Are Uploaded Games Checked for Viruses?

[SecretTentacule]

Hi everyone,

I hope you’re all doing well! I wanted to raise a question regarding the safety of the games uploaded to the site. I always take the precaution of checking my downloaded files on VirusTotal, but I've noticed that some games are flagged as potentially malicious.

Can anyone clarify whether the games are individually checked by moderators for viruses before being uploaded? I want to ensure we’re all safe while enjoying our gaming experience. If anyone has encountered issues or has insights on this, please share!

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Winterfire]

Hi everyone,

I hope you’re all doing well! I wanted to raise a question regarding the safety of the games uploaded to the site. I always take the precaution of checking my downloaded files on VirusTotal, but I've noticed that some games are flagged as potentially malicious.

Can anyone clarify whether the games are individually checked by moderators for viruses before being uploaded? I want to ensure we’re all safe while enjoying our gaming experience. If anyone has encountered issues or has insights on this, please share!

Thanks in advance for your help!

All games before being uploaded here are ran at least once, played to take screenshots/tags (when required and are completely new) and of course scanned with VirusTotal or other ways.

However, the announcement regarding malware is something that cannot be detected with VirusTotal, you can read more about it here: https://f95zone.to/threads/recent-malware-infected-games.207437/ but tldr, it only affects some Ren'Py games, and only due to a bad actor sharing "leaks".

 

[skyblueaster]

The one at the front of the thread should be checked. And uploaders do a pretty good job at checking. But there have been incidents, yes. Uploaders still get their files from leaks, and those will always be a security concern.

If safety is paramount to you, then buy it straight from the dev or Steam. Indie games aren't very expensive, and the devs could really use your support, unlike AAA corporations.

Having to worry about malware is basically the cost of doing piracy. Which is… usually a very minimal cost considering how good the uploaders here are.

 

[SecretTentacule]

Thanks alot, have you guys heard of sandboxie? I saw a comment mentioning this application to run program in a seperate sandbox, have you had experience with it?

 

[Winterfire]

Thanks alot, have you guys heard of sandboxie? I saw a comment mentioning this application to run program in a seperate sandbox, have you had experience with it?

Sandboxing in general is a good method to run an application you are not sure about. I haven't tried sandboxie specifically, but the method is definitely good.

 

[lolzorzs]

Were viruses the reason the Games section doesn't allow uploading multiplayer+online games? or which was the reason for it again?

 

[Winterfire]

Were viruses the reason the Games section doesn't allow uploading multiplayer+online games? or which was the reason for it again?

No, the reason is that just like you cannot "pirate" mmos, you cannot pirate online games either. They require a constant internet connection, and the only way to get past the pirating part is creating your own private server (which would make the game pointless), way out of scope.

 

[wukongsun]

Do you have any important thing in you computer?