There's little doubt that digital rights management (DRM) is frequently more of a pain than its worth for end users, but when it becomes downright dangerous, that's much worse.
Ubisoft found this out the hard way when hackers did some digging into the company's UPlay DRM only to discover the copy protection software was installing an insecure browser plugin.
Over the weekend, the DRM flaw became public and UPlay users responded with displeasure after finding out the plugin allows any website you visit to pretty much take control of the computer being used.
Ubisoft's intentions were pure - the browser plugin was intended to allow users to launch games through a website, but unfortunately poorly written code didn't limit the feature to only the game.
Needless to say, Ubisoft responded on Monday with a public acknowledgment of the issue as well as a patch to correct the DRM flaw.
“We have made a forced patch to correct the flaw in the browser plug-in for the Uplay PC application that was brought to our attention earlier today," the company announced. "We recommend that all Uplay users update their Uplay PC application without a Web browser open. This will allow the plug-in to update correctly. An updated version of the Uplay PC installer with the patch also is available from Uplay.com.
"Ubisoft takes security issues very seriously, and we will continue to monitor all reports of vulnerabilities within our software and take swift action to resolve such issues," the message concludes, without really apologizing to afflicted users.
Thankfully, the exploit was patched before it could affect Uplay gamers, but it's yet another bitter reminder of the dark side of DRM.
J.R. is a recovering independent feature film producer/director who turned a love of shiny gadgets into a steady stream of gigs writing about them for fun and profit. He can be frequently be found talking nonsense on Twitter and IGN.
Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com
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