I understand that sharing video, photos, documents etc. is relatively safe because the data is not executed in the processor as instructions. How come people are willing to download and install pirated software though? How can one be confident that it does not contain malicious addons? Are people just don’t know the risks? Or are there protection mechanisms that I am missing? I mean since the software is usually cracked there is not much use in comparing checksums with the originals, is it?
Is it smart to test if it is malicious in a vm first?
I don’t.
But I take many precautions.
I’ve been pirating software since the C64. About 40 years. Never stopped. Never will.
I buy the good software I encounter. As a developer, i know it’s important to keep funding further development. Unfortunately most is overpriced garbage.
I’m pretty new and extremely cautious with pirated software, i still need to find the precautions i have to take, luckily pirating games is much safer and easier than pirating software
Could you elaborate how pirating games is “safer” than pirating software? Both are executables that could run whatever code they wish on your system, and since pirated games are so desirable, in my experience they are far more often spread around bundled with malware than software is. Oftentimes, you’ll find people take legitimate repacks, add malware, then share the repack under the same repackers name.
I think their idea is that if you know a specific repacker like an athletic woman, compared to downloading softwares that could be uploaded by any elitists trying to fuck with you.
In practice both are the same, but the reputation of the athletic woman makes her more trustworthy.
However outside of that specific repacker I actually agree with you, it’s exactly the same lol.
Interesting. If there are reputable packers / crackers, why do they not uses GPG to sign the software? That way, no one can manipulate and reupload the software.
Many do provide some form of checksum.