MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8

A Microsoft Security Bulletin reveals that Microsoft is turning off the service for secdrv.sys driver for Windows 7 and Windows 8, following word that this will not be supported in Windows 10 (thanks DSOGaming). This disables support for Safedisc, but the news is not all good for DRM haters, as they warn this may prevent some older games from operating, though they offer a workaround:
After you install this security update, some programs may not run. (For example, some video games may not run.) To work around this issue, you can temporarily turn on the service for the secdrv.sys driver by running certain commands, or by editing the registry.

Note When you no longer require the service to be running, we recommend that you turn off the service again.

Warning This workaround may make a computer or a network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses. We do not recommend this workaround but are providing this information so that you can implement this workaround at your own discretion. Use this workaround at your own risk.
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48 Replies. 3 pages. Viewing page 1.
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48.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 28, 2015, 10:54
48.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 28, 2015, 10:54
Sep 28, 2015, 10:54
 
Malware authors can use virustotal too fellas
Avatar 51617
47.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 28, 2015, 08:51
nin
47.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 28, 2015, 08:51
Sep 28, 2015, 08:51
nin
 
Murder She Wrote wrote on Sep 26, 2015, 08:34:
Fortunately many of the people who download such things also think they're an internet expert because they can use google and half of them don't even run AV software so they have no idea they're infected. Fun times.

I've always giggled at the logic (including some folks here) who boast about not needing a virus scanner, but so positive they don't have any viruses. The usual "how do you know you don't have a virus?" tends to quiet them.

46.
 
Origin's CD keys...
Sep 27, 2015, 18:13
Ant
 
46.
Origin's CD keys... Sep 27, 2015, 18:13
Sep 27, 2015, 18:13
 Ant
 
Creston wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 15:44:
Orogogus wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 13:51:
I believe you can use the retail version's CD key to activate a copy on Origin (here: https://activate.ea.com/gameactivation.do).

Correct. It even comes with both DLCs.
But it doesn't work with old games like Battlefield 1942, etc. according to this article. I tried BF2, BF:V, Crysis 1, C&C3, etc.
Avatar 1957
45.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 26, 2015, 08:34
45.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 26, 2015, 08:34
Sep 26, 2015, 08:34
 
I used to upload trojan trainers to gamecopyworld for banner slaves back when ad networks didn't have advanced referral checks and such. I know for a fact others did the same for game patches including some of the volunteer staffers. Not all of those positives were false

Fortunately many of the people who download such things also think they're an internet expert because they can use google and half of them don't even run AV software so they have no idea they're infected. Fun times.
44.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 25, 2015, 10:11
44.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 25, 2015, 10:11
Sep 25, 2015, 10:11
 
A lot of those cracks will give off false positives by your A/V software just by the nature of how they work. In my *ahem* experience it's more likely you got hit with an SQL injection or something similar from one of their ads than the nocd crack you downloaded actually being infected. Trainers and stuff of that ilk can be problematic, but nocd cracks have never given me issues. That's not to say that they couldn't work their way onto the website for you to download, but stuff like that gets snuffed out pretty quickly by the mods there.
Avatar 56185
43.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 25, 2015, 05:50
43.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 25, 2015, 05:50
Sep 25, 2015, 05:50
 
Creston wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 22:55:
Sepharo wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 16:16:
Kajetan wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 09:14:
Creston wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 08:48:
You consider gamecopyworld.com trustworthy? Their .exes are loaded with viruses...
No, they are not. Lets take one Safedisc game, Freelancer.
Upload any of these cracks to Virustotal.com. Analyze. Virus free!

I use this site for nearly 15 years. No viruses, some false alarms. Never had any problems. Viruses, mal- and adware is mostly found in game downloads from sites, where you are tricked to use some crappy downloader, who shits tons of adware in your system.

Same here. Used to cracked exe everything and they almost always came from gamecopyworld. Never contained a virus.

I tried finding cracked .exes for some old LoTR games, and every single one that I downloaded from every single link through gamecopyworld had a virus in it. It's possible I was just unlucky, but I just began rebuying stuff I'd want to play again digitally after that.


Now that you mention LotR that could have actually been the game where I came across that trojan infected exe, too, because one of the games I reinstalled was the LotR Battle for Middle Earth Anthology which I own in original retail format in a box.
42.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 24, 2015, 22:55
42.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 24, 2015, 22:55
Sep 24, 2015, 22:55
 
Sepharo wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 16:16:
Kajetan wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 09:14:
Creston wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 08:48:
You consider gamecopyworld.com trustworthy? Their .exes are loaded with viruses...
No, they are not. Lets take one Safedisc game, Freelancer.
Upload any of these cracks to Virustotal.com. Analyze. Virus free!

I use this site for nearly 15 years. No viruses, some false alarms. Never had any problems. Viruses, mal- and adware is mostly found in game downloads from sites, where you are tricked to use some crappy downloader, who shits tons of adware in your system.

Same here. Used to cracked exe everything and they almost always came from gamecopyworld. Never contained a virus.

I tried finding cracked .exes for some old LoTR games, and every single one that I downloaded from every single link through gamecopyworld had a virus in it. It's possible I was just unlucky, but I just began rebuying stuff I'd want to play again digitally after that.

Avatar 15604
41.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 24, 2015, 20:39
41.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 24, 2015, 20:39
Sep 24, 2015, 20:39
 
CJ_Parker wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 15:11:
Kevin Lowe wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 10:57:
Creston wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 23:32:
Kevin Lowe wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 21:06:
Creston wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 15:39:
"Hey, you know how we screwed you over with this crappy DRM that rarely worked right? Well, we're turning it off now, so that you will again be screwed over.

By the way, we have a new operating system available. Don't you want it?"

Microsoft didn't make SafeDisc. Can we get some people who actually know what they're talking about around here?

It might help if you learn to read. I never said that they made it. They did release games with it when they still published PC games. Now they turn off the driver hook that it works with, basically breaking those games unless you feel confident you can somehow find a cracked .exe without 6 viruses in it.


As opposed to leaving an exploit vector open. Security is a good thing.

secdrv.sys has not been touched since 2009. So six years later MS fixes an "exploit vector". Wow. Impressive!
I mean we were all drowning in SafeDisc exploits. They made the headlines daily!
This certainly had to be addressed IMMEDIATELY after all these years. No time at all to release DRM-free EXEs for their own games or inform other publishers of their plans.
The way this works is that someone reports a vulnerability to them, and ideally they get a bit of time to sort it out. The vulnerability would have been there all along, only no one had found it until now.
40.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 24, 2015, 16:16
40.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 24, 2015, 16:16
Sep 24, 2015, 16:16
 
Kajetan wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 09:14:
Creston wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 08:48:
You consider gamecopyworld.com trustworthy? Their .exes are loaded with viruses...
No, they are not. Lets take one Safedisc game, Freelancer.
Upload any of these cracks to Virustotal.com. Analyze. Virus free!

I use this site for nearly 15 years. No viruses, some false alarms. Never had any problems. Viruses, mal- and adware is mostly found in game downloads from sites, where you are tricked to use some crappy downloader, who shits tons of adware in your system.

Same here. Used to cracked exe everything and they almost always came from gamecopyworld. Never contained a virus.
Avatar 17249
39.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 24, 2015, 15:11
39.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 24, 2015, 15:11
Sep 24, 2015, 15:11
 
Kevin Lowe wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 10:57:
Creston wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 23:32:
Kevin Lowe wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 21:06:
Creston wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 15:39:
"Hey, you know how we screwed you over with this crappy DRM that rarely worked right? Well, we're turning it off now, so that you will again be screwed over.

By the way, we have a new operating system available. Don't you want it?"

Microsoft didn't make SafeDisc. Can we get some people who actually know what they're talking about around here?

It might help if you learn to read. I never said that they made it. They did release games with it when they still published PC games. Now they turn off the driver hook that it works with, basically breaking those games unless you feel confident you can somehow find a cracked .exe without 6 viruses in it.


As opposed to leaving an exploit vector open. Security is a good thing.

secdrv.sys has not been touched since 2009. So six years later MS fixes an "exploit vector". Wow. Impressive!
I mean we were all drowning in SafeDisc exploits. They made the headlines daily!
This certainly had to be addressed IMMEDIATELY after all these years. No time at all to release DRM-free EXEs for their own games or inform other publishers of their plans.
38.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 24, 2015, 10:59
nin
38.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 24, 2015, 10:59
Sep 24, 2015, 10:59
nin
 
Kevin Lowe wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 10:57:
Creston wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 23:32:
Kevin Lowe wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 21:06:
Creston wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 15:39:
"Hey, you know how we screwed you over with this crappy DRM that rarely worked right? Well, we're turning it off now, so that you will again be screwed over.

By the way, we have a new operating system available. Don't you want it?"

Microsoft didn't make SafeDisc. Can we get some people who actually know what they're talking about around here?

It might help if you learn to read. I never said that they made it. They did release games with it when they still published PC games. Now they turn off the driver hook that it works with, basically breaking those games unless you feel confident you can somehow find a cracked .exe without 6 viruses in it.


As opposed to leaving an exploit vector open. Security is a good thing.

Yeah, move those goal posts...

37.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 24, 2015, 10:57
37.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 24, 2015, 10:57
Sep 24, 2015, 10:57
 
Creston wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 23:32:
Kevin Lowe wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 21:06:
Creston wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 15:39:
"Hey, you know how we screwed you over with this crappy DRM that rarely worked right? Well, we're turning it off now, so that you will again be screwed over.

By the way, we have a new operating system available. Don't you want it?"

Microsoft didn't make SafeDisc. Can we get some people who actually know what they're talking about around here?

It might help if you learn to read. I never said that they made it. They did release games with it when they still published PC games. Now they turn off the driver hook that it works with, basically breaking those games unless you feel confident you can somehow find a cracked .exe without 6 viruses in it.


As opposed to leaving an exploit vector open. Security is a good thing.
36.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 24, 2015, 09:33
36.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 24, 2015, 09:33
Sep 24, 2015, 09:33
 
There are definitely virus infected EXEs on GCW. I recently installed about half a dozen old backlog games from disk because I want to finally play and finish them before making the switch to Windows 10 (where SafeDisc wouldn't work at all) and I grabbed noCD/DVD EXEs from GCW for some of these games. I know it's a very small sample size with only a handful of games but I did run into one Trojan infected EXE.
I'd be very careful with what you download from there and make sure your AV is up-to-date at all times.
35.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 24, 2015, 09:14
35.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 24, 2015, 09:14
Sep 24, 2015, 09:14
 
Creston wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 08:48:
You consider gamecopyworld.com trustworthy? Their .exes are loaded with viruses...
No, they are not. Lets take one Safedisc game, Freelancer.
Upload any of these cracks to Virustotal.com. Analyze. Virus free!

I use this site for nearly 15 years. No viruses, some false alarms. Never had any problems. Viruses, mal- and adware is mostly found in game downloads from sites, where you are tricked to use some crappy downloader, who shits tons of adware in your system.
34.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 24, 2015, 08:49
nin
34.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 24, 2015, 08:49
Sep 24, 2015, 08:49
nin
 
Creston wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 08:48:
Kajetan wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 07:09:
Creston wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 23:32:
Now they turn off the driver hook that it works with, basically breaking those games unless you feel confident you can somehow find a cracked .exe without 6 viruses in it.
http://gamecopyworld.com, http://gf.wiretarget.com/

All you need and trustworthy since ever.

You consider gamecopyworld.com trustworthy? Their .exes are loaded with viruses...


Yeah, I stopped using them years ago. Got flagged one too many times...

33.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 24, 2015, 08:48
33.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 24, 2015, 08:48
Sep 24, 2015, 08:48
 
Kajetan wrote on Sep 24, 2015, 07:09:
Creston wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 23:32:
Now they turn off the driver hook that it works with, basically breaking those games unless you feel confident you can somehow find a cracked .exe without 6 viruses in it.
http://gamecopyworld.com, http://gf.wiretarget.com/

All you need and trustworthy since ever.

You consider gamecopyworld.com trustworthy? Their .exes are loaded with viruses...
Avatar 15604
32.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 24, 2015, 07:09
32.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 24, 2015, 07:09
Sep 24, 2015, 07:09
 
Creston wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 23:32:
Now they turn off the driver hook that it works with, basically breaking those games unless you feel confident you can somehow find a cracked .exe without 6 viruses in it.
http://gamecopyworld.com, http://gf.wiretarget.com/

All you need and trustworthy since ever.
31.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 23, 2015, 23:32
31.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 23, 2015, 23:32
Sep 23, 2015, 23:32
 
Kevin Lowe wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 21:06:
Creston wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 15:39:
"Hey, you know how we screwed you over with this crappy DRM that rarely worked right? Well, we're turning it off now, so that you will again be screwed over.

By the way, we have a new operating system available. Don't you want it?"

Microsoft didn't make SafeDisc. Can we get some people who actually know what they're talking about around here?

It might help if you learn to read. I never said that they made it. They did release games with it when they still published PC games. Now they turn off the driver hook that it works with, basically breaking those games unless you feel confident you can somehow find a cracked .exe without 6 viruses in it.


Avatar 15604
30.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 23, 2015, 21:44
30.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 23, 2015, 21:44
Sep 23, 2015, 21:44
 
Rigs wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 10:28:
I literally scratched my head when reading the headline. I don't know why they're going through all this trouble, all you have to do is go into 'Services' under Admin Tools and disable that particular service. If you want it back, re-enable it. Done. But why the hell are they even bothering now? It makes no sense whatsoever. When has MS ever gone back and disabled something in a prior OS? Is there a precedent for this?
It's being issued as a security update. Most likely there is a vulnerability in the safedisc driver and Microsoft is proactively disabling it due to that, which in turn implies that the manufacturer (Rovi/Macrovision) is not going to fix it. Microsoft has disabled other faulty drivers in the past, though this is typically accomplished by pushing a driver update as a security fix. In fact they did this once before, in 2007, distributing an updated Safedisc driver version to plug a vulnerability.

Safedisc is a very low level driver with lots of access rights, so a security vulnerability in it would be a very big deal and a massive security risk.
29.
 
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8
Sep 23, 2015, 21:06
29.
Re: MS Kills Safedisc DRM in Win 7 & 8 Sep 23, 2015, 21:06
Sep 23, 2015, 21:06
 
Creston wrote on Sep 23, 2015, 15:39:
"Hey, you know how we screwed you over with this crappy DRM that rarely worked right? Well, we're turning it off now, so that you will again be screwed over.

By the way, we have a new operating system available. Don't you want it?"

Microsoft didn't make SafeDisc. Can we get some people who actually know what they're talking about around here?
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