Epic's new Easy Anti-Cheat for Linux skips the kernel driver and checks your boot chain instead

EAC Linux v2 uses signed kernels, Secure Boot, TPM 2.0 and eBPF instead of a kernel module. Fortnite pilots it, and a Preview of the rebuilt Epic launcher is out for Linux.

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Epic Games is rebuilding Easy Anti-Cheat for Linux, and the new version will not ship a kernel driver. Instead, EAC Linux v2 asks that the machine boots a signed kernel from a distribution Epic recognises, with Secure Boot, a TPM and a handful of kernel security settings switched on. Epic published the plan on 14 October and said Fortnite will be the first game to use it.

The same day, Epic put a Preview of its rebuilt launcher up for download on Windows, macOS and, for the first time, Linux.

What EAC Linux v2 asks for

Epic's post says EAC has supported native Linux games since 2014 and Proton since 2021, but that support is opt-in per game and many developers never switched it on because it "couldn't offer the same level of protection" as the Windows version. That gap, Epic says, is why Fortnite is not on Linux yet.

The FAQ is blunt on the kernel question: v2 "does not install or load an anti-cheat kernel module". The first time a protected game starts, players are asked to install a systemd service that runs only while that game is running. The rest is eBPF and features the kernel already has. Epic lists eight requirements: a kernel and any kernel modules signed with a "well-known" key, TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, measured boot, IOMMU on with passthrough off (handhelds excepted), kernel lockdown in integrity mode, kexec disabled and the BPF LSM active.

Out-of-tree drivers, NVIDIA's named among them, must be signed by an organisation with a well-known key too. The starting key list covers Canonical, Fedora, Universal Blue (Bazzite, Bluefin, Aurora), Debian, openSUSE, SUSE Linux Enterprise, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux and the Microsoft UEFI CA used by the shim bootloader. Epic says it will run that list for now and aims to open source it and take pull requests.

Epic says the checks happen when a protected game starts, so a separate boot entry for gaming is fine, as are self-enrolled keys for other boot paths, provided they go in the Secure Boot database and not in the MOK list. Starting a game on a machine that fails the checks shows an error and does not get the account banned. The Steam Deck does not support the required features, and Epic says it is talking to Valve.

The post asks distribution maintainers who have not heard from Epic to get in touch, so their signing keys can be added, and says Epic will co-host a panel later this year with Fedora Project Leader Jef Spaleta.

A split reaction

On r/linux_gaming the plan has divided people. One post calls it the right model, because players and Epic can both trust and audit the same open source code underneath the game. Another argues that requiring approved kernels and keys means a game company deciding which distros, patches and out-of-tree drivers people can use, and asks why server-side detection is not enough. Epic's FAQ answers that point directly: it already uses server data, but calls it "not sufficient alone".

The launcher

The Preview launcher officially supports Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or newer, Fedora 43 or newer and Debian 12 or newer, and says other distributions may work but are not tested. It runs natively, though many games are Windows builds that need a compatibility layer. GamingOnLinux reports that the launcher fetches GE-Proton itself for those. Epic claims a 5.47 second cold start against 10.07 seconds for Steam, from tests it commissioned from Keywords Studios, and warns that some features of the old launcher, including certain social and account options, are missing for now.

Sources

Image: Epic Games

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