Ubisoft's DRM falls off the wall

[FluffyLunamoth]

Ubisoft's always-on digital rights management solution, dubbed the "Online Services Network," has apparently been circumvented by hackers. News of its arrival on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks began circulating in places like social-news site Reddit Wednesday morning.

The DRM, which now ships with every new PC game made by Ubisoft, requires that gamers have a constant connection to the Internet in order to play their games. The security feature caused a large backlash by users for its inclusion in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 2 title, which was released last month.

The hack itself removes the DRM entirely and is being claimed by a consortium known as Skid Row. It requires users to download and install a modified version of the game's executable file to their computers. These modified game files, alongside a crack that can be applied to a retail version of the game, were uploaded to various file-sharing sites late Tuesday evening.

Attached to the "readme" file that comes with the hacked content (which can be found here), Skid Row alerted other hackers that the group's methods were safeguarded against reverse-engineering in order to fend off competing hacking groups and Ubisoft itself.

Skid Row also left a note for Ubisoft directly, telling the company to spend less time on its DRM and more on the actual game play:

"Thank you Ubisoft, this was quiete [sic] a challenge for us, but nothing stops the leading force from doing what we do. Next time focus on the game and not on the DRM. It was probably horrible for all legit users. We just make their lifes [sic] easier."

Prior to Skid Row's release, there has been a hack that emulated the back and forth of Ubisoft's DRM servers to the game. However, it did not work for all users or localizations of the game. In the readme file, Skid Row claimed its new solution "cannot be compared to that."

Source

While I like the little note, that seems to be poking the tiger in the eye, so to speak. None-the-less, it's nice to see this finally hacked. Sorry, Ubisoft, your DRM didn't work. At all. I'd say try again, but please. Don't.

It made me lol. Though I hope they expect some prime retribution on Ubisoft's part.

 

[Splych]

lool.
N1 Skidrow.

that was pretty nice, and if i were to ever buy the game, i would apply the crack asap.

but how would this work if you didn't have access to internet connection?
lets say you are on the go or in the car playing Assassin's Creed 2, then how will you play the game?
then that means you can't play right?

 

[FluffyLunamoth]

Yeah, that's exactly how Ubisoft's DRM works. Constant internet connection needed. And if your internet connection falters, you get kicked off of the game. It was a doomed DRM from the start.

 

[antwill]

While I like the little note, that seems to be poking the tiger in the eye, so to speak. None-the-less, it's nice to see this finally hacked. Sorry, Ubisoft, your DRM didn't work. At all. I'd say try again, but please. Don't.

Heh but they will try again, seeing as they're adding that DRM to every game they release from now on it seems.

 

[Rayder]

I wonder if the game is truly cracked though. I remember Ubisoft saying something about some game content that isn't on the retail disks would get uploaded from their servers to you as you play. If you don't have those game content uploads, the game will not play as expected or some parts of the game will be missing.

Did Skid Row snatch up all the extra game content too?

 

[TM2-Megatron]

Good news. Anything that screws over Ubisoft is #1 in my book.

 

[Bladexdsl]

sweet have to go searching from the ol underground later for it. does it work with settlers 7? i'm tired of it fucking saying the server is down all the time!

 

[Raika]

Ubisoft deserves it. I bet no one feels bad for Ubisoft, because it was such a fucked up company to begin with. This just made things worse.

 

[Bladexdsl]

the settlers 7 servers are down half the time anyway so what good is the fucking drm!!!

 

[f3ar000]

I wonder if the game is truly cracked though. I remember Ubisoft saying something about some game content that isn't on the retail disks would get uploaded from their servers to you as you play. If you don't have those game content uploads, the game will not play as expected or some parts of the game will be missing.

Did Skid Row snatch up all the extra game content too?

you have to capture packets for a while on the legit game

 

[Cermage]

I wonder if the game is truly cracked though. I remember Ubisoft saying something about some game content that isn't on the retail disks would get uploaded from their servers to you as you play. If you don't have those game content uploads, the game will not play as expected or some parts of the game will be missing.

Did Skid Row snatch up all the extra game content too?

while i havent had a look at skidrow's cracked release, the crack floating around beforehand essentially emulated ubi's servers on your own computer. skidrow probably went and took it a step further and bypassed the constant checks and included the extra content on their release.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Just a shot in the dark, but there could be patches or something with extra content that's released. IDK that much about computer gaming or computer game piracy though, so I'm just firing blind.

But good for SkidRow, this was a dumb method of anti-piracy. When you start getting so into anti-piracy that legit game owners suffer, then there's something wrong.

 

[Fabis94]

The DRM idea is pretty retarded, even for the legit buyers. I mean it's ironic that you need to have the internet connection on at all times, but the game doesn't even have any multiplayer.

 

[Bladexdsl]

settlers 7 does MP

 

[shakirmoledina]

i just tried the whole server crack thing from TPB
1.) U install the game as usual
2.) Replace the ubisoftlauncher with the cracked one
3.) Extract server folder
what this does is fake the original server from ubi on your computer locally although there are some entries u have to add in the host files with the address 127.0.0.1 (i bet those who know what this is can understand the whole concept)
4.) So then instead of saving files in the ubi server, u are saving the files in yer own computer as if yer computer is the server itself

i dont know if this is skid's crack but it worked perfectly

another thing i saw was there were some files to replace
one which was big and another one small (that was some unlocker). The smaller could allow a user to play DLC content... i dont have a good connection so i used the local version though there are many different iterations of the crack for this game

Another crack shifts the save server to another server not owned by ubi
Another crack is much less problematic which does not require host file editing (like the above)

Here's the readme from the crack i saw

Spoiler

#Here you have the final vesion of the AC2 crack made by the guys from cs.rin.ru, so all thanks go to them. I included 2 versions of the crack here: 1) the classic version, the offline server 0.44 with the last values.db file, 2) the aotocrack version v1.0.1.0.

(1) If you want to use offline server 0.44:

Edit your "hosts" file in "C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc" by opening it with notepad and adding the folowing lines, then save:

127.0.0.1 static3.cdn.ubi.com
127.0.0.1 ubisoft-orbit.s3.amazonaws.com
127.0.0.1 onlineconfigservice.ubi.com
127.0.0.1 orbitservice.ubi.com
127.0.0.1 ubisoft-orbit-savegames.s3.amazonaws.com

Then run "ipconfig /flushdns"


Finally, run server.exe and start your game.

(Enter an id and password (what you wanted). Do not register)
Keep the same ID and password for next time, in order to resume play where you left off.

!VERY IMPORTANT: a) Make sure you overwrite the Ubisoft Game Launcher in the "C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher" folder with the one in the torrent if you have the latest Ubisoft Game Launcher version! The crack doesn't work with the latest version of Ubisoft Game Launcher !!!!!!!!!
b) Make sure you have all internet processes close, like Skype, Dropbox,uTorrent etc!!!!

(2) If you want to use the easier autocrack version:

1 - Download and Install: InstallAC2Crack.exe - Emulator AC2 Server 0.44 including the latest values.db update (v1900)

2 - Start the game via the shortcut "Play Assassin's Creed II" on the desktop or start menu.

(Enter an id and password (what you wanted). Do not register)
Keep the same ID and password for next time, in order to resume play where you left off.

It is possible to completely remove this "crack" server emu too. (Via control panel or start menu)

!VERY IMPORTANT: a) Make sure you overwrite the Ubisoft Game Launcher in the "C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher" folder if you have the latest Ubisoft Game Launcher version! The crack doesn't work with the latest version of Ubisoft Game Launcher !!!!!!!!!
b) Make sure you have all internet processes close, like Skype, Dropbox,uTorrent etc!!!!

(3) I also included the savegams witch will allow you to unlock the black edition DLCs of the game. Yhis saves don't modify your game progress but you have to be careful aplling them:
Go to "C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\storage\bW5pb3N1\4" folder. There 2 types of saves the ones with 1 in front and the ones with 2 in front. One of the type is the progress saves (they are larger) and the other are the ulocks saves. Make sure you replace the smaller size saves (even if your smaller saves are 1... not 2... like the saves I have uploaded, just rename the my saves with the proper name before overwriting!!!!). Also make sure you have the 1900 values.db by 3xistence in your server folder (inluded in torrent).

That's about it guys. Enjoy it!

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Credits go to:
- Assassin's Creed II - Server Emulator coded by Dormine @ cs.rin.ru - Thanks
- AC2 Simple Laucher coded by Approved - Thanks
- Values.db garthered by 3xistence, razafan, 13korshun13, wormss, krazyyy, LDK, Dalfi and others... - Thanks
- Thanks to bclkostra, bjamikel, LordGravewish, AC2Clearing for merging the values and all others people who have worked on this so far.
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