http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4311264

Apparently Uplay installs a rootkit, similar to that which Sony's music CD's installed on your computer a few years ago

damnit, Ubisoft are such dumb efs to let something like that slip into their DRM. 

This only adds to the hatred many have against such intrusive DRM schemes.

Hopefully things like this make publishers realise they shouldn't harm their customers like that, while pirates can play without any problems

Rock Paper Shotgun also reported the issue, and also gave some methods of plugging the security hole:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/30/psa-possible-security-risk-in-some-ubisoft-pc-games/#more-118064

Thanks for the heads-up Fnord. While I don't have any of the games listed in the link, "Uplay" felt awfully familiar. Ran regedit and found a "YuPlay" client installed [part of "Wings of Prey"] - which is not UbiSoft, but gets you thinking...

YuPlay & UPlay are not connected. YuPlay seem to just be a minor annoyance, while Uplay is a bit more intrusive.

By the way, Ubisoft have releaseda  patch for Uplay that fixes this security issue. Make sure to download it as soon as possible if you have had any recent ubisoft titles installed on your computer. 

Originally Posted By markornikov (30 JUL 2012 5:41am)

damnit, Ubisoft are such dumb efs to let something like that slip into their DRM. 

This only adds to the hatred many have against such intrusive DRM schemes.

 

Hopefully things like this make publishers realise they shouldn't harm their customers like that, while pirates can play without any problems

I compleatly agree. There has to be a better way. Right now it's all out war between the MPAA and the Pirates. The governments involved now and it's a mess, but I do think that one answer to this is the subscription model like spotify has. Of course overall internet speeds would have to increase for this to work for games.

It's frustrating when we pay extra for something cause 2 or 3 other someones are stealing it. The answer does not lie in intrusive DRMs it lies elsewhere. 

Hello Elliot Moderator

thanks for this heads up, good to know, i HATE Uplay and all of these online forcings that the developers are trying to push over on us, someday i hope we can return to real game boses and sanity. the internet is not going to last forever, eventually the load limit will be reached and boom. So i am happy to keep everything in hard copy and in game disks.

Yes, i also prefer to keep things offline.  I don't mind having to register my game online, but online all the time is completely a no-no for me due to limited bandwidth amongst other issues.

Thanks for the heads-up, Fnord, sadly i have a few games on that list, so will have to check my registry as well.