Is there an easy(ier) way to stop a game from phoning home?
from DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world to linux@lemmy.ml on 30 May 13:02
https://lemmy.world/post/30493078

Hi all, Sony loves these data collection messages at the beginning of their games. They don’t even give you the option to opt-out. It is mandatory and is either “Full data” or “limited”. I don’t want to give them either. Is there a straight forward way to do this? Thanks in advance.

#linux

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enemenemu@lemm.ee on 30 May 13:06 next collapse

Turn off internet

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world on 30 May 13:56 next collapse

That’s one way and guaranteed to work, but it’s kind of annoying.

ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 30 May 16:13 collapse

It is possible to tighten security to the point where the system is unusable. Security and convenience must be balanced. The trick is to create a secure and useful system. ——The Arch Wiki, Security

Seems OP wants to play online only games, disconnecting might make that impossible.

dm9pZCAq@lemmy.ml on 30 May 13:14 next collapse

firejail --noprofile --net=none – wine …

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world on 30 May 13:58 collapse

The three dots are what? The path to the .exe file? I tried that and it broke the game. It was complaining about some dx12 something. Also, I tried the firetool app, but it doesn’t have anywhere that shows the blocked apps/files. You just have to trust it.

dm9pZCAq@lemmy.ml on 30 May 14:44 collapse

yes, … is path to .exe, and yes I also has similar problems with some games with default wine

but for gaming I use lutris with proton, and using firejail from lutris has better results for me (almost all games works without issues)

[SomeGame] > Configure > System options > Command prefix > firejail --noprofile --net=none –

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world on 30 May 14:47 collapse

firejail --noprofile --net=none –

Is there anything after the two dashes in the firejail --noprofile --net=none – ?

dm9pZCAq@lemmy.ml on 30 May 15:24 collapse

in lutris no, it will automatically launch as ${COMMAND_PREFIX} ${WINE} ${EXECUTABLE}

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world on 30 May 15:27 collapse

Awesome, thank you so much. Do you know what the equivalent is in Heroic games launcher? They have so many options there, wrapper command, environment variables, scripts and some others. I have games there, too.

dm9pZCAq@lemmy.ml on 30 May 15:49 collapse

I’ve never used the Heroic launcher, but I think the “wrapper command” is what you need

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world on 30 May 16:24 collapse

Thank you. I like Heroic better because of the layout. It has all stores on one screen, unlike lutris. The wrapper is asking me to put the “path” in quotes. Oh well, I I’ll have to get used to Lutris.

dm9pZCAq@lemmy.ml on 30 May 21:21 collapse

are you using Heroic lsuncher from flatpak? if yes you need to somehow add firejail to Heroic app, or just restrict acess to internet for whole Heroic launcher flatpak --user override --unshare=network com.heroicgameslauncher.hgl

if not you need to add firejail wrapper with –noprofile --net=none args without any quotes (it says “Make sure to quote args with spaces”, which is not your case)

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world on 30 May 22:00 collapse

Very much appreciated. Sometimes, some things don’t make sense to me in English (second language). Even very simple things. I genuinely thought they’re saying add quotes AND spaces to args. 😂 Also, I don’t use flatpak. Just regular binary from the AUR. So, I’ll add the wrapper. Life is good now thanks to you <3

catloaf@lemm.ee on 30 May 13:20 next collapse

Easier than…?

There are dozens of ways to block that traffic, from DNS to firewall rules to just disconnecting entirely.

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world on 30 May 14:00 collapse

Easier than messing with the terminal. I remember on windows, you set an “outbound” rule for an .exe and you’re done. I tried to do that with firejail, but the firetool doesn’t have a spot in the app where it shows what you blocked. You just have to trust it. Unless I’m blind. I looked everywhere in the app and the wizard.

catloaf@lemm.ee on 30 May 15:46 collapse

Well there are probably GUI firewall rule apps, but it’s be faster just to use a command, since the apps are going to take all the same info anyway. Or you could just disconnect entirely.

coconut@programming.dev on 30 May 14:01 next collapse

DNS blocking if their telemetry domains are separate from game domains. They could technically do their own DNS resolution though.

Broken@lemmy.ml on 30 May 14:28 collapse

This was my thought too. Seems easiest to me to DNS block on the firewall side (and be network wide).

lemming741@lemmy.world on 30 May 15:44 collapse

Anything attempting to leave the LAN on port 53 or 853 gets redirected to my pihole and logged. It’s mostly google stuff, but TV’s do it too. A determined enshittifier could implement DoH or DoT.

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/c42efd2c-ee5f-4279-b0d0-2cd6b646dd9b.png">

Broken@lemmy.ml on 31 May 00:54 collapse

Smart. Right now I just rely on various blacklists that seem to block everything I need to. I might do something like this at some point though to be sure.

lemming741@lemmy.world on 31 May 01:21 collapse

I’m running opnsense virtualized. I’d recommend a spare PC with two nics to learn it on first.

Broken@lemmy.ml on 31 May 12:03 collapse

Yeah, I’m already running opnsense on an old PC with an added network card. Then I use Unbound DNS with various blacklist filters on my outbound traffic.

It honestly seems good enough because I monitored it for a while when I set it up. But I don’t monitor it continually and I don’t have specific blocks that I set up myself, just the published blacklists. If something new is phoning home I’d be unaware until I check it, which is what I like about your setup.

[deleted] on 30 May 15:18 next collapse

.

Feyd@programming.dev on 30 May 16:51 next collapse

github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world on 30 May 21:04 collapse

That was actually a part of the main question, but then I decided not to include it. Opensnitch shows so many popups that I get confused which is to allow and which to deny. Sometimes things could break and a reboot is necessary.

Edit: I’m going to install it regardless. Thanks

MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 30 May 21:09 collapse

That will be the case with any firewall, you’ll have to block everything and then figure out what is needed for the game to work as expected.

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world on 30 May 22:01 collapse

True, but I think firewalls don’t have that scary popup opensnitch has. They do their thing silently. lol

ohshit604@sh.itjust.works on 30 May 23:08 next collapse

Why not spin up a pihole instance? Once you setup your blocklists you barely have to maintain it besides the occasional update.

Hell, if you don’t have a spare machine to run it on you can likely run it locally and then change your PC’s network to use it as your DNS resolver.

MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 31 May 03:33 collapse

Set it to default deny and it should stop the popups!

liang@thelemmy.club on 01 Jun 15:27 next collapse

Stop buying their games.

That stuff shouldn’t work in pirated versions.

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world on 01 Jun 16:10 collapse

Fair point, I didn’t buy it, it was given to me.

Luffy879@lemmy.ml on 03 Jun 20:37 collapse

Let me guess, it was the usuall you dont own the game shill?

In that case, if you want m8, i have more than enough ropes for ya

AnEilifintChorcra@sopuli.xyz on 01 Jun 22:47 collapse

I use OpenSnitch github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch

It prompts me each time a game attempts to make an outbound connection. I can allow or deny the connection from the process or to the host etc and it can set it as a rule with different time frames like once, until reboot, permanently etc.