Capcom Recalls Street Fighter V Update That Introduced Dangerous DRM

Capcom is rolling back the latest Street Fighter V update for Windows. This includes DRM technology to combat cheating, but for that it requires access to the Windows kernel and temporarily disables certain protections.

Initially, the publisher even advised to make an exception in antivirus programs for the game. After many complaints on the web, Capcom known that the update, which was distributed since Thursday, has since been reversed. The security was intended to prevent players from accessing certain decryptable content through a workaround without making the required progress in the game.

The update installed a driver and required players to green-light the game and driver through Windows User Account Control every time they launch the game. According to for instance a coder on Twitter temporarily disables the drm supervisor mode execution protection, checks it for Street Fighter hacks, and then re-enables smep. In the meantime, the operating system is more vulnerable to a local attack and can be more easily tricked into executing strange, malicious code.

In addition to the driver, the update also adds new content. There is now a versus CPU mode, a new fighter called Urien and there are now environmental knockouts. If players beat an opponent without taking any blows themselves, the loser is creatively knocked out. The animation differs per arena. For example, fighters in the bank level are beaten into the vault after which it closes. On another level, players are fired from a cannon. The new content that came with it will still remain in the game after the rollback.