Denuvo cracking group DenuvOwO reportedly disbands
The high-stakes world of game DRM cracking just witnessed a major shift, signaling a victory for the software giant behind the notorious Denuvo system. The fallout involves a former group responsible for highly technical bypass methods, which has recently dissolved, effectively putting a temporary halt to some of the most complex DRM circumvention techniques.
At the center of this development is the story of DenuvOwO, a collective known for developing hypervisor-based bypasses (HV) designed to circumvent Denuvo’s robust anti-tamper protections. This group’s disbandment appears to be linked to legal action taken by Irdeto, the company responsible for Denuvo, against known cracker entities.
The legal battle involving Irdeto and known groups, such as Voices38, created significant pressure on online communities. This tension is reflected in the actions taken by forums, such as CS.Rin, which removed links to DenuvOwO-related titles and banned members, seemingly to reduce exposure to international legal liabilities like the DMCA.
While some in the piracy community are understandably concerned by this loss, experts suggest that the impact on cracking overall is limited. The HV bypass methods relied on common open-source computing tools, meaning the knowledge base for these techniques is easily replicable by others, suggesting that Denuvo’s defenses will continue to evolve.
Meanwhile, the cracking landscape remains fiercely active. Other groups continue to push boundaries, with long-running entities like RUNE taking Denuvo as target practice. Recently, this group released a compelling proof-of-concept crack for Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, successfully removing Denuvo Anti-Tamper and VMProtect from the executable in a single move.
This latest demonstration highlighted a significant performance boost. The stripped version of the game reportedly ran with a 15% increase in average FPS and a remarkable 76% jump in minimum frame rates, even when tested on powerful hardware like an Intel Core i7-13700K and an RTX 5080.
The technical feat extended beyond just performance; the crack dramatically reduced the executable size, shrinking the file from 496 MB down to just 102 MB. This compression was achieved by stripping away hundreds of virtualization functions, Denuvo VM cores, and function obfuscations, offering a sleek, efficient alternative to the original protected game.
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