Denuvo DRM has apparently been updated to block its hypervisor exploit, according to people familiar with the game crack scene.
The latest development (via Separate_Candle5813 on Reddit) reportedly involves Star Wars: Galactic Racer, which appears to use an updated version of Denuvo that makes hypervisor exploits more challenging. According to reports circulating in the cracking community, the game checks whether a specific CPU instruction is supported and compares the result against the processor’s reported capabilities.
The method involves checking CPUID information for the RDRAND instruction, specifically bit 30 of the ECX register. The game then attempts to execute RDRAND and checks whether it works. If the instruction is unsupported, the processor should raise an invalid-opcode exception (#UD).
On a modern CPU that supports RDRAND, both checks should agree. An older processor without the feature should also behave consistently, reporting that the instruction is unavailable and failing to execute it. However, the behavior of the current hypervisor-based bypass is different. CPUID information indicates that RDRAND is unsupported, yet executing the instruction succeeds, potentially triggering a crash. This mismatch shows that Denuvo may be using the check to detect hypervisor-based techniques used by cracks.
However, a potential workaround has already been proposed (via kaldeqca on Reddit). The suggested approach modifies the hypervisor’s CPUID handler to stop hiding the RDRAND feature while leaving the relevant capability flag set. This would make the reported CPU features consistent with the instruction’s actual behavior.
Last month, content creator Kevin’s Tech Vids compared the performance of the cracked version of Assassin’s Creed Mirage with the Denuvo DRM protected version running at 1080p using the game’s default settings, showing that the former improves average performance by more than 14% over the latter. On a system equipped with an Intel Core i7-13700K, GeForce RTX 5080, 64 GB of RAM and a Samsung 990 Pro SSD, the cracked version averaged 186 fps, compared with 162 fps with Denuvo enabled. More details here.
