Steam for Mac not very Mac-like, running as superuser?
http://superuser.com/questions/140785/is-steam-for-mac-effectively-running-as-superuser
It also downloads, executes, and occasionally updates (in the background) files for games you have through Steam.
So, yes, it would need access to do all of these things. It might seem shocking to a Mac user, but us on Windows have programs do this sort of thing all the time (and you don't hear us gassin' on about it (I apologize for the Futurama reference)).
Cue posts about "that's the problem with Windows" or similar, but I honestly don't see any other way to detect cheating automatically. You can manually "spec" players, but any sufficiently advanced aimbot built with stealth in mind won't insta-aim like a bot, and any half-competent cheater (hah!) will not make it obvious he's map hacking.
Sorry Mac users, I have little sympathy. You wanted Steam, but don't like what it does. Uninstall the Mac version if it's bothering you that much, and boot into Windows XP.
It also doesn't need admin access to view all running processes, any user on a unix system can do so.
That being said… I'm pretty sure Steam never actually asked me for an admin password (and I run in a non-privileged account), so I'm not quite sure what this guy is talking about.
Can a normal *nix user also examine in-memory bytecode for other processes? (actual query; I have no idea)
In any case, Steam isn't running with any elevated privileges on my own system (I already had access enabled for assistive devices, which Steam only seems to need to actually launch its games), so I have no complaint on a security standpoint.
My only complaint with Steam so far is that it hardcodes the directory it stores the games. I want to put them elsewhere.
If the user owns that process, then yes.
I picked up the entire Overlord series for $4.99 one weekend, just because it was that cheap. They don't do this with current bestsellers that they can still sell for around $50, of course, but it's nice picking up a cheap game that I know I won't lose the disc for.
Liking the convenience, but want to know that a popular hub accepting inbound connections and open to third-party publishers has some sort of security built in, OS or otherwise. They seem to be going around the OS, and I don't think it's necessary.