Previously impenetrable anti-piracy system Denuvo cracked by pirates

An anti-piracy system considered to be one of the world’s most unconquerable fortresses against PC game pirates has reportedly been bested.

Denuvo is an anti-tamper measure regarded for its previously flawless record of stopping game pirates from cracking games to then illegally distribute online.

Among the titles protected by the technology are FIFA 17, Doom and Just Cause 3, with the latter title proving such a challenge for one major cracking group to breach that its founder previously proclaimed the death of PC piracy by 2018 as a result.

However, the doomsday clock for PC piracy appears to have been set back by a few minutes following the news that Denuvo has finally fallen.

TorrentFreak reports that the first crack in Denuvo’s armour appeared last weekend, when FIFA 16’s implementation of the countermeasure was bypassed, opening the game up to piracy.

While not a direct hit against Denuvo, the water started pouring in through a second hole when Bulgarian cracker Voki discovered a way to play games protected by Denuvo on Steam for free.

This began with one title, Doom, but Voksi was soon able to apply the same method to other games, including Rise of the Tomb Raider, Just Cause 3, Homefront: The Revolution, Abzu, Inside and Total War: Warhammer.

Voksi’s bypass, which used the way Denuvo is activated in the Doom demo to break into the other games, was eventually shut down by the anti-piracy firm, but the damage was done.

Not long after Voksi had unveiled his bypass, another pirate group, Conspir4cy, released a pirated version of Rise of the Tomb Raider and its DLC on torrent sites, which included a crack for fully defeating Denuvo.

At the time of writing, Tomb Raider remains the only Denuvo title fully cracked, but the barrage of bypasses and exploits have certainly tarnished the technology’s previously impeccable record.