Securom help needed

OK, here's the deal.

Saint bought Farcry 2. The tech that built the new computer installed it and took the new system for a couple hour test drive, and declared himself very satisfied with the new build. The problem is, Farcry 2 has Securom.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55340

Having heard us bitch and moan about Securom, Saint is unhappy that it is now on the brand-spankin' new system, and would like it gone. Having done my usual Google duty, I've poked about a great deal. The folks on the Sysinternals site that discuss Rootkit Revealer have, at least in the posts I've read, dismissed Securom as a "False Positive" and don't seemed to be concerned about it, so no help from that quarter.

I rooted about some more, found tons more debate about "is it/isn't it a problem", and then had the brilliant idea to visit the Securom homepage. There I found this removal tool.

https://support.securom.com/removaltool/

Sweet! No mucking about in the registry, etc. - run the program, agree to delete the files and keys, and it goes bye-bye! However, I recognize that at least Bubba and Lexx, if not others here, may have some experience in this, and have more/different info or opinions. I thought I'd solicit them.

Here's a pic of Rootkit Revealer's results, if you should find them useful.


Does anyone have any opinions or experience they'd like to share, or should Saint just plow ahead with the removal program? I was thinking about running Erunt first, just in case the Securom remover blows up the registry.

DocJon wrote:Does anyone have any opinions or experience they'd like to share, or should Saint just plow ahead with the removal program? I was thinking about running Erunt first, just in case the Securom remover blows up the registry.

IMHO if he paid for it, he might as well play it through once. I bought it at CC on a whim as NC forums were all over themselves how sweet it was. Then I read the threads and took it right back.

I forget which steps I went to before, but they were from here and other inet links. I still haven't looked since installing BioShock, but I'll run this tonite and post the results since BS is on a steam acct and I'm going to be installed a fresh system shortly.


Play through the game once Saint unless you can get a full refund. CC gave me a $40 store credit which I spent on L4D.... ah I'm going to miss CC just for the games. I think I've bought just about every title there because they always undercut BestBuy.

lexx wrote:IMHO if he paid for it, he might as well play it through once. I bought it at CC on a whim as NC forums were all over themselves how sweet it was. Then I read the threads and took it right back.

I forget which steps I went to before, but they were from here and other inet links. I still haven't looked since installing BioShock, but I'll run this tonite and post the results since BS is on a steam acct and I'm going to be installed a fresh system shortly.


Play through the game once Saint unless you can get a full refund. CC gave me a $40 store credit which I spent on L4D.... ah I'm going to miss CC just for the games. I think I've bought just about every title there because they always undercut BestBuy.

Thanks Lexx. Let me know if you discover anything interesting, or remember something.

Don't forget to shut down as much stuff as possible, and don't use your machine while running Rootkit Reveal. You might want to start it before watching TV tonight or something. It took me about 20 minutes to run it.

Finally (and you probably already know this) as far as anyone can tell, Bioshock from Steam still has Securom, even though Steam works pretty well on it's own to protect content. Just a reminder, as a lot of ppl figured that Securom stuff would not come with the Steam DL version.

lexx wrote:IMHO if he paid for it, he might as well play it through once. I bought it at CC on a whim as NC forums were all over themselves how sweet it was. Then I read the threads and took it right back.

I forget which steps I went to before, but they were from here and other inet links. I still haven't looked since installing BioShock, but I'll run this tonite and post the results since BS is on a steam acct and I'm going to be installed a fresh system shortly.


Play through the game once Saint unless you can get a full refund. CC gave me a $40 store credit which I spent on L4D.... ah I'm going to miss CC just for the games. I think I've bought just about every title there because they always undercut BestBuy.

Too late, I deleted it already. 🙁

Bio 😲 tho, is still on my steam acct. But I never launched it, nor will I ever intent to.

Thank you for the translation, Doc. 🙄

lexx wrote:I forget which steps I went to before, but they were from here and other inet links. I still haven't looked since installing BioShock, but I'll run this tonite and post the results since BS is on a steam acct and I'm going to be installed a fresh system shortly.

Are you planning on revisiting this, given your current hardware issues?

DocJon wrote:Are you planning on revisiting this, given your current hardware issues?

As soon as I get a stable system back. I had enough blue screens yesterday to last me a while ;p

However I do have my system cloned on a new am2 I built yesterday, just no internet or keyboard on it as the moment, plus I'm down one video card for a while. On board video is a joke. I'll get to this soon as I can.

I think I am unclear at what the question is.

Securom Rom is a Rootkit, Also if you interpret the word virus by definition, Securom is a virus. In essence you are allowing a piece of software that you don't control (someone else does) access to your computer a level that is higher than your own access.

It does seem to cause some conflict issues, but not too many as a percentage.

Would I run it?? No! it's way too invasive. Is it a big deal? If you trust Securom not to do something stupid, its probably not a big deal.

As for removal, honestly the computer is new enough, just format and reinstall. If that isn't an option I would be VERY careful rooting around in the registry. Make sure you save registry backups often.

lexx wrote:As soon as I get a stable system back. I had enough blue screens yesterday to last me a while ;p

However I do have my system cloned on a new am2 I built yesterday, just no internet or keyboard on it as the moment, plus I'm down one video card for a while. On board video is a joke. I'll get to this soon as I can.

Yeah, I figured you had you hands full. If I learn anything about it, I'll let you know.

Bubbaspanky wrote:I think I am unclear at what the question is.

Securom Rom is a Rootkit, Also if you interpret the word virus by definition, Securom is a virus. In essence you are allowing a piece of software that you don't control (someone else does) access to your computer a level that is higher than your own access.

It does seem to cause some conflict issues, but not too many as a percentage.

Would I run it?? No! it's way too invasive. Is it a big deal? If you trust Securom not to do something stupid, its probably not a big deal.

As for removal, honestly the computer is new enough, just format and reinstall. If that isn't an option I would be VERY careful rooting around in the registry. Make sure you save registry backups often.

Pretty much the last sentence or 2 in the OP sums up the question.

Well, I had Saint set a restore point, and sent a link to this, the program mentioned in the OP:
https://support.securom.com/removaltool/

We'll see how that goes.