Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
The new Denuvo system 'protecting' the game 'RiME' has been defeated in less than a week. This is notable, not least since the developers promised to remove Denuvo if it was cracked. Furthermore, a report from the cracker suggests that an apparently desperate Denuvo pulled out all the stops to protect RiME, but still failed.
[...] In a fanfare of celebrations, rising cracking star Baldman announced that he had defeated the latest v4+ iteration of Denuvo and dumped a cracked copy of RiME online. While encouraging people to buy what he describes as a "super nice" game, Baldman was less complimentary about Denuvo.
Labeling the anti-tamper technology a "huge abomination," the cracker said that Denuvo's creators had really upped their efforts this time out. People like Baldman who work on Denuvo talk of the protection calling on code 'triggers.' For RiME, things were reportedly amped up to 11.
Source: https://torrentfreak.com/new-control-denuvo-piracy-protection-cracked-170602/
Related Stories
Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
Over the past few years, the name Voksi has become synonymous with game cracking, in particular when it comes to anti-Denuvo activities. This week the talented Bulgarian released a 90-minute video in which he reveals how he cracked V4 of the infamous anti-tamper technology. TorrentFreak caught up with him for the lowdown.
Source: https://torrentfreak.com/voksi-releases-detailed-denuvo-cracking-video-tutorial-180210/
Denuvo "is an anti-tamper technology and digital rights management (DRM) scheme developed by the Austrian company Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH".
Related: Denuvo Forgets to Secure Server, Leaks Years of Messages From Game Makers
More Powerful Denuvo DRM Cracked 10 Days After Release of PREY
'Rime' Creators Will Remove Anti-Tampering Code If It's Cracked
New "Out of Control" Denuvo Piracy Protection Cracked
Denuvo Accused of Using Unlicensed Software to Protect its Anti-Piracy Tool
Denuvo License Generator is Latest Circumvention Method
Denuvo-Free Devil May Cry 5 Reportedly Improves the Game's Performance by Up to 20FPS
It appears that Denuvo's anti-tamper tech has significant impact on Devil May Cry 5's performance, and a Denuvo-free .exe game file has now surfaced online.
The Devil May Cry 5 .exe file was actually released by Capcom following the game's release earlier today, but has now been pulled. However, the file can still be downloaded through the Steam console. Several users are reporting FPS improvements by up to 20FPS while using the Denuvo-free exe file.
Sound familiar? Devil May Cry 5 is the game AMD demoed running on a Radeon VII GPU at its CES 2019 keynote. I wonder if they were running it with DRM.
Average frame rates are only part of the story when it comes to a game's performance. Minimum frame rates, percentiles, etc. can measure frame stuttering. A significant boost in a game's performance can also increase minimum frame rates.
Related:
Denuvo Forgets to Secure Server, Leaks Years of Messages From Game Makers
More Powerful Denuvo DRM Cracked 10 Days After Release of PREY
'Rime' Creators Will Remove Anti-Tampering Code If It's Cracked
New "Out of Control" Denuvo Piracy Protection Cracked
Denuvo License Generator is Latest Circumvention Method
Voksi Releases Detailed Denuvo-Cracking Video Tutorial
DRM Software Company Takes Legal Action Against Cracker
Hitman 2's Denuvo Protection Cracked Three Days Before Launch
New 'Valeroa' Anti-Piracy System Cracked "In 20 Minutes"
Evidence Continues to Mount About How Bad Denuvo is for PC Gaming Performance
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday June 03 2017, @02:06AM (1 child)
We interrupt your porn program to announce that yet another defense to a hostile offense has been created. Tune in at 11:00 for more details. And, now, back to your regularly scheduled porn.
(Score: 3, Funny) by edIII on Saturday June 03 2017, @02:26AM
Dude, the last thing I want during my porn session is your voice announcing that the intermission is over and to visit the concession stand for popcorn ;)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday June 03 2017, @02:27AM (9 children)
It's remarkable how bullheaded the ownership believers are about their wrong thinking and propaganda. They're still trying to force the abundant to function as if it is a scarce good. In the near 40 years that they've been wrestling with this "problem", I have not heard of any copy protection or DRM scheme that wasn't broken, and broken in a matter of days.
Even if there was a working DRM scheme, it can't stop someone from reverse engineering or just creating a clone. That's how RMS and friends broke the stranglehold private vendors tried to maintain on UNIX.
(Score: 3, Informative) by edIII on Saturday June 03 2017, @02:36AM (4 children)
Unfortunately, you are wrong. The protections on the PS3, PS4, were robust enough to keep people out for years. Only pissing off the true Linux users that were not into gaming caused the environment to be created where it was finally opened.
That being said, I'm not sure what the current state of Sony is with the hardware. Maybe there is a way to play a backup game, but the fact we haven't been able to completely free a piece of hardware would seem to indicate that some success was made.
Are they fully cracked, or is there a path to at least disable the DRM and play from a burned disc or HDD content?
The PSP, which I'm more familiar with, was successfully locked down for long enough. It seemed like forever before there was a new crack, and I think the battery firmware method was not effective on the later generations. Most of it is unlockable, but I think there is still some PSP out there locked up enough.
DRM on a fully open computer system is much harder to protect, but an awful lot of consumer equipment out there is anything but free now. They have offense in depth going on.
The good news is that all we need to do is convince the developers, and find a way for them to get paid, and we get good content. I've been pleased with the quality of content with indie games in general, and Humble Bundle has gone a long way to improving the scene. Kickstarting games may become viable.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Marand on Saturday June 03 2017, @03:51AM
This is probably the most important thing said in any comment so far. The PS3 DRM worked great until Sony pissed off a subset of its customers by crippling the product they'd already purchased. A happy customer will keep using the product, while a disgruntled one will start looking for ways to get what they paid for.
Providing a worthwhile service or product and keeping your customers happy is more effective than any DRM. That's why services like Steam and Netflix, when run well, do more to limit piracy than draconian DRM ever will.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Saturday June 03 2017, @05:42AM (2 children)
Can't forget mod chips for the PS3 and xbox360 that let you play cracked games. I remember one store was selling modded consoles pre-loaded with games for only 100$ more. I haven't looked at consoles in years though. No idea if modding is still a thing. It's so easy to get great PC games nearly instantly these days. No idea why anyone pirates (unless they seriously have no job and no money and would rather play pirated games. Totally understandable).
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Saturday June 03 2017, @09:35AM (1 child)
To get a DRM-free copy?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 03 2017, @10:35AM
AKA, "the superior product". See: https://torrentfreak.com/new-control-denuvo-piracy-protection-cracked-170602/ [torrentfreak.com]
I'm willing to pay significantly more for a game on GOG than on Steam, and Steam DRM is not even all that bad.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday June 03 2017, @02:48AM
Well, to be literal, even if it took ten years, then the protection was broken "in days". Just, like, a lot of days.
edIII quite effectively counters your claim that protections are always broken quickly and easily. The PS3 does stand out in my memory, because we bought one for the boys, and I wanted to diddle with it. I was only waiting for the "new" to wear off of it, when I learned that the Linux feature was being disabled.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday June 03 2017, @03:28AM (2 children)
I don't know. The DRM on nuclear missiles seems to be holding up pretty good.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Scrutinizer on Saturday June 03 2017, @06:50AM
Yeah, not [wikipedia.org] really [wikipedia.org]...
Just needs a really big rocket.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Aiwendil on Saturday June 03 2017, @09:37AM
The standard code for US nukes was for a long time 00000000
(Score: 3, Insightful) by boltronics on Saturday June 03 2017, @07:41AM
I try to avoid any Windows game that has known copy protection that might interfere with Wine. I've been burned by too many games over the years that should have worked perfectly, but the copy protection got in the way. In some cases, the only option to get a game with copy protection working under Wine is to crack it. The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is one such example that still doesn't work under Wine to this day... however if I crack my legit copy, it works just fine. Remind me... why am I purchasing games I'm just going to have to crack anyway?
So listen up game publishers! All those Windows sales you think you should have been getting but can't because of those darn pirates running Windows... it's probably obvious but I'll point it out anyway - they're all GNU/Linux users with legit licenses trying to run your game under Wine, which will never purchase another one of your games in future. Stop with your DRM BS!
It's GNU/Linux dammit!
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday June 03 2017, @11:12AM
Reading the description provided with the TF article this seems more like a faulty implementation. Nobody, sane, is going to call protection triggers or functions 30+ times per second when you play or load a game. Naturally that would have a massively detrimental effect on performance, and nobody wants that - least of all the producers and creators of the game. That isn't protection, that is just stupidity and sounds more like a faulty implementation and/or some horrible bug. While it have been a tactic previously to make many calls, in hope of that the cracker will miss one and it will go thru, this probably isn't that -- after all you can NOP them all if you just want and spend enough time. This seems more like it something stuck in virtual machine hell and someone forgot to implement proper checks and shit just ramped up by accident.
One can think what one wants about Denuvo but the guys that made it are not stupid -- or that stupid, there would be no benefit from calling for protection checks that often. It would only be a performance drag and that in some regard would be bad for their own product.
(Score: 2) by aiwarrior on Saturday June 03 2017, @11:44AM
Hey after this article I was researching a bit about this topic and thought I would share some resources:
http://www.woodmann.com/forum/entry.php?167-VMprotect-VM_logic-(in-v1-8-demo) [woodmann.com]
https://www2.cs.arizona.edu/people/debray/Publications/ccs-unvirtualize.pdf [arizona.edu]