Monday, July 30, 2012

Ubisoft UPlay DRM exploit opens PCs to security risk

Paying customers frustrated and angry: 99%. Pirates thwarted: 0%. I'd say that about sums up Ubisoft's score when it comes to the studio's DRM tech and PC gaming, particularly with this latest bit of news: Cyber experts say Ubisoft's mandatory UPlay network features "really bad, easily exploitable" code that creates serious security risks for all who use it.

A step-by-step video now making the rounds on the internet shows how holes in UPlay can be exploited by hackers, allowing them to search your files and take control of your PC. Speaking with CVG, Trend Micro Director of Security Research Rik Ferguson said the UPlay security flaw creates a huge risk that Ubisoft must address immediately.

"Pushing out such easily exploitable code, to such an easily targeted platform as a web browser through such a huge gaming population presents a huge risk and will of course be of interest to online criminals," Ferguson told CVG. "Ubisoft should be patching this code as a matter of urgency and in the meantime, gamers should be disabling the plug-in."

The browser plug-in Ferguson describes is automatically created during the UPlay installation. Disable it immediately by following these steps:

Firefox: Tools – Add-ons – Plugins – Disable the Uplay and Uplay PC Hub plugins

Chrome: Visit About: Plugins and disable

Opera: Settings – Preferences – Advanced – Downloads – Search 'Uplay' and delete

We've reached out to Ubisoft for comment and will update this post with any response.

Any more reasons you want to give PC gamers to illegally download cracked versions of your games, Ubisoft?

Source: gamespy.com

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