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aiolos

Mon 20 Mar, 2006


Starforce gone too far ?...

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Despite all the problems DRM has been causing lately,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> it seems like companies involved in copy protection just keep trying to create more dangerous copy protections.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> Originally,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> they were more of a nuisance causing compatibility issues,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> installing wanted software,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> etc.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> Next came Sony Rootkits which used cloaking to hide its DRM processes and files,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> but with the side affect of being able to cloak spyware <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>&<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> viruses,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> thus causing a serious security risk.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> More recently,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> the Settec Alpha-DVD protection has been reported to cause DVD writers to malfunction.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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Now,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> Futuremark has uncovered a very dangerous anti-piracy system Starforce is now using.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> This copy protection system installs a driver that runs at the highest level of access on the system,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> which gives it low level access to the PCs hardware and any drivers and processes.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> This driver runs regardless of whether the game runs;<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity such as attempting to copy a protected disc.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> If something suspicious is detected,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> it forces the PC to make an immediate reboot,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> regardless of any other applications running and whether or not the user has any unsaved work.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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To make matters worse,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> this copy protection interferes with DPM readings from software that is designed to allow the playback of copied game discs,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> which means that any game backups that rely on this Data Protection Manager will no longer play with the Starforce protection driver in place.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> Finally,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> as the Starforce protection has been found to interfere with certain device drivers,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> some drivers will run in legacy PIO mode instead of DMA,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> which not only slows down the PC by hogging CPU resources,<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> but also slows down the data transfer to the affected hardware.<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>
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Original story at <b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>:<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b> h__p:<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>/<b style="color:#FFA34F"></b>/www.cdfreaks.com/news/13212