Russian hackers have figured out a way to download free games from Ubisoft's servers, exploiting an existing vulnerability in Ubisoft's uPlay launcher. According to reports, the copies of Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon that are available on torrent sites are the result of a hack of Ubisoft's uPlay service.
The hack has allowed users to download advance copies of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, a game which has yet to be officially released. Blood Dragon will be officially released on 1st May, for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. As a proof of the exploit, hackers even posted an 1 hour 30 mins long footage of the game.
A Ubisoft spokesman said that the company was aware of the issue and was working to resolve it quickly. An earlier tweet on their account attributed yesterday's outage to hackers as well, saying "Servers were attacked which limited service from 2:30PM to 9:00PM Paris time [8:30AM to 3:00PM EST]."
The hackers developed a piece of software which tricks the uPlay executable into believing that the user has ownership over games that they do not own. It is possible to acquire the direct download link for the game and play it offline, thereby bypassing the uPlay DRM.
Ubisoft said "We are aware of the issue and are working to resolve it quickly. No personal information was compromised. Uplay's PC download service will be unavailable until the problem is fixed, however all other Uplay services remain available."
Furthermore, the exploits can be used to play the games offline, circumventing DRM. Original footage proving authenticity of the hack has been removed by Ubisoft, but it continues to emerge from other users.
