Denuvo V4 Cracked Within a Month

cageymaru

Fully [H]
Joined
Apr 10, 2003
Messages
22,060
Denuvo is the new darling of publishers eager to install DRM on gaming titles to prevent their wares from showing up on file sharing websites. Denuvo certainly isn't the most liked solution, but as long as it gets the job done, then publishers are happy. Recently version 3 of Denuvo was cracked for the game Mass Effect: Andromeda, but a new version was almost immediately added to the title to ensure it's security from piracy. Now Denuvo v4 has been cracked for the title 2Dark, a stealth game released by the creators of Alone in the Dark.

What makes this crack interesting is that 2Dark was a crowdfunded game that was promised to not have DRM by the developers. When they went to get help from a publisher, this promise was broken as BigBen Interactive demanded that Denuvo be installed before sealing the publishing rights deal. Now that promise has come to fruition as the title has been cracked. I wonder how long it will take for v5 of the much maligned DRM solution to come out? I'm no fan of DRM as I love installing mods from various websites for games. Anything that messes with my ability to alter software for my personal enjoyment is a bad thing. Now multiplayer gaming is a completely different beast from the single player adventures that I like to mod. Software piracy is something that I'm 100% against unless a developer doesn't mind. Pirates say that they can't afford the programs so piracy is fine; I wonder if car thieves make the same connection? Or burglars?

I think digital game services should have a sharing option for friends and family with full account responsibility for the owner. If you trust them that much then go ahead and add them to your family sharing option. If not then it's best to avoid sharing accounts with them. If more software companies allowed customers to share their games, while making them responsible for what is done on their account while it is shared, then the transition to the digital age would go a lot easier and eliminate another redundant layer of DRM. What do you think?


The brainchild of Austria-based Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH, Denuvo is an anti-tamper technology designed to protect underlying DRM products. It’s been successfully deployed on gaming titles but just recently it’s iron skin has been showing the cracks. After all previous versions were defeated, in January version three of Denuvo fell to pirates with the release of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard just five days after its street date. It was a landmark moment for a scene that had grown accustomed to Denuvo-protected games trickling down into the piracy scene months after their retail debut. With its usual fanfare, cracking group CPY announced that it had defeated Denuvo v4 protection on 2Dark, a lesser-known stealth adventure game from the creator of Alone in the Dark.
 
Comparing software pirates to car thieves/burglars is a terrible analogy, because IP isn't a zero-sum game. Instead, let's treat copyright infringement the way it has always been treated: As a civil infraction.

And before the accusations that I support piracy roll in: I don't. It's called nuance; try it some time. ;-)
 
Comparing software pirates to car thieves/burglars is a terrible analogy, because IP isn't a zero-sum game. Instead, let's treat copyright infringement the way it has always been treated: As a civil infraction.

And before the accusations that I support piracy roll in: I don't. It's called nuance; try it some time. ;-)

I believe either you're hot or cold. No matter how one leans left or right, up or down; in the end they responsible for themselves and their actions. To me theft is theft. I used to believe that I was nobly sticking it to the man when downloading a movie or some music tracks. Then I tried to write some software and it's not as easy as it looks. I sure as hell can't sing, dance, or act. Gave me lots of respect for those that do.

Not calling you a thief or a supporter of piracy. I'm not a believer that every pirate would have bought the game as 99% of the stuff I downloaded years ago I never bothered to even install. It was the thrill of the hunt for me. But I surely can't say that it's some wonder of modern man that I get a copy of someone's work for free that they intended me to pay for.

I believe that there should be a sharing system, but with responsibility for what happens on the shared account baked in.
 
Seems at first Denuvo was impossible to crack. Whatever techniques they developed to initially break it may also be working for the other versions since it's getting shorter between cracked versions now.
 
Seems at first Denuvo was impossible to crack. Whatever techniques they developed to initially break it may also be working for the other versions since it's getting shorter between cracked versions now.
If that is the case then it makes the Denuvo devs even lazier than I thought over new versions.
 
I believe either you're hot or cold. No matter how one leans left or right, up or down; in the end they responsible for themselves and their actions. To me theft is theft. I used to believe that I was nobly sticking it to the man when downloading a movie or some music tracks. Then I tried to write some software and it's not as easy as it looks. I sure as hell can't sing, dance, or act. Gave me lots of respect for those that do.

Not calling you a thief or a supporter of piracy. I'm not a believer that every pirate would have bought the game as 99% of the stuff I downloaded years ago I never bothered to even install. It was the thrill of the hunt for me. But I surely can't say that it's some wonder of modern man that I get a copy of someone's work for free that they intended me to pay for.

I believe that there should be a sharing system, but with responsibility for what happens on the shared account baked in.

I definitely agree that piracy is wrong and people need to be held to account. When I want a game or some music, I buy it, period.

However, as pedantic as the distinction may seem, violating someone's intellectual property is empirically different from depriving them of physical property (again, one is a zero-sum game; the other is not). In addition, words like "theft" and "burglary" have connotations that cannot be reasonably applied to someone copying a file. For instance, if you've never been burglarized, it's hard to appreciate the sense of violation that accompanies the experience.

Therefore, in my opinion blurring the line is actually counter-productive to achieving our common goal of a sharing system that respects the rights of all.

YMMV.
 
Last edited:
I believe either you're hot or cold. No matter how one leans left or right, up or down; in the end they responsible for themselves and their actions. To me theft is theft. I used to believe that I was nobly sticking it to the man when downloading a movie or some music tracks. Then I tried to write some software and it's not as easy as it looks. I sure as hell can't sing, dance, or act. Gave me lots of respect for those that do.

Not calling you a thief or a supporter of piracy. I'm not a believer that every pirate would have bought the game as 99% of the stuff I downloaded years ago I never bothered to even install. It was the thrill of the hunt for me. But I surely can't say that it's some wonder of modern man that I get a copy of someone's work for free that they intended me to pay for.

I believe that there should be a sharing system, but with responsibility for what happens on the shared account baked in.

Steam has a pretty good sharing system. You set up sharing, approve it on the computer/account you want to be able to share it to and you are all set. Any games you already have do not show up in the list of games that are shared with you.

As for "pirating" and "lost sales" HAHAHAHA. If somebody pirates a game, they probably would not buy it even if they couldn't pirate it.

I used to collect absolutely everything I could find to download. Most of it never even got installed... But I had it and it was "cool".


And now, probably 80% of the games I have purchased on Steam I have not played once. I've got almost 350 games on Steam. I only have them because they were either free or came in a Humble Bundle. Maybe I'll get around to playing them sometime, but I kinda doubt it.

The big problem I have with publishers now-days is that there is, for the most part, no demos. I certainly do not want to buy a game before I know if it is crappy or not. If I have to download a copy of the game to try it out before I buy it, then so be it.

And another problem I have is how expensive games have become to buy, especially with any actual needed DLC to actually play the whole game. I am not about to plunk down $60+ for a base game and then be nickled and dimed until I have spent $120+ for a game. No way, no how.

I'll wait until it goes into the bargain bin with all the addons for $10-$15 if they are going to try to rip people off like that in the first place.

And then they want you to pre-order whatever shovelware crap that comes out of their rear and expect you to fall at their feet every iteration of the same game with a few small changes.

The Division is a lot better than most as far as DLC goes. I got the game and already released DLC for really cheap even though it hadn't been out that long. And now I am just waiting for the next DLC to be released (for free). Fun game, was worth my money, and have friends/family I was playing with.

Warframe did it really right. Free to download and play. The only thing you really need to buy with real money.. if you don't have the time to farm stuff and sell it for the same currency you buy warframe and weapons slots with.

And even then I just wait until a 75% off coupon comes up and buy it then if I need it.
 
I believe either you're hot or cold. No matter how one leans left or right, up or down; in the end they responsible for themselves and their actions. To me theft is theft. I used to believe that I was nobly sticking it to the man when downloading a movie or some music tracks. Then I tried to write some software and it's not as easy as it looks. I sure as hell can't sing, dance, or act. Gave me lots of respect for those that do.

Not calling you a thief or a supporter of piracy. I'm not a believer that every pirate would have bought the game as 99% of the stuff I downloaded years ago I never bothered to even install. It was the thrill of the hunt for me. But I surely can't say that it's some wonder of modern man that I get a copy of someone's work for free that they intended me to pay for.

I believe that there should be a sharing system, but with responsibility for what happens on the shared account baked in.
Theft is theft, piracy is piracy.

Theft is a serious crime, because it usually cannot be committed without damage to property. At the least you cause the damage for the owner that they need to replace what you stole which is an expense on their part. In case of piracy there is no damage to repair, there is nothing to replace, they don't need to spend money to fix anything.

Piracy is like sneaking in a restaurant to use the clients restrooms without actually eating there. You're not stealing anything, but you use their property without authorization. The only difference in case of piracy is that you're using intellectual property.

So I think piracy is about as serious a crime as trespassing on private property. Without actually taking anything. Crime should be punished on the basis of how dangerous it is to society. And not on the basis of how deep the pockets are of the victims. Which seems to me is happening in the case of piracy.
 
Waiting for the law that would make cracking encryption a felony.

No matter how you spin it, IP theft by any other name is still theft.
 
Last edited:
Piracy is like sneaking in a restaurant to use the clients restrooms without actually eating there. You're not stealing anything, but you use their property without authorization.

I see it more as going into a restaurant, seeing something interesting described on the menu, then going home and making it yourself.
 
I see it more as going into a restaurant, seeing something interesting described on the menu, then going home and making it yourself.

Except... you'd need a replicator so it was a PERFECT MATCH. ;)

upload_2017-4-14_18-21-43.jpeg
 
Seems at first Denuvo was impossible to crack. Whatever techniques they developed to initially break it may also be working for the other versions since it's getting shorter between cracked versions now.
If that is the case then it makes the Denuvo devs even lazier than I thought over new versions.

Except "getting shorter between cracks" isn't what has actually happened. It's been case by case, this current crack of a no-name title actually took 4x longer than the previous (RE7). There are still more uncracked than cracked Denuvo-protected titles overall, and some have remained uncracked going on years. But just because they cracked a no-name game with what they believe to be Denuvo V4 (and would therefore theoretically be trivial to crack other titles with the same version - which I don't think is the case) it doesn't mean the floodgates automatically open for all the big name AAA's that pirates are whining for, like Nier and Andromeda 1.05.

Denuvo is still providing publishers some breathing room to sell the game in the critical first month sales window before people start stealing it. Working as intended, and doesn't effect my ability to play the legit purchased copy of the game in the slightest.
 
Last edited:
Maybe the developers of 2Dark put some hooks in the game that helped crackers to defeat the DRM as a silent protest... we'll figure it out when the next Denuvo v4 protected game gets cracked.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did we forget to compile out the debug-only code? You know us programmers, we're all bubble heads."

Programmers hate breaking promises. Business types don't quite have the same ethics...
 
Except "getting shorter between cracks" isn't what has actually happened. It's been case by case, this current crack of a no-name title actually took 4x longer than the previous (RE7). There are still more uncracked than cracked Denuvo-protected titles overall, and some have remained uncracked going on years. But just because they cracked a no-name game with what they believe to be Denuvo V4 (and would therefore theoretically be trivial to crack other titles with the same version - which I don't think is the case) it doesn't mean the floodgates automatically open for all the big name AAA's that pirates are whining for, like Nier and Andromeda 1.05.

Denuvo is still providing publishers some breathing room to sell the game in the critical first month sales window before people start stealing it. Working as intended, and doesn't effect my ability to play the legit purchased copy of the game in the slightest.


Agreed. Steam is drm too, does not bother me at all. I never have had a problem with drm so long as it did not cause issues with the game.
 
When I see people advocate any sort of piracy for any reason, it makes me sick. The law is the law. Build the wall.
 
Theft is theft, piracy is piracy.

Theft is a serious crime, because it usually cannot be committed without damage to property. At the least you cause the damage for the owner that they need to replace what you stole which is an expense on their part. In case of piracy there is no damage to repair, there is nothing to replace, they don't need to spend money to fix anything.

Piracy is like sneaking in a restaurant to use the clients restrooms without actually eating there. You're not stealing anything, but you use their property without authorization. The only difference in case of piracy is that you're using intellectual property.

So I think piracy is about as serious a crime as trespassing on private property. Without actually taking anything. Crime should be punished on the basis of how dangerous it is to society. And not on the basis of how deep the pockets are of the victims. Which seems to me is happening in the case of piracy.

Probably one of the best analogies I've read for piracy.
 
I see it more as going into a restaurant, seeing something interesting described on the menu, then going home and making it yourself.
Except that would be perfectly legal, there is no law against DIY. Well except in Italy you cannot create a Ferrari replica. But I don't know of any other instances where they would prosecute that.

But if a chef from rival restaurant would go there and replicate some special dish in his own place that would be corporate espionage.
 
Probably one of the best analogies I've read for piracy.
Agreed.

As a youth I downloaded everything as I felt it was an easy reason to justify gaming on a pc. Now that I am older I see things differently, so I purchase my games now instead.

I see it as any problem a society like ours will face. Just like drugs or alcohol, some people will do them, some people won't, and some will do them in their younger years but change their ways / habits as they get older. And just like drugs or alcohol some times pirating a game will hurt someone else, sometimes it doesn't. Everything is situational and laws for or against won't actually stop those from doing it if they want to. It's really just an ethical choice that people make on it now.
 
When I see people advocate any sort of piracy for any reason, it makes me sick. The law is the law. Build the wall.

I suppose you never jaywalk? Always come to a complete stop at a stop sign? Properly dispose of CFLs and batteries, without fail? The law is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Besides, as far as I can tell, no one in this thread is actually advocating piracy.

Edit: Wait..."build the wall" really should have clued me in that you were trolling. Well played. ;-)
 
Last edited:
I suppose you never jaywalk? Always come to a complete stop at a stop sign? Properly dispose of CFLs and batteries, without fail? The law is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Besides, as far as I can tell, no one in this thread is actually advocating piracy.

Edit: Wait..."build the wall" really should have clued me in that you were trolling. Well played. ;-)

Jwalking isn't stealing intellectual property, neither is coasting a stop sign. Piracy hurts everything software.
 
When I see people advocate any sort of piracy for any reason, it makes me sick. The law is the law. Build the wall.
A lot of the PC industry was built with some piracy. Let people have it for free, and then force them to pay once comfortable with it.

But as I've said before, the best solution to piracy is to offer products on multiple platforms and lower prices. The harder you fight piracy, the more easier you're making it for the pirates. Denuvo was suppose to be a great win as some people here have told me, and look now. Nintendo's new Zelda game is now on PC through CEMU.
 
The harder you fight piracy, the more easier you're making it for the pirates. Denuvo was suppose to be a great win as some people here have told me, and look now. Nintendo's new Zelda game is now on PC through CEMU.

Fight piracy, Denuvo, Nintendo emulator, pizza.

Got it. Makes total sense.
 
Jwalking isn't stealing intellectual property, neither is coasting a stop sign.

Agreed! So you're saying that society should judge our actions (like, say, piracy) based on their impact and severity, rather than on whether or not they violate the (sometimes arbitrary and impractical) law?
The law is the law

Wait; now you've gone and confused me. :p
 
I like the fact that Andromeda shipped with an already cracked version of Denuvo, then got the new version patched in and the PC performance TANKED.

Between always online crap that they've tried to push, DRM ruining performance, and top top it all off preorder bonus', the worst of which being "retailer exclusive", the best version of a game you can get is the pirated one.

Witcher and CD Projekt excluded, those guys rock
 
Yeah. I am not playing Andromeda until that gets fixed. Once again, drm hurts the paying customers. Just give it up already. Until you can actually fix things without screwing the game up.
 
I like the fact that Andromeda shipped with an already cracked version of Denuvo, then got the new version patched in and the PC performance TANKED.

Between always online crap that they've tried to push, DRM ruining performance, and top top it all off preorder bonus', the worst of which being "retailer exclusive", the best version of a game you can get is the pirated one.

Witcher and CD Projekt excluded, those guys rock
I'll need a citation on that "DRM affecting performance" b.s.

And if performance "tanked" with patch 1.05 you coulda fooled me since it's working great here.
 

Clickbait article from an obscure blog with an axe to grind, and a bunch of made up graphs? Well that settles it. /s Wake me up when an actual tech review site site does an A/B comparison and is able to prove any performance difference.

It's comical watching pirates try desperately to make the "Denuvo kills performance!" FUD train catch on, after the "Denuvo kills SSDs!" FUD campaign failed spectacularly and was proven to be bullshit. It's not going to happen.

Here's something slightly more trustworthy, from an actual game developer:
http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Denuvo:_Questions_and_Answers
Will Denuvo affect the performance/FPS of the game?

No.
Despite there being no technical reason it should, to ensure that its implementation doesn’t affect TW: WARHAMMER’s performance we have been running tests internally here at CA and externally at Denuvo to see if FPS is different between Denuvo and non-Denuvo builds. It isn’t.
 
Clickbait article from an obscure blog with an axe to grind, and a bunch of made up graphs? Well that settles it. /s Wake me up when an actual tech review site site does an A/B comparison and is able to prove any performance difference.

It's comical watching pirates try desperately to make the "Denuvo kills performance!" FUD train catch on, after the "Denuvo kills SSDs!" FUD campaign failed spectacularly and was proven to be bullshit. It's not going to happen.

Here's something slightly more trustworthy, from an actual game developer:
http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Denuvo:_Questions_and_Answers

You asked for a source, I gave you one, why the hell are you so defensive?
 
However, may people are being mislead thinking that all games are now easy to crack. The Denuvo used in 2Dark is a 32bit version while the ones used in Nier and Andromeda (after patch 1.05) are 64 bit versions, thus there's a lot more work so don't expect to be playing Andromeda (with the new updates) for free any time soon.
 
You asked for a source, I gave you one, why the hell are you so defensive?
Honey let's put playground tactics aside and admit you're playing a weak hand.

The guy at the gaming blog you linked put July 2016 Doom-Vulkan numbers next to April 2017 numbers, but didn't bother to re-test using the same July 2016 Nvidia driver of his original test, and instead used the newest April 2017 drivers - umpteen Vulkan driver optimizations later. Then he created a clickbait article "Better performance cuz Denuvo's gone?" SMH. Ever heard of a site called [H]ardOCP? They demonstrated the DOOM/Vulkan performance improvements in successive NVIDIA drivers, which more than accounts for the performance discrepancy. DOOM itself has also seen several patches since July 2016.

The fact remains that, contrary to the narrative that pirate kiddies have been trying to create, no one has been able to demonstrate Denuvo having any negative performance impact.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top