StarForce 3

[kaleras]

New here, so "hi."

Now to the point. I've noticed a lot of recent discussions on people needing cracks for SCCT and other StarForce 3 protected games, so I've started doing some research on the whole StarForce 3 'protection.' I've come up with some theories on how I believe it works, its weakpoints, and how to crack it or disable it alltogether. I need help, though. I'm looking for someone that has made attempts at StarForce 3 or has experience with reversing; no newbies unless you think you can catch on quick. So if you are that person, please PM me. My intentions are for us to be able to share our ideas on how StarForce 3 works and how we can bypass it; afterall, two minds are greater than one. StarForce 3 has an achilles heel and StarForce 3 will fall; it is just a matter of time.

[ESC]

i don't understand realy. u can remove a sterforce protection?

[kaleras]

Perhaps. It won't be a matter of patching the game EXE, though, like is usual with other protections. This time, it will be the StarForce 3 driver that needs to be patched.

[X-Psycho]

The ultimate thing (for crackers) would be to create a tool to automatically remove StarForce, which is not an easy feat.
I've read about groups dedicated to figure out how StarForce works, but I'm unaware how much progress they've made.

I'm unable to help you with this since I'm no cracker (at least nowhere near that advanced), but I can wish you good luck and hope you will be able to bring this nuisance down.

[smokinxp]

I've got a NOCD crack for Stronghold 2, which is supposeduly Starforce 3 protected, although the protection detection programmes only show it as having unknown or Suspicious MZ Header..

So it may not be.

THe crack works as long as you don't update beyond v1.0

[bones_]

stronghold 2 is protected by securom 7

[13:00:46 PM] SecuROM 7.00.00.0033 detected -> E:\Games\Firefly Studios\Stronghold 2\Stronghold2.exe
[13:00:47 PM] --- File(s) Scan Finished [26.13s] ---

[dude4453169]

don't mean to discourage you but i don't think it can be cracked in the short term. probably won't be seeing the crack for a while, say years.

a lot of games have starforce and has never cracked (e.g. Soldiers: Heroes of World War II) so the groups have gaven up on it. i think it basically takes too much resources so no body will touch starforce games.

it'll be a matter of time before all games be starforce. i hope not though.

[Wollie76]

it'll be a matter of time before all games be starforce. i hope not though.

I'm hoping that you are wrong, but if you are right, the only thing to do is to buy a console like XBOX or PS2... (waiting for the new ones)

[Eloking]

it'll be a matter of time before all games be starforce. i hope not though.

Don't worry about it, this have little chance to happen. Many compagny have been using Starforce to avoid people for cracking their game, but they doesn't gain anything that way. How many people that wanted to crack the game "illegally" will actually buy the game if they can't? Doesn't need a investigation to know that a few will do that.

Starforce isn't perfect either, if there was no downside then every compagny will use it, luckily for us Starforce :

1- Isn't free
2- Bring a lot of "compatibility" issue
3- Make people angry at the game (and the compagny at the same time).

Any people who's bright won't take the risk. But some people are too stuborn for that. Just look at Half-life 2 and steam. What's the result? Every fan is complaining (no need to give all the problem that steam bring I guess). Still, everyone is still able to crack the game even if they retarded it a little.

On the other side, we can check at some other compagny that take advantage of the "illegal" crack. The best exemple I could found is Warcraft III. People crack the game even if they cannot play multiplayer. But they get addicted and end up paying the game to enter battle.net. And I know a lot of these cases.

And in the end, don't forget that a game is just a matter of 0 and 1. If more games end up to be using Starforce, then more cracker will try to find a way to bypass it. Seriously, do you really think a game like Half-life 2 can remain uncracked for long?

Just don't worry about it, the best programmer of this world doesn't work for these compagny y'know.


Elo

[Hyakki]

"Just don't worry about it, the best programmer of this world doesn't work for these compagny y'know."

Well right and wrong :). Most of the time (not all) most information on cracking the protection usally comes from "inside" the company from someone who works there (how its programed, what it checks, encryption..etc).

Without inside information it would take alot longer to crack it down.

or sometimes hackers install a virus (like how half life 2 source code got stolen) and steal the protection diagrams ..source / keymaker ..etc)

and sometimes they just reverse engineer

..Btw I really hate starforce and hope they get thier ++++ cracked or full source stolen or enough damages come out so the company has to shut down

I know i will NEVER buy another UBI-SOFT or any other game as long as it uses starforce.

The crappy protection curupted my raid 5 array! (costing me 3k for data recovery)

[Eloking]

No swearing allowed!!!