Ubisoft's DRM May Contain a Rootkit

[Thagarr]

I just ran across THIS article over at MaximumPC, it appears at least some of Ubisoft's latest DRM may include a rootkit that leaves your system vulnerable to hackers. Nicely done Ubisoft, you may have just actually upstaged Starforce as the worst DRM ever with this one! The games affected include Ubisoft's Uplay DRM, which is installed with the Assassin's Creed franchise of games, as well as Heroes of Might and Magic. Looks like Assassin's Creed 3 just became a no buy for me.

Tavis Ormandy, who serves as an Information Security Engineer at Google, discovered the vulnerability and posted his findings on SecLists.org's Security Mailing List.

"While on vacation recently I bought a video game called Assassin's Creed Revelations. I didn't have much of a chance to play it, but it seems fun so far. However, I noticed the installation procedure creates a browser plugin for it's accompanying Uplay launcher, which grants unexpectedly (at least to me) wide access to websites," Ormandy explained. "I don't know if it's by design, but I thought I'd mention it here in case someone else wants to look into it."

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Ouch. Another one bites the dust.

 

[Thagarr]

Part of me thinks they actually do stuff like this on purpose trying to get people to give up PC gaming because they have more control over consoles, but then I remember that these mega corporations are ran by incompetent corporate types who think because they are rich that they can control everything.

 

[Thagarr]

Ubisoft says it has "fixed" the issue with a patch, you can read the updated story over on Rock, Paper, Shotgun.