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.
Related Stories
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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @04:34AM (10 children)
They seem to think this is a feature?
(Score: 5, Informative) by coolgopher on Wednesday December 05 2018, @05:17AM (6 children)
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
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)
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)
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: 2, Funny) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday December 05 2018, @02:00PM
So it works quite well to say FCKDRM [fckdrm.com].
I'll Send You My Bill In The Mail.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Wednesday December 05 2018, @07:19PM
The version with star is just the diversity-gendered version.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @11:48AM
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)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @10:59AM
Are you saying we should
getorder syphilis and gonorrhea from you? Do your strains have DRM?(Score: 2) by edIII on Wednesday December 05 2018, @08:43PM
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.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @05:47AM (1 child)
Damn, Steam006 had to waste his money on a brand new game and only got 20 minutes of enjoyment out of it? What a rip off. Think he can get a refund?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @12:25PM
If he got it on steam he should be able to.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday December 05 2018, @10:17AM (1 child)
uwork or some such, I think there was also guru.
Guru was the first one I looked over, during the Dot-Com Boom. One of the gigs posted there specifically and explicitly stated that "We want a program that will change the user's homepage to one that we supply remotely, and that the user cannot change back."
More recently at uwork or some such was "I want a cryptor". I had to look that one up, it's like what Denuvo makes but for malware, in that a cryptor prevents malware scanners from reporting its payload.
Rather... uh... "oddly"... there was no way to report gig listings whose deliverables were unlawful. While mailing support did result in that cryptor post being deleted, uwork's - or some such's - reporting UI only required that one click a button.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @07:08PM
It is the same with Fiverr and Mechanical Turk, and the rest. Short of the FBI or InterPol or the like knocking on their door, they won't care; and even then they don't always (looking at you Backpage).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @05:46PM
torrent uploading teams need to doxx the authors of the drm so people can teach them that their actions have consequences.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 05 2018, @06:24PM
Every time you buy a DRM'd game part of your money goes to these very leaches.
Spend your money on something socially more constructive like hookers and blow instead.