Disabling Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) on a Rust server takes under a minute: add +server.secure 0 to the Additional Arguments field on the Startup tab of your control panel, then restart the server. This guide walks through the exact steps, how to verify it worked, and what running without EAC actually means for your server.
What server.secure Does
Rust's dedicated server runs Easy Anti-Cheat by default (server.secure is 1). While it is on, every player who connects must have the EAC client running, and players with an EAC ban cannot join. Setting server.secure to 0 turns the anti-cheat layer off entirely: the server stops talking to EAC, and clients can connect without it.
Common reasons to disable it are private or password-protected servers among friends, testing and development servers, and troubleshooting cases where EAC itself is the thing failing (for example connection errors that mention EAC during the loading screen).
Turn Off EAC in the Panel
- Open your Rust server in the DoomHosting panel.
- Go to the Startup tab.
- Find the Additional Arguments field and add:
+server.secure 0
If the field already contains other arguments, keep them and separate each one with a single space, for example +server.tags weekly +server.secure 0.
- Restart the server. Startup arguments are only read when the server boots, so saving the field alone is not enough. A full stop and start also works.
Check That It Worked
After the restart, open the Console tab and type:
server.secure
The server replies with the current value. server.secure: "False" means EAC is off. You can also watch the boot log: with EAC disabled, the EasyAntiCheat initialization lines no longer appear during startup.
Before You Disable It
Running without EAC has real consequences, so decide with these in mind:
- No cheat protection. Nothing server-side blocks cheat clients anymore. On a public server this is usually a bad trade.
- EAC-banned players can join. A game ban on a player's account no longer keeps them out.
- Your players connect normally. Joining works exactly as before; players do not need to change anything on their side.
For a public community server, the better path is usually to keep EAC on and manage problem players with bans and moderation instead. Disabling it is best kept to private, whitelisted, or test servers. If you want more control over who joins, see our guide on adding administrators to your Rust server.
Re-enabling EAC
Remove +server.secure 0 from Additional Arguments (or change it to +server.secure 1) and restart the server. EAC is back on, and clients without EAC running will be rejected again.
Common Issues
The console still shows True after a restart. Check the argument for typos: it is +server.secure 0, with the leading + and a space before the 0. Also make sure you restarted rather than only saving the field.
Other startup arguments stopped working. Arguments in the field must be separated by single spaces. A missing space between two arguments makes the server ignore both.
Players still cannot connect. Connection problems after this change are almost never EAC-related, since disabling it only removes a check. Have the player verify they are joining the right address, and see the server's console for the actual error.
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