Safe Mods
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I am new to mods. What are the mods that have been verified to not contain any malware or viruses and how to I play them?
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@chrisvar5 since the angry planes debacle, all uploaded mods are checked by the admin(s) for viruses (among other things) before being approved.
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@chrisvar5 All the mods in here are checked before approving, so you can download any mod without worrying.
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Thanks,
Appreciate it.
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@Akila_Reigns That's one of the things I don't like about these mods/tools that have online-updating features... it bypasses the security this site gives you.
A user could effectively write an initial mod that passed the testing, then via-update, turn into something malicious... and that's bad, because it would reflect on the site as well as the mod author. And seeing as the mod author probably wouldn't care, the site would be left with the fallout.
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@LeeC2202 Nice idea, you should tell that to rappo.
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@Akila_Reigns It's probably easier to mention him in this thread, seeing as that's where I mentioned the problem. That way he can see what sparked the comment in the first place...
So @rappo what are your thoughts on the problem I mentioned?
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@LeeC2202 Yes I agree, and I've started asking authors of such tools to either remove the background download or notify users that the application is downloading something behind the scenes, away from GTA5-Mods.com or wherever else they originally downloaded the tool.
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@rappo If I do download one of those mods, I simply firewall them for outbound connections, because what they upload could be just as bad as what they download... especially if they've been snooping around.
I mean you're basically trusting a stranger's code onto your machine and then letting it upload and download as it desires. That's just a bit too much freedom for me.
There's also a certain one that if it knows there is a newer version of itself, it won't let you run the older version until it updates... blocking outbound connections stops that.
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@LeeC2202 You can never prevent that from happening unless you only allow people to submit source code, get it built by GTA5-Mods and let the users download the binaries from the compiled source files. I keep all my work on GitHub and for Manual Transmission I have AppVeyor build the binary on every commit I do, so I can at least guarantee that version is completely user-proof.
Otherwise anybody malicious could just set some random date in the future for their mod to start contacting some server for malicious purposes. It's just a risk/reward thing, and the risk is generally pretty low. Still, you can't always be sure 100%, as it's computer security we're talking about. All we know there's some backdoor Intel put in CPUs themselves or Intel sneaked sneaky stuff into their compiler.
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@ikt You're right, you can't prevent it... but what you can do is promote a more responsible attitude towards it.
That means:
- Don't upload data without confirmation/consent.
- Don't download data without confirmation/consent.
- Don't cripple your software in order to force people to allow that upload or download.
- Remember that updating is an optional, not mandatory requirement.
- Don't use a EULA to try and force any of those to happen.
Responsible software does all of that. When I see things that say "It's a condition of use that you allow this to happen" then I distrust that software by default...
As a developer, it is your job to be responsible, not the user's job to accept your conditions that exclude you from that responsibility. That's what I believe we should be promoting.
