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posted by martyb on Wednesday December 05 2018, @04:09AM   Printer-friendly
from the crackerjack dept.

New 'Valeroa' Anti-Piracy System Cracked "In 20 Minutes" - TorrentFreak

Situated on top of regular DRM, Denuvo has made its way to the top of the pile as one of the most effective and hated (by pirates at least) anti-tamper technologies. This reputation has in part been earned through its ability to prevent low-level crackers from defeating its locks but also due to a perception that it can be anti-consumer.

With this reputation, Denuvo is consistently targeted by crackers, who are getting more and more successful in defeating the technology. A few days’ protection now seems to be the most the product can offer, with the company itself now openly suggesting that a couple of weeks’ protection is a reasonable aim and valuable in itself.

Given Denuvo’s profile, it was interesting to see an apparently new technology being touted by its makers a few months ago. Dubbed ‘Valeroa‘, this new kid on the anti-tamper block seems to have Denuvo in its sights, with interesting marketing which presents the tech as a more consumer-friendly tool to achieve the same aims.

“Valeroa anti-tamper does [not] require you to have an internet connection. Not even when you launch your game for the first time or after you upgraded your hardware. Some games require you to be online, but this is not a Valeroa requirement,” the company claims.

“The protected game behaves as if there is no protection applied at all. Gamers don’t need to re-validate hardware or need an internet connection. They also don’t need to install additional software or drivers. They can play the game as it was intended by the game developer.”

[...] In common with Denuvo, however, the company behind Valeroa states that its tech is “extremely difficult to crack before and closely after the game release date.”

[...] On November 29, Valeroa made its debut on the game City Patrol: Police, a racing/action game that doesn’t appear to be particularly popular with early adopters. Doubling up on the disappointment, the Valeroa technology didn’t stand up as promised either.

On Saturday December 1, two days after launch, the game appeared online with its protection cracked. A user known online as ‘Steam006’ (who claims to be from Turkey) was reportedly responsible and if his report is to be believed, Valeroa didn’t put up much of a fight.

“It took about 20 minutes to make the crack,” he announced.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @04:34AM (10 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @04:34AM (#769956)

    Valeroa anti-tamper does [not][sic] require you to have an internet connection. Not even when you launch your game for the first time or after you upgraded your hardware. Some games require you to be online, but this is not a Valeroa requirement [...] They also don’t need to install additional software or drivers.

    They seem to think this is a feature?

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by coolgopher on Wednesday December 05 2018, @05:17AM (6 children)

    by coolgopher (1157) on Wednesday December 05 2018, @05:17AM (#769976)

    Yes, many if not most AAA titles require you to "phone home", at least the first launch, and generally always. I avoid AAA titles these days and stick to stuff on GoG [gog.com] without DRM, because f*ck DRM [fckdrm.com].

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @07:11AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @07:11AM (#769996)

      And I second GOG for anyone who isn't familiar with them.

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday December 05 2018, @10:19AM (3 children)

      by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Wednesday December 05 2018, @10:19AM (#770014) Homepage Journal

      Am I do understand correctly that you said f*ck drm [fckdrm.com]?

      I just want to ensure that I get its increment of Link Popularity right.

      --
      Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
      • (Score: 3, Funny) by coolgopher on Wednesday December 05 2018, @10:30AM (2 children)

        by coolgopher (1157) on Wednesday December 05 2018, @10:30AM (#770015)

        Yes, I did write f*ck DRM [fckdrm.com], though perhaps the correct spelling is just fck DRM [fckdrm.com] without the asterisk?

        For this link popularity thing, is case important? I mean, would a link to http://www.fckdrm.com [fckdrm.com] be different from a link to http://WWW.FCKDRM.COM [fckdrm.com]? I mean, from a DNS point of view it should be the same, but I haven't kept up to date with all the apparent madness that's been going on in DNS space over the decades. It seems RFC4343 [ietf.org] is the current authoritative statement on it. Then again, who knows what people have actually implemented? >.<

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @11:48AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @11:48AM (#770027)

      HumbleBundle for good for a while when they were mostly DRM-free titles. Now it's all Steam and books. Meh.

  • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by Arik on Wednesday December 05 2018, @05:20AM (1 child)

    by Arik (4543) on Wednesday December 05 2018, @05:20AM (#769977) Journal
    In other news, syphilis and gonorrhea are also available without an internet connection required. Order now while supplies last!
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @10:59AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @10:59AM (#770021)

      Are you saying we should get order syphilis and gonorrhea from you? Do your strains have DRM?

  • (Score: 2) by edIII on Wednesday December 05 2018, @08:43PM

    by edIII (791) on Wednesday December 05 2018, @08:43PM (#770272)

    I'm completely out of the loop as well. If I really feel like playing a game with DRM, I instead obtain it through piracy. Interestingly enough, there is no DRM in piracy :)

    Although, I'm quite happy enough with all the Indie games, and they're all DRM free and more affordable too.

    --
    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.