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I am glad someone is finally paying some attention to the multiuser security of Steam. The fact that it makes its whole program directory world-writable is ridi

by shawnz 7y ago

I am glad someone is finally paying some attention to the multiuser security of Steam. The fact that it makes its whole program directory world-writable is ridiculous. I really hope these bugs get corrected because as it is, Steam cannot be safely used in multiuser environments.

canada_dry 7y ago
> Steam cannot be safely used Why I have a separate gaming only computer... no banking, no work, no social media, nothing but game platforms. In fact, it's the only computer I run Windows on.
jandrese 7y ago
Valve in general seems to be vague on the entire concept of multi-user. They have a family plan where you can share your library with your family, but with the limitation that only one member of the family can be playing a game at once. Even if you are trying to play two different games Steam will try to kick one of the players off. It seems like they think a "family" is a family of computers that one single person might want to access. I get that they might be concerned that someone sets up a Steam account for their entire floor of the dormitory or something, but wouldn't a sensible limit be more like 5 instead of 1, with the additional limitation of only one copy of a particular game at once? Plus the ability to buy multiple copies of a game for a single library if you want? Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, etc... all figured this out, why can't Valve?
- thw0rted 7y ago
  I agree that Family Sharing could be less restrictive but it's not quite as bad as you describe. You're already limited to the number of "Family" accounts on a single system, and I believe also to the number of systems where a given account can be "Family enabled". I also hasten to point out that it's arguably the least restrictive sharing system of any digital storefront on PC or any console. Also, you can buy licenses for a game on more than one account. If sharing is enabled for accounts A, B, and C on a set of computers, C can use a license from A or B, if both own the game. The trick is that it tries to use the license of the person who enabled sharing most recently. So if A enables sharing, then B, but B is currently playing a game, it won't let C play a game that both A and B own. You can log in as B and disable sharing, then it will work. Alternately, there are tools to fix this automatically by editing config files -- and in retrospect, they probably work because of the security flaws mentioned in an earlier thread...

by shawnz 7y ago

canada_dry 7y ago

> Steam cannot be safely used Why I have a separate gaming only computer... no banking, no work, no social media, nothing but game platforms. In fact, it's the only computer I run Windows on.

jandrese 7y ago

Valve in general seems to be vague on the entire concept of multi-user. They have a family plan where you can share your library with your family, but with the limitation that only one member of the family can be playing a game at once. Even if you are trying to play two different games Steam will try to kick one of the players off. It seems like they think a "family" is a family of computers that one single person might want to access. I get that they might be concerned that someone sets up a Steam account for their entire floor of the dormitory or something, but wouldn't a sensible limit be more like 5 instead of 1, with the additional limitation of only one copy of a particular game at once? Plus the ability to buy multiple copies of a game for a single library if you want? Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, etc... all figured this out, why can't Valve?

thw0rted 7y ago
I agree that Family Sharing could be less restrictive but it's not quite as bad as you describe. You're already limited to the number of "Family" accounts on a single system, and I believe also to the number of systems where a given account can be "Family enabled". I also hasten to point out that it's arguably the least restrictive sharing system of any digital storefront on PC or any console. Also, you can buy licenses for a game on more than one account. If sharing is enabled for accounts A, B, and C on a set of computers, C can use a license from A or B, if both own the game. The trick is that it tries to use the license of the person who enabled sharing most recently. So if A enables sharing, then B, but B is currently playing a game, it won't let C play a game that both A and B own. You can log in as B and disable sharing, then it will work. Alternately, there are tools to fix this automatically by editing config files -- and in retrospect, they probably work because of the security flaws mentioned in an earlier thread...