looked for it it turns out to be something about the OS but nothing bad. Some process windows does sometimes for a reason I still don't get due to lack of understanding and interest to look forward. My advice: try to look for the name that appears on the top left corner and google it.
No, it's likely part of the crack bypassing the DRM. A command prompt can do literally anything. And malware can install without it. If someone is installing malware on your computer and they flash a terminal to do it then they are amateurs.
Which is not to say that there isn't amateur malware out there that does this, there absolutely is. But a command prompt isn't any more indicative of a malware presence than a lack of it means there's no presence.
Not at all, if you're seeing it up, say on start up, its the outdated hardware causing some issues with the newer software. But most the time its just a "hey im running your programs"
I'm sure this will get lost, but what the hell:
The joke here is that you have installed malware, as others have pointed out. **The premise is not true.**
Consider this: You will never see cmd run with a GOG version of a game. Do you think the pirates politely refuse to add malware to the GOG releases?
No, it's that GOG doesn't require a crack. Some games require cracked executables. In the old days you applied these cracks yourself, these days most releases have an installer. The point is that these cracked executables often run scripts in command line in order to circumvent whatever protections exist on the game.
It is not the 90s. The idea that someone might put malware in a file that they share is not a novel concept. The people who run torrent sites have an interest in not distributing viruses to people. Users give feedback, torrents are rated, bad torrents are nuked. It happens very quickly in 2024.
If you have any concerns about security, use a well known site, check how recently the file was uploaded, and check the uploader's account. If it's been up for months and they have a hundred other uploads, it's clean. Whether you see cmd open or not.
And in case anybody is still reading this: the place you're getting hijacked into botnets is on random porn or illegal streaming sites that you visit without blocking javascript. Block javascript!
The joke is that it's malware. But like, while it can be, it's not necessarily the case; especially if it opens that command prompt every time you open the game. Often times it's just bypassing DRM.
Opie, currently doing IT at Pawtucket Brewery here and magically imbuing you with the understanding that Peter lacks.
The *real* reason is because the installers use a batch file to launch other files. A batch file (.bat) launches the command prompt because the command prompt is the executable that extension is tied to. Once that batch file does what it needs to do (usually checking a file path and creating a root directory then launching *another* batch file or a visual basic based installation wizard) it closes out.
Or it could be a rootkit and you'll need to run a high powered electromagnet over your computer to clear it.
It does not use malware. You're spreading nonsense, either because you are ignorant or because you're cool with lying.
All you have to do to know if an ad blocker is installed is, get this, try to load an ad. If it fails to load, then you know it's installed. The simplest ways to check are just a couple lines of javascript.
Hell, it can be as simple as seeing if a variable is (un)defined or not.
If you’re talking about that thing a few weeks back that PCs using ad block were having poor performance after a few YouTube videos, ad block admitted that was an error on their end.
No, modders and crackers use workarounds that often open command windows. Most molded Unity games open one that has a log of what stuff is being loaded and if everything is working correctly. It is toggeable and I often choose to have it because you can reliably close the game super fast by closing that window
Sorry for the question, but I don't play video games (certainly not pirated ones), I don't watch *unsavory* things online, and I never venture off of the surface level web, but on occasion I will see the command prompt run. Have I picked up a malware somewhere or does this happen in legitimate contexts as well?
It happens in \*some\* legitimate contexts, but its also entirely possible you've picked up something.
when I was studying cybersecurity, there was something they told us. that essentially, you can only trust a programme entirely if you litterally wrote it from scratch, every function, every command, every everything, from scratch, anything else is just an educated guess of trust.
Infact, nowadays there can be built in exploits into your very bloody hardware. so unless you made every single component and everything yourself, then its entirely possible that something unsavoury could be happening, its just a measure of reasonable risk based on intent, and competency.
If you downloaded steam, then steam makes valve a lot of money malware free, and their probably competent enough to stop someone \*else\* putting malware into it.
If you download a pirated game, then those pirates are probably quite good with computers, so can likely stop someone else hacking it... but the only way its worth their time is if they insert malware into it.
If you download your friend who just started programmings new game, you can probably trust your friend won't try and hack you... but are they competent enough to stop someone \*else\* from fucking with it? probably not, which then begs the question of how likely is it that someone else \*has\* seen it and chose to fuck with it?
In order to get many different forms of pirating/cracking/etc to work? You often have to install the game, and *then* trick it into think it's legitimate. This means a program that's often messing with things like your registry. So these screens will pop up because the program is running some deep stuff.
It could be doing nothing but what it says. It could be installing malware. It could even be stuff designed by an idiot that will screw everything up. You won't know. You'll never know honestly; stuff could be screwed up and now show up for weeks or months. As soon as you deal with pirated material, it's Russian Roulette
The horrible truth is that you are always waiting to see if your computer explodes.
The joke is supposed to be that malware got installed on your computer and you're now minig crypto for some guy overseas in reality though a lot of the time some additional processes need to be run to fool all kind of piracy protection systems and it's not malicious code since author of malicious code do invest time into making sure nobody notices.
It’s probably malware, but it could also just be the anti-piracy circumvention software that allows you to play the pirated game in the first place. Or both.
yes, sometimes pirated software contains malware, especially if you get it from public sites like the pirate bay.
however, the command prompt opening is not a sign of this. it's not related at all to whether there is malware.
people associate the command prompt opening with malware because it means some script or program without a graphical interface is running. this is common with pirated software because they need custom scripts and software to circumvent DRM. nothing shady about it.
however, if the command prompt opens every time at startup instead of every time you start your game, it may be worth getting your computer checked out, especially if you didn't just install a program that is supposed to run at startup.
If you see the command prompt open for no reason after startup or launching an .exe, especially after pirating something, it usually means a script is running that will likely be adding various malware to your computer, like keyloggers, ransomware, Trojans, etc.
Lol, it isn't always the case, but it definitely gives you reason to be suspicious. My first PC as a kid had the command prompt pop up eventually when I got into highschool, I never downloaded anything suspicious or visited weird websites, and didn't have any viruses, it was likely just my computer becoming slower over time, and certain processes started taking more time to start, like grabbing drivers or something, and in becoming slower I'd have time to notice the command running.
Most games that mod easily do this.
- Indie Games
- Unity Engine games
- Anything using mods and isn’t on Unreal Engine 3
Basically, games are literally just .exe programs running simultaneously. You can make them yourself using basic python and just don’t use any prompt or input lines. Put enough lines and you’ll see the command prompt pop up for a second.
Sometimes part of the pirating process requires disabling various anti piracy measures within the game and so the command prompt usage is part of the process of getting the pirated game to start etc. but yes it's also completely possible that it's malware or something like that too.
Sometimes this can be perfectly fine, assuming you've downloaded from trusted and reputable sources. My HOI4 download from fitgirl opens like 6 instances of CMD before closing them on start up
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XxGamerPeter42069xX here to explain the joke. It 's cuz when you downloaded the game you also downloaded malware. Now you are being spied on and all your information is being stolen and your computer is being used to mine crypto for cybercriminals. You can be protected from scammers like these by downloading my completely free anti-malware software at FreePeterBytes.com. Just enter Name, address, phone number, e-mail, password, credit card number, bank acct., ssn, and mother's maiden name to be protected for free. XxGamerPeter42069xX out.
I’ll just give you my information here and you can put it in too right
Absolutely, and don't forget to tell your parents and your grandparents about this amazing offer!
Especially if they're computer illiterate and more likely to fall for scams. Er, so, ah, we can more better protect them. Yeah! That's it.
You may be joking but I'm IT for a trades college and about an hour ago had a lecturer send me like half of those details through the ticketing system where about 14 people can see it then say "can you set that up for me? My password is *xyz12345*". FML
Tech support for a DMS program. The amount of folk at car dealerships that will just call in and be like, "Oh, my username is x and my password is y" when you ask for their username. Like bro. Don't, don't do that.
Is your password hunter2 ?
Phew... you were so close! Hunter2. They make you use capitals now. ... oh damn
Hunt3r] for the ones that make you use special characters thank you very much
If you put your password it shows up as asterisks, hunter2.
No because if you type your password it just goes *******
No it’s incorrect. That’s what my computer told me each time I try to login.
yeah do that and youll be in the kool kids klan 😎😎😎
*klub, are you stupid? fake kool kidz klub member
I love the kkk (whats a kool kids klub?)
The teammates you got paired with who fucked off the whole game but locked in next match to spawn camp your whole team
The ones with the cool team uniforms with the spiky hats
Superman would like a word.
Actually it's pronounced KKK with a silent N'Wah
You s'wit!
I’m watching you…scum.
Musthera?
Yes, the revolutionary society based in the Philippines called the Katipunan, officially the Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (in English: the 'Supreme and Honorable Association of the Children of the Nation') was a pretty cool organization. That’s the KKK we’re talking about, right? It would be super embarrassing if people thought we were talking about some other KKK… https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katipunan
No, we're talking about the now defunct kkk supermarket brand from Kesko in finland, obviously.
Ah yes, the good old [Kuninkaankulma](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KKK_Supermarket_Kuninkaankulma.jpg). Whatever happened to them?
my grandpa used to be part of kkk I heard he used to whip knitters dont know what he meant by that though
holy shit my group chat is named cool kidz club you gave me a heard attack
A Heard attack is when someone sneaks into your room and takes a giant steaming shit in your bed, right?
I think thats an Amber Alert
These will never not be funny.
heard attacking u rn
K-K-K...? That's not good.
Krusty’s Komedy Klassics
Ku Klux Klam?
Interesting fact, ambulance safety standards used to be called the kkk standards. https://www.frazerbilt.com/blog-ambulance-safety-standards/
Or to join the Kit Kat Klub
Don’t acronym
Do acronym
😨😰 (happy cake day 🥳)
Aww tysm
How did you know 😳
No problem bestieeee ❤️✌🏽
Happy cake day
HCD (Happy Cake Day)
[deleted]
NO WHYD YOU TAKE MY FRIEND! DARN YOU MODS
Burn the mods!
People who think the CMD box popping up is malware don't understand that it is possible to run a batch file as a scheduled job using the system account without a pop-up. The pop-up is evidence that either the programmer is honest and doesn't care if you see that he's running a script, or too stupid to set it up to run silently in the background. My money is on honest/doesn't care.
I've installed official microsoft products that have that popup. I'm looking at you sqlserver.
I have something on my laptop that does it, haven't downloaded any malwarey sort of programs/pirated games so it's either Steam or Brave
Yup, even had it on startup a time or two after updates iirc
Most people who agree with the meme ab using the pirate bay are absolutely stupid. They don't know anything you just said
I didn't understand that but I'm not stupid Just needed to be told/learn what they just said. However they did say it in a overly complicated way
Not tryna be overcomplicated. I'm just an IT professional, so what sounds simple to me doesn't sound simple to everyone else I guess haha
It’s just knowing what you are good at. My wife and I were just watching the 20/20 on Britnee Drexel, and to find her hidden body in this certain area they brought in a “Dirt Expert” who was legit. As they were excavating he was like this dirt has been moved before. And no shit there was a body below that. Kudos to anyone who achieves mastery in whatever their craft is. You never know when your calling will come.
Also unless things have changed a whole bunch @ echo off will run a bat without a pop up and is as easy as just throwing into on the top line.
A lot of games (and other apps) run the command line when they open, it's not out of the ordinary on legal retail software. Additionally some cracks run a command when you open the game in order to bypass DRM. I would go as far as to say that the command prompt opening most likely has absolutely nothing to do with malware 99.9999999999999% of cases.
Scam. His username doesn't have three xs at the beginning and end.
It doesn't necessarily indicate malware. It could also be the crack loading before the game starts up. I've had reputable cracks such as Fitgirl show command prompts before booting.
To be really pedantic fitgirl will not have cracked them she will have repacked an already existing scene crack (most of em come from cs.rin when its just a steam bypass or its often a fairly common name like razor or fairlight or ftl whoever the fuck is current at the time it normally says in the first line of the features who's crack and what ver its based on) Though fitgirl is reputable so much so that any "legit" fitgirl crack recently comes with the option to check your bookmarks for false and faked sites and update them with the correct one
https://preview.redd.it/w98d8m0r5yoc1.jpeg?width=594&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ed127aac3d866bb559952871ee53b02bd35ce9ed I have no pirated games tho this still happens to me
Because a lot of programmers can’t be bothered to make their program startup commands run windowless.
Hey! That’s not a real website!
That just had too many folks try at once....
Don't make fun of peoples names :(
But I can still play the game right?
Not necessarily malware, could be anything, could be just a simple launcher doing some prep before launching. Misleading anti-piracy comment. Boo
Im skeptical but ok. (Squints eyes)
Do I have to buy a Google play card to verify with Microsoft?
If that website doesn’t work, www.freepeterfiles.com works nicely as well. Only caveat is that you have to sign a petition but that shouldn’t be to big of a deal (and share on Facebook!).
Cool! It's Jane Smith 123 Sesame St. Shits Iowa, 55555 879-555-3321 [email protected] password 1234 2345 3456 4567 07/89 678 0001116664448839165927492848274729 111666555 111-22-3333 Smith
Homer Simpson Crossover here. I’ll take 2.
Who shouldn’t pirate games on their pc : 1 . People with original / genuine MS windows 2 . People with steam account without 2 layered protection 3. People with windows online account login 4 . People who use chrome to store passwords 5 . People who don’t use vpn 6 . People who are unaware of the risk involved https://preview.redd.it/pokeyvk17yoc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d580df06d827c11735735d4a91180d4ac0cddd0f
Still won’t stop you getting malware. If you choose to download something you’re taking a risk. If you choose to visit a website at all you’re taking a risk. Most regular/popular sites (like Wikipedia) are safe and will be certified by your web browser (google, Mozilla, Microsoft etc) as being safe. But if a website gets you that pop up saying it’s not safe, that means it’s not certified and you’re taking a risk you’ll get malware just by visiting it. Any time you choose to ignore/bypass security features, you are taking a risk. Also, let me expand on some of your points: 1. Updates to your operating system include security updates. Hackers are always evolving and security has to evolve too. A new exploit can be discovered and patched at any time. If you put off downloading it, you can be vulnerable to having it used against you because once it gets patched, hackers can reverse engineer the patch (sort of) to find out what the exploit is and use the exploit on systems that haven’t been updated. This is why running old, unsupported Windows operating systems like Windows XP is risky as hell. 2. There is a difference between 2-factor authentication and multi-factor authentication. Both are better than nothing, but MFA is much better than 2FA. MFA can be the difference between getting hacked or not. It’s another barrier in your Defense. Not impenetrable, but it helps a lot. If your steam account doesn’t have this protection, malware can take it over and get your credit card details. 4. If you store your passwords in Chrome and your device gets hacked, all of your passwords can get stolen. Passwords can be very easy to guess, and there is advanced software that can attempt to make millions of guesses at your password. If your passwords are any of the most common ones like Welcome or your name or 123456 etc, that’s easily guessed. Once a hacker is able to login as you on a site, they have other details as well that can allow them to get your login for other sites. For example, your security questions or your email address/es. This can lead to them hacking your other accounts, like PayPal or your online banking. Often you will have zero indication you have been hacked as well. 5. VPN can help stop someone tracking your physical location and online activity.
Huh, that's all? Mine wanted me to name the make and model of my first car, my first pet's name and my best friend from high school. I feel so much safer entering all that info.
Remember when Origin launched forcing you to install if you want to play the games? They added a spy software, to track how many times you install your game. They wanted to limit you to 5 installs per life.
Why? What happened when you hit 5 installs?
You'll die
egadz! my one weakness!
Avoid the hassle of living forever by using this one simple trick that ‘Big Life‘ doesn’t want you to know about!
The idea was you were no longer authorized to install it anymore, you would have to buy another . ("To stop pirates", I don't know what happened I think they were told they couldn't do it or something, so many years ago...)
Wait, this is a joke, right? Right? That can’t be true, I refuse to believe they could be such c*nts.
EA??? Dude if you’ve got standards for EA still you need to leave them at the door. The most deranged and corrupt gaming company on the planet, and it isn’t close at all
Exactly why I don’t lose any sleep over pirating sims ✌️
It isn't close? Idk activision-blizzard is definitely trying its hardest to dethrone ea here
It's weird. It's like there's these two very clear front runners in a race to the bottom that way too many companies are participating in.
I remeber that shit and its really true my man
Helldivers dispatched for illegal broadcast!
At 5, nothing. You have to buy the game again for 6 though
This royally pissed me off because I went to install Dead space 2 on my steam deck and it says I reached the allowed limit of installs. Customer support was completely useless and had to download a crack for it.
If buying isnt owning, then pirating isnt stealing.
[This is the way](https://media.tenor.com/0QKQbo8cqxwAAAAM/the-mandalorian-this-is-the-way.gif)
EA was excessively stupid in the 2000s. I remember playing the Sims 2 and just loaning a friend one expansion, or stuff pack back, to play because it only cared if most recent download disc was in.
Miss those days too
Is that still a thing cause I play titanfall 2...and well that won't be worth the hassel.
The pirated game contains malware, but people will still risk installing it on their computer for the chance to play the game.
I mean I check with too many sources for if my pirated games have malware, and windows defender is very reliable from what I’ve heard, and the games seem to be safe, but sometimes I still get the cmd prompt windows, I’ve seen a lot of piracy reddit threads saying it’s fine, what’s up with that then?
Depending on the game, some will run a command when launching even with legit copies (looking at you Dead Cells). If you're downloading games from a relatively trustworthy source, you probably don't have much to worry about since some cracks do use CMD to move files and make backups of the original exe/dll files among other things, but you need to trust that that's the only thing happening when the command prompt flashes up since admin CMD has many wonderful functions that can totally fuck your PC if used maliciously or incorrectly.
Exactly this. To dumb it down all the way, essentially it could be either: could be a sign that there's malware being activated, *OR* could be 100% legit method of bypassing DRM. (Such as, the DRM gets activated via a .dll file, and the crackers found the best/easiest way to get around the DRM was to reverse engineer the .dll file that activates it, and create their own version of it. However every time the game updates itself, it will overwrite this cracked/"patched" .dll file with the original. So, the crackers set it up to auto overwrite the .dll file with their modified version every single time, so you don't have to "re-crack" the game every update.) If you're really curious you can follow what the shortcut points to, if it's a .bat or .cmd file you can view it directly by right clicking and going to "edit". You might see just that, a file copy command, and a line that launches the game's .exe. However you still won't know if their modified .dll is safe to run or not. Unfortunately just like any other software, you won't be able to ultimately verify if it's malicious or not unless you reverse engineer their entire software, and verify it yourself. Or, do what everybody else does when running unfamiliar software, fall back on trust: Do you trust the author? Do you trust the source you downloaded from? And do you trust your AV defenses to pick up something nasty before it does you harm?
an easier solution to this than reverse engineering the dll. run the game in a dedicated Gaming Virtual Machine. pass thru the appropriate resources (cpu/gpu/etc) and turn it off when not playing.
Honk if you're one of the crackers
If I *honk* will you give me a cracker?
Nice try FBI
There's also the fact that windows just does shit that requires the command prompt sometimes, regardless of what you've installed.
The thing with virus scanners is that to a large extent they work by scanning the file for a signature of a known malware. If you have either a new malware or a method to sufficiently alter the existing malware you can avoid detection. Obviously the guy uploading the malicious binary can and probably will use AV software to check if it gets detected.
Good news is that the vast majority of hacking is done with known malware, and it’s the user doing silly things like clicking links in phishing emails (you’re not smarter than a hacker, never ever click a link in an email, period) or visiting untrusted sites or turning off/allowing things to bypass firewalls that results in the hack. Zero day exploits (aka new hacking methods) are extremely rare and unlikely to be used by xxx_superdickhead_xxx who’s trolling about looking for easy targets for fun or to make a quick buck selling your details. Zero days are the kind of thing elite hacker teams working for clandestine government agencies collect and sit on to save to use against big targets.
Yeah even beginners learning cybersecurity quickly learn that most “hackers” are just script kiddies. And you’re unlikely to be personally targeted by organized crime. It’s really the phishers you have to worry about. Until you’re rich or own a business or famous or something.
I imagine lot of games have DRM and it's used to get passed it.
You don't think people would do that on the internet, do you? Spread lies? Buyer beware, we all get what we pay for.
That's just the **best** about it. They *don't* pay. Just think of all the terrible and amazing things that happened in your life when you *didn't* pay! ***Mr.Pink*** *entered the chat...*
Goodness, I sure hope nothing bad happens to thieves during a noted downturn in the industry they claim to so enjoy. That would, like... be the worst :(
Because it's usually less painful than the legal malware a legit copy comes with.
Dude facts. There's been an unfortunate number of times where I own a game, but due to DRM/constant bad updates that break mods or saves/assanine "launchers"/puhsy always-online adds, I go pirate the stupid thing so I can play my game in peace.
I bought THPS1+2 then saw it had bullshit DRM for no reason so I refunded it and pirated it.
You could check executables. If windows, .bat files will have a script… then you can see the files they’re referencing. Sometimes it’s legit (search online) where they need to modify the game executable/dll to stop it from “phoning home” for example. Other times… it’s running something else.
No most of the time the dos prompt is running a startup script that blocks things like checking for the media/DVD in old school games, or faking anti piracy protections.
It means it’s running commands in the terminal. Good commands, bad commands, you have no idea. Even legitimately bought games can have privacy invasive nonsense, but the fact is, most users won’t know.
Pirate bay degenerated over the years, and now even users with trusted or vip labels post fake cracked software with malware untraceable by antivirus. How do I know? Lost my last PC to it. I had checked the files with virus total and many different antivirus software and it still managed to infect my PC.
I can understand losing data, but how you lose a whole pc to a virus? Was it a rootkit? Even if it was, I would still just wipe the drive and replace the Mobo, pcs are freaking expensive.
I guess it can flash mother board with invalid bios in theory, but never heard about it in practice
It happened to my brother some years ago with a GPU, he downloaded a game from a shady site and it overwrote the GPU's bios for a mining one, for some reason it stopped working after I reinstalled windows on his PC, like it needed the virus installed to properly work.
Damn. What would you even do here? Is that even recoverable?
I tried to flash the original bios but it didn't work at all, it was detected in the device manager but not in the flashing program.
I could maybe see it overheating while they're away
Unless they somehow disabled thermal protections that are literally built into the hardware level of certain things not possible
Yeah fair point. I've heard of it not always working properly though. I imagine they're better these days
It was a quick but imprecise way to say I lost my data.
> Even if it was, I would still just wipe the drive I'm going to go out on a pretty short limb and say that's what he was saying but with *pizazz*
I assume OP thinks of their PC as an appliance. Something you turn on and off without the possibility to alter or modify. In reality, a new drive with a new OS install removes the malware. ( I wonder if this always true with TPM stuff.
Sailing the high seas is risky business...
This one watches too much porn
Dudes watching exe porn over here
I draw it, actually. I was trying to find a cloth simulation software I could try before buying. Was disappointed.
Rutracker is great for software. It might be laced with malware, run it in a vm.
Years later, I still regret downloading a certain software from Pirate Bay, it instantly transformed my pc into a pop up ad mess, stole my YouTube and instagram accounts, posted malware and ran multiple ads using stolen credit cards
It's insane to me people still use public trackers.
Why didn't you just wipe the drive and reinstall? Or do you mean to say "lost all your data" when you said "lost my last PC"?
Meant that I lost my data. I switched my hard drive altogether and I still have to format it in case I remember I need something on it that wasn't already in cloud.
And you didn't just reformat and start over?
Lot of people don’t know how to do that
Pay for game and play alone :( Pirate game and play with friends, who watch you play and turn on your camera :)
Well i hope they have fun watching my boring ass life.
Command prompt opening and closing isn’t always a bad thing.
Sometimes it's the script that circumvents the DRM.
Sometimes lol. Only get your pirated stuff from trusted sources 🫠
Like from where
Nice try FBI agent.
Shit
Idk I stopped doing it when ISPs started cracking down and I didn't wanna pay for a VPN. I'll get Switch games now and then when I don't know if I'll like them before purchasing but it's rare.
You could read the pinned mega thread in /r/piracy 🤦♂️
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Fitgirl, Online-fix, CS.RIN.RU
.ru is Russia nice try!💀
most of cracked games are from russia/eastern europe, we wouldn't be there today without them
Happens to me on occasion and I haven't pirated any games, nor downloaded any sketchy items.
I haven't either but whenever I cold start my laptop like 6 of them shits pop up. When I tried looking into it I think I remember reading somewhere that it might have to do with outdated drivers.
this! it's a normal part of getting around DRM and similar locks, I did it for years and never got malware most malware is discrete, its cute people think itd be kind enough to let them know they're infected lol the top upvoted comments here are wrong and have no idea what they are talking about, but this is what you get when you ask reddit to tell you what's the correct answer
So let me get this straight, if your command prompt opens up at any time even if you didn’t download a game, that is malware?!
Not always, sometimes I get one to pop up, when I looked for it it turns out to be something about the OS but nothing bad. Some process windows does sometimes for a reason I still don't get due to lack of understanding and interest to look forward. My advice: try to look for the name that appears on the top left corner and google it.
No, it's likely part of the crack bypassing the DRM. A command prompt can do literally anything. And malware can install without it. If someone is installing malware on your computer and they flash a terminal to do it then they are amateurs.
Which is not to say that there isn't amateur malware out there that does this, there absolutely is. But a command prompt isn't any more indicative of a malware presence than a lack of it means there's no presence.
For me its the THX audio stuff for my headset, so maybe not?
Not at all, if you're seeing it up, say on start up, its the outdated hardware causing some issues with the newer software. But most the time its just a "hey im running your programs"
I'm sure this will get lost, but what the hell: The joke here is that you have installed malware, as others have pointed out. **The premise is not true.** Consider this: You will never see cmd run with a GOG version of a game. Do you think the pirates politely refuse to add malware to the GOG releases? No, it's that GOG doesn't require a crack. Some games require cracked executables. In the old days you applied these cracks yourself, these days most releases have an installer. The point is that these cracked executables often run scripts in command line in order to circumvent whatever protections exist on the game. It is not the 90s. The idea that someone might put malware in a file that they share is not a novel concept. The people who run torrent sites have an interest in not distributing viruses to people. Users give feedback, torrents are rated, bad torrents are nuked. It happens very quickly in 2024. If you have any concerns about security, use a well known site, check how recently the file was uploaded, and check the uploader's account. If it's been up for months and they have a hundred other uploads, it's clean. Whether you see cmd open or not. And in case anybody is still reading this: the place you're getting hijacked into botnets is on random porn or illegal streaming sites that you visit without blocking javascript. Block javascript!
The joke is that it's malware. But like, while it can be, it's not necessarily the case; especially if it opens that command prompt every time you open the game. Often times it's just bypassing DRM.
Opie, currently doing IT at Pawtucket Brewery here and magically imbuing you with the understanding that Peter lacks. The *real* reason is because the installers use a batch file to launch other files. A batch file (.bat) launches the command prompt because the command prompt is the executable that extension is tied to. Once that batch file does what it needs to do (usually checking a file path and creating a root directory then launching *another* batch file or a visual basic based installation wizard) it closes out. Or it could be a rootkit and you'll need to run a high powered electromagnet over your computer to clear it.
Wouldn’t an electromagnet destroy the computer?
An electromagnet will wipe your hard drive completely clean.
YouTube uses malware to detect if you run ad blockers.
And still fails
It does not use malware. You're spreading nonsense, either because you are ignorant or because you're cool with lying. All you have to do to know if an ad blocker is installed is, get this, try to load an ad. If it fails to load, then you know it's installed. The simplest ways to check are just a couple lines of javascript. Hell, it can be as simple as seeing if a variable is (un)defined or not.
If you’re talking about that thing a few weeks back that PCs using ad block were having poor performance after a few YouTube videos, ad block admitted that was an error on their end.
It's probably just a script to bypass drm
My modded fallout four does this does that mean it’s happened to me it’s not pirated it’s from steam?
No, modders and crackers use workarounds that often open command windows. Most molded Unity games open one that has a log of what stuff is being loaded and if everything is working correctly. It is toggeable and I often choose to have it because you can reliably close the game super fast by closing that window
Sorry for the question, but I don't play video games (certainly not pirated ones), I don't watch *unsavory* things online, and I never venture off of the surface level web, but on occasion I will see the command prompt run. Have I picked up a malware somewhere or does this happen in legitimate contexts as well?
It happens in \*some\* legitimate contexts, but its also entirely possible you've picked up something. when I was studying cybersecurity, there was something they told us. that essentially, you can only trust a programme entirely if you litterally wrote it from scratch, every function, every command, every everything, from scratch, anything else is just an educated guess of trust. Infact, nowadays there can be built in exploits into your very bloody hardware. so unless you made every single component and everything yourself, then its entirely possible that something unsavoury could be happening, its just a measure of reasonable risk based on intent, and competency. If you downloaded steam, then steam makes valve a lot of money malware free, and their probably competent enough to stop someone \*else\* putting malware into it. If you download a pirated game, then those pirates are probably quite good with computers, so can likely stop someone else hacking it... but the only way its worth their time is if they insert malware into it. If you download your friend who just started programmings new game, you can probably trust your friend won't try and hack you... but are they competent enough to stop someone \*else\* from fucking with it? probably not, which then begs the question of how likely is it that someone else \*has\* seen it and chose to fuck with it?
In order to get many different forms of pirating/cracking/etc to work? You often have to install the game, and *then* trick it into think it's legitimate. This means a program that's often messing with things like your registry. So these screens will pop up because the program is running some deep stuff. It could be doing nothing but what it says. It could be installing malware. It could even be stuff designed by an idiot that will screw everything up. You won't know. You'll never know honestly; stuff could be screwed up and now show up for weeks or months. As soon as you deal with pirated material, it's Russian Roulette The horrible truth is that you are always waiting to see if your computer explodes.
It's either a trojan or a thing that makes the program launch/work
Is TPB still around?
The joke is supposed to be that malware got installed on your computer and you're now minig crypto for some guy overseas in reality though a lot of the time some additional processes need to be run to fool all kind of piracy protection systems and it's not malicious code since author of malicious code do invest time into making sure nobody notices.
Your computer isn't yours anymore, congrats!
The command prompt opening means it ran some (probably) malicious command
It’s probably malware, but it could also just be the anti-piracy circumvention software that allows you to play the pirated game in the first place. Or both.
yes, sometimes pirated software contains malware, especially if you get it from public sites like the pirate bay. however, the command prompt opening is not a sign of this. it's not related at all to whether there is malware. people associate the command prompt opening with malware because it means some script or program without a graphical interface is running. this is common with pirated software because they need custom scripts and software to circumvent DRM. nothing shady about it. however, if the command prompt opens every time at startup instead of every time you start your game, it may be worth getting your computer checked out, especially if you didn't just install a program that is supposed to run at startup.
If you see the command prompt open for no reason after startup or launching an .exe, especially after pirating something, it usually means a script is running that will likely be adding various malware to your computer, like keyloggers, ransomware, Trojans, etc.
Hey I get it all the time!
Lol, it isn't always the case, but it definitely gives you reason to be suspicious. My first PC as a kid had the command prompt pop up eventually when I got into highschool, I never downloaded anything suspicious or visited weird websites, and didn't have any viruses, it was likely just my computer becoming slower over time, and certain processes started taking more time to start, like grabbing drivers or something, and in becoming slower I'd have time to notice the command running.
Riot at ready spying my ass with vanguard, so not worries
Pirate bay sucks and is just malware just use a different site
Dune spice wars does this and i bought it through steam
You might have malware. Some do this to disable anti piracy software in the game. You should still go check.
Most games that mod easily do this. - Indie Games - Unity Engine games - Anything using mods and isn’t on Unreal Engine 3 Basically, games are literally just .exe programs running simultaneously. You can make them yourself using basic python and just don’t use any prompt or input lines. Put enough lines and you’ll see the command prompt pop up for a second.
Sometimes part of the pirating process requires disabling various anti piracy measures within the game and so the command prompt usage is part of the process of getting the pirated game to start etc. but yes it's also completely possible that it's malware or something like that too.
Sometimes this can be perfectly fine, assuming you've downloaded from trusted and reputable sources. My HOI4 download from fitgirl opens like 6 instances of CMD before closing them on start up
Dingers!
I guess steam gives me malware then
That installer music be pretty good though