That is why I stopped buying DRM enabled games.
It is better to live without having played these games, than to expose myself to such security risks.
Ubisoft "Uplay" DRM exposed as rootkit
91–100 of 148 posts
Re: Ubisoft "Uplay" DRM exposed as rootkit
#92UBI is not alone doing this. Battlefield 3 also installs it's plugin ("ESN Launch Mozilla Plugin") in all browsers on a pc. It's capable of running EA's Origin service, so does it present the same threat?
Also, game publisher Nexon silently installs a browser plugin (Nexon Game Controller) on many (all?) of its games, none of which AFAIK need a browser:
Vindictus/Mabinogi Heroes
Dragon Nest
Maplestory
Atlantica Online
Combat Arms
Re: Ubisoft "Uplay" DRM exposed as rootkit
#93This does not 'install a backdoor that allows any website to take over your computer', right? It just makes it possible to launch any previously installed executable if you know the path.
Those two things are equivalent.
I don't agree. The OP makes it sound like it's a malicious backdoor installed by Ubisoft to get superuser access to a system. In fact, it's just a badly programmed way to launch games / any executable. To do anything else, you will have to find a way around the other security mechanisms, such as UAC.
I am in no way trying to say that this can not be dangerous, but it's different from what we would usually call rootkits.
Re: Ubisoft "Uplay" DRM exposed as rootkit
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not a "feeling" when all evidence points to the fact that, like every security vulnerability ever, a feature was added that had unintended consequences. There's no way it's malicious: Ubisoft can't do anything with this that they can't do everywhere else in the actual applications themselves!
Who says it was malicious on Ubisoft's part? It could easily have been a rogue developer that saw an opportunity to install a backdoor on a ton of machines.
It could also have been the Russians, who planted a mole in Ubisoft's quality assurance division and, over time, laying low in a foreign country gaining the respect of his peers and bosses, slowly worked his way to the top of the food chain...
...where at last he installed his Russian Rootkit.
Or maybe some programmer added a feature that was insecure and they moved on to work on some bug that was crashing level three?
Re: Ubisoft "Uplay" DRM exposed as rootkit
#95Earlier 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.
What would "they" have to gain from this ability? Ubi has already capability to execute arbitrary code on your machine via it's uplay software, they don't need a hole in browser plugin for that.
A web-based portal. List all the games you have registered and click on the link to launch it, whether it's a game installed on your PC or a link to a facebook game.
Re: Ubisoft "Uplay" DRM exposed as rootkit
#96Ok, looks like the game can execute an existing exe file already on the machine, is there currently any proof of concept for actually downloading and executing arbitrary code? Or even specifying commandline arguments for the exe file?
Re: Ubisoft "Uplay" DRM exposed as rootkit
#97I have uplay installed on my games pc along with all available AC games.
Neither chrome nor firefox have this plugin installed.
Auto-removed after being blacklisted? Or never installed?
Re: Ubisoft "Uplay" DRM exposed as rootkit
#98Because of people like this (the straw was Growl installing itself for the third time), I've had to completely change the permissions on particularly vulnerable folders in OS X. Anyone creating software, if you are not already aware of this: installing anything that is not completely and clearly explained beforehand makes you a despicable wretch.
Re: Ubisoft "Uplay" DRM exposed as rootkit
#99"Ubisoft Uplay DRM exposed as rootkit; dozens of popular games hacked"? Idiots.
Re: Ubisoft "Uplay" DRM exposed as rootkit
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those two things are equivalent.
I don't agree. The OP makes it sound like it's a malicious backdoor installed by Ubisoft to get superuser access to a system. In fact, it's just a badly programmed way to launch games / any executable. To do anything else, you will have to find a way around the other security mechanisms, such as UAC. I am in no way trying to say that this can not be dangerous, but it's different from what we would usually call rootki…
You can run a cmd without prompting the UAC you know... or worse... a PowerShell. You know powershell can do a lot of horrible things to your computer with not a single UAC prompt.
For instance, the remove-item commandlet, its description goes like this "The Remove-Item cmdlet does exactly what the name implies: it enables you to get rid of things once and for all. Tired of the file C:\Scripts\Test.txt? Then delete it"[1]. No UAC prompt. Bingo, let's start erasing this annoying C:\Users\Username\Documents.
And this is only one example, give me 1 hour and I can find several ways to fuck up your computer with a powershell open :-).