Ubisoft DRM is a security risk

[Unaco]

You mean the one that advocates this?:-

Yeah... that article, the one which says, right after the quote you posted, in BIG BOLD LETTERS!!!

Update: the flaw lies specifically in a browser plugin Uplay quietly installs, and the general consensus is now that’s all you need to remove to protect yourself. See below for details on how to rid your PC of it.

That one, yeah. Nice try though.

[Heliocentric]

Mike Tyson's Chicken Nuggets

They are delicious, taste like real ears.

I was a raving Ubisoft advocate, but it looks like they desperately want to be evil more than anything else.

[DzX]

Was this a recent addition to Uplay? I've got AssCred 2, Rev and Conviction installed [but haven't booted them in a while] but can't find a trace of a Uplay plugin in Firefox.

[Heliocentric]

Was this a recent addition to Uplay? I've got AssCred 2, Rev and Conviction installed [but haven't booted them in a while] but can't find a trace of a Uplay plugin in Firefox.

Plausible, I found the plugin in chrome but i regularly play effected titles.

[Oshada]

They are delicious, taste like real ears.

I was a raving Ubisoft advocate, but it looks like they desperately want to be evil more than anything else.

I think it's more a case of Hanlon's Razor.

[Kadayi]

Yeah... that article, the one which says, right after the quote you posted, in BIG BOLD LETTERS!!!

He's still advocating it. He hasn't removed the original recommendation (which is frankly a bizarre oversight).

[Unaco]

He's still advocating it. He hasn't removed the original recommendation (which if frankly bizarre tbh).

Or, y'know, not bizarre at all, as it serves as a record of the original article. With a big, bold update right next to it, labelled as an update, to show that that bit had been added as an update to the original article.

You see how that works? The bold text draws the eyes, quite difficult to ignore or skip over, draws attention to the update done to the article.

[Skull]

I use IE explorer

What is this strange creature?

On another note, should I be worried if the only Ubisoft game I have is Rayman: Origins, as I dont think that installs any plug-ins? (At work atm so can't check)

[Kadayi]

Or, y'know, not bizarre at all, as it serves as a record of the original article. With a big, bold update right next to it, labelled as an update, to show that that bit had been added as an update to the original article.

You see how that works? The bold text draws the eyes, quite difficult to ignore or skip over, draws attention to the update done to the article.

Y'know how about maybe getting the facts straight beforehand and not tell everyone to goto DEFCON 1 in the first place? It's not like speed was of the essence, given it's a 'potential' threat rather than an actual one.

Also where's the strikethrough?

[Kaira-]

Y'know how about maybe getting the facts straight beforehand and not tell everyone to goto DEFCON 1 in the first place? It's not like speed was of the essence, given it's a 'potential' threat rather than an actual one.

With remote code execution exploits, speed is of essence.

[Kadayi]

With remote code execution exploits, speed is of essence.

Demonstrate how you'd propagate it to take advantage of the window of opportunity then.

[deano2099]

Y'know how about maybe getting the facts straight beforehand and not tell everyone to goto DEFCON 1 in the first place? It's not like speed was of the essence, given it's a 'potential' threat rather than an actual one.

Also where's the strikethrough?

To be fair they put off reporting it until after a lot of sites, as they were looking carefully at the veracity of it before running the story. Yep, they still got it wrong but erring on the side of caution seems wise here: un-installing software is hardly a major inconvenience, having your PC wiped because you clicked on a dodgy link is.

[Kaira-]

Demonstrate how you'd propagate it to take advantage of the window of opportunity then.

Let's see. If the user has UAC disabled and is running admin-account, you could do pretty much anything you want. You could make the Windows cmd.exe use ftp to download all kinds of nice stuff to your computer, disable your antivirus (which I hope most people have) et cetera. If you have UAC enabled, then what you could do with the exploit is more limited, but you could easily scan through files, looking for personal data, such as credit card information, passwords et cetera.

All it takes to compromise your system is a small, little hole.

[Kadayi]

Let's see. If the user has UAC disabled and is running admin-account, you could do pretty much anything you want. You could make the Windows cmd.exe use ftp to download all kinds of nice stuff to your computer, disable your antivirus (which I hope most people have) et cetera. If you have UAC enabled, then what you could do with the exploit is more limited, but you could easily scan through files, looking for personal data, such as credit card information, passwords et cetera.

All it takes to compromise your system is a small, little hole.

All well and good, but that's not what I asked for. I asked you how you'd propagate it.

@deano2099

The whole thing is at this point in time a bit of a phantom menace though. Yes, there's a risk, but there's not actually any tangible threat at present (peoples hard drives aren't being wiped). So even then advocating people burn the Ubisoft house down is comes across as rampant fear mongering.

[gundato]

All well and good, but that's not what I asked for. I asked you how you'd propagate it.

Uhm... by assuming people had installed an UbiDRM game at some point? So I guess on store shelves and through a recent summer sale on Steam (and at other places) that led to lots of people buying Ubi games because they were cheap.

[Kaira-]

All well and good, but that's not what I asked for. I asked you how you'd propagate it.

Something lost in the translation there then.

So, quick look at merriam-webster and I'm assuming you mean how I would spread this exploit. An easy one would be to link something which looks legit enough, say, a bit.ly-link and say that there's something of itnerest in there. What in fact would happen when one clicks the link is it first routes to a site which makes use of the exploit to download something to the victim's comp. After that to cover the trail a reroute to some actual page, like Eurogamer. Now that the system is compromised, spreading will be much easier, one could for example scan for Steam or MSN Messenger and start spamming messages with the same infected link to the contact lists. Maybe if the user has email, send messages to their contact lists and maybe add an attachement of some virus.

And well, as said on previous page, if one could gain access to service which distributes adverts to sites, the amount of potentially compromised systems just blows through the roof.

[Kadayi]

Uhm... by assuming people had installed an UbiDRM game at some point? So I guess on store shelves and through a recent summer sale on Steam (and at other places) that led to lots of people buying Ubi games because they were cheap.

How about you let Kiara answer the question (and no that's not the answering the question either).

[Nalano]

Remind me, what has Uplay done so far besides fuck things up?

[eRa]

Remind me, what has Uplay done so far besides fuck things up?

Stopped piracy!

[gundato]

How about you let Kiara answer the question (and no that's not the answering the question either).

Apologies kady. I didn't realize you guys were exchanging PMs or something.

But please, clarify what you mean by "propagate" in that case. Because the exploit is propagated by the games (well, the DRM). And kaira just pointed out how you can propagate a link (I get it, you are new to the interwebs and never experienced the fun when people used to link to really fun images).

Remind me, what has Uplay done so far besides fuck things up?

Uhm, forced a bunch of pirates to turn off peerguardian/block/modified hosts files while they were streaming the content on their cracked copies of SC: Conviction? :p