Epic Games Rebuilds Easy Anti-Cheat for Linux to Bring Fortnite to the Platform
Gaming on Linux without cheating
Epic Games is rebuilding its Easy Anti-Cheat Linux implementation as EAC Linux v2, aiming to match Windows-level protection without a kernel driver. The new version leverages existing Linux security features like signed kernels, TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, and eBPF to detect cheaters. It will be piloted in Fortnite first, then opened to other developers, potentially bringing more multiplayer games to Linux.
We are also planning to pilot EAC Linux v2 in Fortnite first, where we’ll test it in a live environment and refine it based on what we learn.
- ashpool37
The quiet part needs to be said out loud: ensuring "fairness" in online games and letting clients meaningfully remain in control over their hardware and software are two fundamentally incompatible goals. One goal puts the interests of the game publisher and community first, the other upholds the individual clients' interests.
Ideally there should be little conflict between the two, however, modern online games require running sophisticated software locally that encapsulates core game logic. The fairness (compliance) goal demands that this software runs correctly and only conveys information and processes input as designed. The user control (freedom) goal demands that the individual user is allowed to run and modify any software as they see fit, including any game software, meaning that he or she must be able to tamper with the game software behaviour to gain advantage.
Now remember that online gaming is an extremely low-trust environment. Competitive online gaming is often supposed to emulate sportsmanship, thus widespread trust in the games' rules is essential so that players continue to participate. At the same time, building that trust dictates enforcing compliance down to the level of each individual user's hardware. So if you want to participate, you must be willing to give up ultimate control over your hardware and software, even if you believe it's only temporary.
All of this might sound very obvious, tautological even. However, lots of comments on this sound like they […]
- tfrancisl
Many, many issues with the requirements here that essentially make this unusable for most Linux users. I really hope they don't force current EAC games to upgrade. I would also love to see companies like this actual give behavior-based AC the college try before resorting to shipping spyware.
> Signed Kernel and Kernel modules
Probably the most egregious. Why am I not allowed to compile my own kernel? Why do I have to get a kernel, and modules, from specific, approved, vendors?
> TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, Measured Boot
Also all impractical for most linux users.
> IOMMU
You may not spy on my memory, thank you very much. What's stopping Epic from taking snapshots and phoning home?
> Kernel Lockdown Integrity mode at boot time
Preventing root from doing root things for the sake of it. I mean, maybe this makes sense.
They're also trying really hard to make Linux distros that "don't support this" look like the bad guys. They encourage distro maintainers to reach out to work together on the requirements, but many distros are effectively excluded by default (Arch, Gentoo, NixOS, which I believe have most of the gamers, at least in the online spaces I chat in).
- tancop
I like that they went with the obvious best solution, combining all the existing security features instead of making a closed source kernel module. I thought about this problem many times ever since I first used Proton, and I wouldn't have implemented it any other way.
Doing it this way is strictly more private and secure than any anti-cheat on Windows, even the ones with no kernel access that run as administrator. The systemd service runs as a normal user, only when you're playing a game and you can verify that with one command. The same lockdown mode that blocks cheats also prevents EAC from reading arbitrary process memory.
I'm just waiting to see what distros Epic will whitelist next. I hope SteamOS gets support day one when the official desktop ISO comes out.
- xg15
I feel this might be the beginning of a new trend: With software becoming more malleable due to coding agents that can do reverse engineering, I could imagine that software companies in general, not just for games, will increasingly try to lock down distribution channels.
If you cannot control anymore what is being built, the desperation to try and control what is being run will only become larger.
- pjmlp
Looking at those requirements, I doubt this will ever get that much adoption.