I don’t know too much about kernals and booting and the like; basically a little concerned about vanguard being like a root kit and was wondering if i got another hard drive for valorant/league would that separate it enough in case of a malicious attack. I have 2 hard drives right now (1 for windows and 1 for Linux with my bootloader installed on the Linux drive). Thanks in advance!
I have a similar setup (1 drive for windows, 1 for linux). I’d assume that vanguard would only run while you are booted in windows.
I’d assume you’d be safe as long as you do not boot to windows. However, if vanguard was compromised while you were running windows, then you would probably be SOL.
If you were concerned with vanguard, I’d consider changing the setting such that vanguard is not running 24/7(every time you need to startup valorant, you just restart your computer).
If you are more interested in the security and why vanguard needs kernel drivers, this is a good article to read
I think a lot of people are cautious with vanguard because it is a requirement to play valorant, you need to have vanguard installed.
From what I have heard in CSGO, ESEA, FaceIt and other private matchmaking systems use something similar to vanguard. The main difference between these two is that, ESEA and FaceIt are opt-in while there isn’t a choice for vanguard.
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As a rootkit, Vanguard will affect the entire OS it’s installed into. Don’t think of it like a program you install into Program Files, or maybe into a different folder; for all intents and purposes, it installs into your Windows install itself.
That means that it won’t affect your Linux install, but it has nothing to do with physical hard drives. Your Linux boot would be just as isolated as a partition on the same HDD. Getting a separate drive for Valorant accomplishes zero, since Windows would be able to read and write that drive just like the install drive. Windows can also read your Linux HDD (filesystem compatibility notwithstanding).
I think the only way to isolate a rootkit from your primary system, is to get a new system. You could buy a new drive, put Windows on it, then pull the other 2 out of your PC case. Up to you if that’s an acceptable amount of work for the added security.
Side note: there’s a lot of FUD about this Vanguard software. It’s not the first rootkit anti-cheat, it doesn’t have any documented security flaws (afaik), it doesn’t seem to do anything malicious, and it’s from a company with their reputation to maintain, not some overseas scammers. If running closed-source, proprietary software you can’t control as root bothers you…you should reconsider using Windows. There is a software-freedom issue here, but other than that, this whole Vanguard freakout is a nothingburger imo.
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