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Ubisoft "Uplay" DRM exposed as rootkit

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Re: Ubisoft "Uplay" DRM exposed as rootkit

#21

Post by simias »

kevingadd wrote: post #8
kevingadd wrote: post #7

Why does Tavis Ormandy ( http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2012/Jul/375 ) keep putting fully usable proof of concept exploits out for widely deployed software without giving a vendor time to prepare a patch, or in this case, even notifying them? Off the top of my head, I remember he did this for the windows help center exploit and the java web start exploit. I can't understand why you would do this. You could at lea…

I asked a question. If you're going to downvote me for having a wrong opinion, you should at least respond and tell me me the answer to my question, like 'this is proper behavior for a security researcher because X'.

Those games are pretty mainstream, I can't imagine how many gamers are getting rooted as we speak. I'm glad ubisoft are getting their asses kicked over this (especially with their history of aggressive DRM'ing) but for the users that's terrible. So no, I don't think that's very responsible.

That being said, installing a "sudo" plugin in everybody's browser without any security validation (if I understand correctly what this is about) would be hilarious if it wasn't that tragic. But gamers are gamers, they forgave sony, they'll forgive ubisoft too, and they'll never learn.

Re: Ubisoft "Uplay" DRM exposed as rootkit

#23

Post by Paul_S »

simias wrote: post #13
Paul_S wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the company wasn't acting in good faith? IMHO they put that there on purpose and they deserve to be exposed as evil bastards that they are.

Do you have any evidence they put that here on purpose or are you just spreading rumors? It could as well be shoddy programming.

I don't subscribe to "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity". I'm not citing sources - hence it's just my opinion. Reminds me of google wifi slurping and hundreds of other cases where everyone plays dumb and swears it was all a misunderstanding. It never is. Until you get caught. And if not that it's a rogue trader, rogue reporter, rogue programmer, rogue scapegoat.

Re: Ubisoft "Uplay" DRM exposed as rootkit

#24

Post by simias »

rix0r wrote: post #18
paddington wrote: post #4

I'm curious, could it be possible to implement a simple SMB listener in javascript and then send send "\\ \my_virus.exe\" (encoded in base64) as orbit_exe_path?

You'd have to implement a TCP server listening on a privileged port (< 1024). Surely no browser would allow this.

I'm not sure about windows, but on all the un*xes I know you need to be root (or have the right capabilities) to create a port with number < 1024. So even if the browser doesn't enforce this, the OS should.

Re: Ubisoft "Uplay" DRM exposed as rootkit

#25

Post by ajasmin »

So does this have some legitimate use on the web (such as product activation on the Ubisoft website) or is this an ActiveX component intended to be used locally that could have been marked as "safe for scripting" by mistake?

Edit: Other comments suggest there's a NPAPI plugin as well so it's definitely intended for use on the web.

Also in what sense is this a rootkit? Is this purposely hidden from the list of IE addons or something?

Re: Ubisoft "Uplay" DRM exposed as rootkit

#27

Post by fmavituna »

Google chrome users: You can go to "about:plugins" and disable this and all other things that might expose you to extra security risks such as "Microsoft Office" (even "Native Client") or any other plugins that exposed in there by 3rd party without any confirmation.
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