Valve Skeptical About Kernel-Level Anti Cheats for Steam Deck Because It Could Have “problematic trade-offs for the end-user in the longer term”

In the handheld console market right now, the Steam Deck has become a household name. The console not only runs games via cloud streaming; you can also play games through its local storage as well, unlike the PS Portal. And this unique feature keeps this console from Valve ahead of most of the contemporary handheld devices in the market.

Steam Deck is arguably the best handheld console in the market right now. | Credit: Valve.

However, two console giants, PlayStation and Xbox, are reportedly gearing up for handheld consoles, which might end the dominance of the Steam Deck in the market. That won’t be easy, but Valve’s device might fall short because of its anti-cheat policy.

Steam Deck programmer addresses the console’s anti-cheat system issue

Steam has partnered with BattlEye. | Credit: Twitter/Destiny 2.

The Steam Deck is meant to play popular PC games in a compact form factor. You can also play console-exclusive games via cloud streaming. However, it’s not like every game is supported on this console. And the main reason for this is its anti-cheat system.

Steam Deck uses Windows-specific kernel-level anti-cheats, which are unfortunately not compatible with the device’s Linux-based OS, for example: Vanguard and ESEA. On the other hand, Valve made a partnership with Arch Linux which might stir this controversy even more. In an interview with Automaton, this is what a programmer of the console, Pierre-Loup Griffais, had to say about the use of kernel-level anti-cheat system:

Because kernel-level software can access your system, it can be extremely dangerous. However, by identifying questionable programs, it enables developers to detect cheaters. That is why EA has dropped Linux support to stop exploitation in Apex Legends by cheaters.

Lawrence Yang, designer of Valve’s Steam Deck development team, has stated that the company has partnered with Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye to make it easy for the developers to make their games compatible on the Steam Deck with a kernel-level anti-cheat system.

That means you can play Elden Ring (which uses Easy Anti-Cheat) and GTA Online (which uses BattlEye) on the devices without any issues, but sadly, not all the games fall on this list.

What is Kernel-level anti-cheat system?

Riot Vanguard is a kernel-level anti-cheat system. | Credit: Valorant.

Kernel-level anti-cheat systems are different than the normal anti-cheat systems we have seen in many games. Because they operate right at the heart of a computer’s operating system, kernel-level anti-cheat systems have extensive access to monitor and manage how software communicates with hardware.

As a result, they are better able to identify and stop cheats that try to alter game code or memory than conventional anti-cheat techniques. It can now identify cheats that use Direct Memory Access and other special techniques because of this.

However, these systems also present serious risks because they function with such high-level access. Concerns regarding security and privacy arise because a bug in the anti-cheat software could potentially compromise the entire computer. Furthermore, system instability may result from conflicts with other software brought on by this deep integration.

These anti-cheat programs typically run as drivers, which gives them extraordinary access to your computer. A kernel-level anti-cheat driver can manage all other drivers, processes, and memory allocations on the system because it has the same high-level permissions as the operating system when it is loaded.

Because it operates at such a privileged level, the anti-cheat driver can effectively block or report suspicious activities in real-time before any cheat software can take effect. This means that it can detect unauthorized modifications or injections into a process’ memory.