https://www.ea.com/games/ea-sports-wrc/wrc/news/ea-anticheat"EA anticheat is a kernel-mode anti-cheat and anti-tamper solution developed in-house at Electronic Arts."In normal person terms, kernel level means giving the game the right to do whatever it wants to do to your computer at any time, without requiring your confirmation or consent. This was not something that PC players agreed to on the games launch and should not be tolerated as an acceptable solution to some leaderboard issues that don't affect the core gameplay.EDIT: Original thread title was "Warning: PC players about to be forced to install a kernel-level program". The change has been made to reflect a bug reports thread now being part of this one.

Product: EA SPORTS™ WRCPlatform:PCSummarize your bug Stop kernel-level EA anti cheat in the next upcoming patch.How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? https://steamcommunity.com/games/1849250/announcements/detail/4188988499354675175What happens when the bug occurs? https://steamcommunity.com/games/1849250/announcements/detail/4188988499354675175What do you expect to see? No kernel level anti cheat software.Stop kernel-level EA anti cheat in the next upcoming patch. This is a highly invasive and unnecessary back door that will be installed with the next patch. It will also stop the game from running on Linux and Steam deck. EA anti cheat runs at kernel level and will have access to pretty much everything on your computer. Please make yourself heard and tell EA that this is not what we want.You can read here what kernel level anti cheat means and why it's bad: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/xf1cwr/the_insanity_of_eas_anticheat_system_by_a_kernel/

Cheaters are only a problem in a small part of the game, namely online events and leaderboards. Someone who mainly plays single player modes doesn't care about leaderboard times that are a second or thirty quicker but will still have to sacrifice their privacy just to play the game. In my mind that's not a reasonable demand from the developers as long as the game is not an Esports-first title. If that's the aim, provide a dedicated version of the game for Esports events.

I just want to add my feedback here as well.I play on Linux, and I love the game, but will not be able to play if Kernel level anti-cheat gets added. I know I am in the minority, but I still want to mention this.Along with the above, I would not be comfortable installing a black box onto any Operating System and give it Kernel level access. I think adding this requirement to a game after release breaks trust, especially since cheating does not have a much of an impact on the gameplay (as opposed to a shooter where a cheater can ruin the game for everyone).I urge you to please reconsider implementing EA Anti-Cheat in the game. I understand the commitment to fair play, but I believe that Kernel level anti cheat is not the answer, and will harm the consumer (whether they know it or not).If that is not an option, please make the anti-cheat optional for single player and club play (make it optional for the club owner to enable or disable it). I know this will require extra dev work, but it will allow more people to continue playing the awesome game you made.Kind Regards

I stand with this as well, EA / Codemasters did NOT state this was going to be a kernel anti cheat game at launch and its false advertising, IF they did this at launch I WOULD NEVER have bought this game, NO DiRT Rally by Codemasters has EVER had a kernel anti cheat, and so I will be requiring a FULL refund from Valve on Steam, until EA makes their Kernel anti cheat work on Linux and with the new Linux NT Kernel Sync Driver being added to the Linux Kernel V 6.10 mainline release this summer then all Win NT Kernel Anti Cheats should be able to just be run in Linux Userspace in Proton/GE-Proton/WINE Staging, and listening to the Linux devs it would be pretty impossible to create anti cheats for Linux with that in place on Linux running the WIn NT Kernel Anti Cheats that I have been reading up on and watching them talking about this. So either EA gets their act together this summer when the Linux NT Kernel Sync Driver is released in Linux Kernel 6.10 and sort this out, or I get a full refund and stop playing any games that EA wants to try and FORCE people into ONLY using Windows, this is an ABSOLUTE SCANDAL as gaming companies are FORCING people to use ONE OS by a corporation ONLY which is a MONOPOLY and I HOPE this goes against laws in the EU and all OVER the world and the big gaming companies INCLUDING Microsoft get FORCED to create this in Linux with the Linux NT Kernel Sync Driver, as there is NO EXCUSE other than to create a fascist dictatorship model of a tech monopoly into using just ONE OS.Sort it out EA, Linux is growing now by 400% a year, and largely due to the Indian Open Source Initiative, India is the largest country on the planet, the largest democracy on earth and the fastest growing economy, and they are all switching to Linux, so there will be a boom over the next coming couple of years seeing as Microsoft is ending support for Win 10 next Oct 2025.

@FrankWurst I have Steam Deck and I use Linux on desktop. Can I avoid updating, to keep older version so that I can play offline? I really do not care about online features, and I really love the game.

Forced install of a kernel-level program on PC (Anticheat merged thread)

58 Replies

GRF_Rebl
Seasoned Newcomer
9 months ago
Windows and Linux players alike won't like the anti-cheat at all. Make it optional. There's no need for it for 99% of the playerbase. If you need it for e-sports, make those players use it. The rest of us don't need it at all.
Ash2ruin
9 months ago
Yeah. This is garbage and should have been announced at launch. Guess that's on me for having given EA a second chance and we're headed back to another decade long boycott.
JohnnySmoove27
9 months ago
Adding a AC this inclusive to this game doesnt solve anything. This is not Rainbow Six Siege in which the AC is a joke and cheaters are running free. If people are seriously using cheats to get a advantage, they should be able to get reported through the proper methods, club admins, online reports, etc, and get banned. This game is not a FPS shooter and we did not agree to this when we purchased the game.
samsagax
9 months ago
Cheaters are not a real problem. This level of Anticheat is a real threat to security and also will make all Linux installs useless. Please don't.
Another thing is, that cheaters that really want to cheat will do so at the hardware level. With the current tools you can put a good marshalling in place for cheat runs that can be croudsourced and based on telemetry.
Otherwise, I'll ask for a refund. I can't play what I legally purchased.
Peter_Mathen
9 months ago
Ok the next security hole for PC.
Why is EA thinking they could program are secure solution if they are not able to have the launcher secure and stable?
In the EA launcher even the simplest features like language change is missing and has to be solved with registry modification.
Any way to play the game at least offline without the EA Anti Cheat? I could do without the online functions.
Neumondz
9 months ago
@FrankWurst I have Steam Deck and I use Linux on desktop. Can I avoid updating, to keep older version so that I can play offline? I really do not care about online features, and I really love the game.
cobragamer2
9 months ago
Cheaters are only a problem in a small part of the game, namely online events and leaderboards. Someone who mainly plays single player modes doesn't care about leaderboard times that are a second or thirty quicker but will still have to sacrifice their privacy just to play the game. In my mind that's not a reasonable demand from the developers as long as the game is not an Esports-first title. If that's the aim, provide a dedicated version of the game for Esports events.
FrankWurst
9 months ago
Product: EA SPORTS™ WRC
Platform:PC
Summarize your bug Stop kernel-level EA anti cheat in the next upcoming patch.
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? https://steamcommunity.com/games/1849250/announcements/detail/4188988499354675175
What happens when the bug occurs? https://steamcommunity.com/games/1849250/announcements/detail/4188988499354675175
What do you expect to see? No kernel level anti cheat software.
‌
Stop kernel-level EA anti cheat in the next upcoming patch. This is a highly invasive and unnecessary back door that will be installed with the next patch. It will also stop the game from running on Linux and Steam deck. EA anti cheat runs at kernel level and will have access to pretty much everything on your computer. Please make yourself heard and tell EA that this is not what we want.
You can read here what kernel level anti cheat means and why it's bad: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/xf1cwr/the_insanity_of_eas_anticheat_system_by_a_kernel/

Forum Discussion

Forced install of a kernel-level program on PC (Anticheat merged thread)

58 Replies

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