So guys, it has came finally to the broad public!

https://torrentfreak.com/ilok2-drm-system-appears-to-have-been-cracked-151224/

ILOK2 DRM SYSTEM APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN CRACKED

• BY ANDY
  
• ON DECEMBER 24, 2015
• C: 38

NEWS



A DRM system popular in the high-end audio creation market appears to have been cracked. iLok2, the successor to iLok, had remained secure since its release but a flood of software during the past few days points to its demise. Perhaps unsurprisingly, some users are declaring that Christmas has come early.

With the majority of all commercially available software slushing round on the Internet in pirate form, companies have always sought secure anti-piracy mechanisms to protect their products.

One such solution is iLok from security company PACE. Now on its second generation, iLok2 is a relatively cheap proprietary USB dongle that acts as a license storage device for software protected by PACE Anti-Piracy. While iLok1 allows customers to carry up to 118 licenses, iLok2 can carry up to 500.

“Once a license is delivered to an iLok account, your user simply downloads the license to their iLok. It’s as simple as dragging and dropping,” the company explains.

“The license is stored safely and securely inside the solid-state iLok smart key and can then be used to provide the authorization for protected software to run on any computer where that software is installed.”



Over time, iLok appears to have gained a lot of traction within the pro-audio community, those individuals using sophisticated and often very expensive software such as Avid’s Pro Tools to create music. Licenses are managed from within the iLok License Manager, as illustrated in the image below.






However, after remaining somewhat secure iLok2 – and by extension all of the software development companies that use PACE’s system – appear to have a problem on their hands. During the past several days dozens of pieces of software that use the iLok system have started to appear online.






The releases come courtesy of cracking group AudioUTOPIA who explain with their Pro Tools release how their technique completely negates the need for the iLok system to be in place.

“Pro Tools setup will install the iLok driver however it’s not necessary for the release to work, you can disable it by pressing Windows key+R then typing services.msc, find “PACE License Services” right click and choose stop,” the group explains.

“Additionally you can removed the entire thing by going to Windows programs and features and uninstalling “PACE License Support Win64.”






Whether AudioUTOPIA’s crack represents a permanent defeat of the iLok system remains to be seen but currently pirates are celebrating a flood of software just in time for the festive season.

“Oh boy! Awesome fuckin release!” declared one. “I stopped believing in Santa a long time ago but I may just have to re-evaluate that assessment.”

The reverse could very well be the case in the PACE household this Christmas.

Tagged in: DRM, iLok, iLok2, Pro Tools

 

Protection will soon be renamed to: iFok 2!

 

maybe the snowball is coming... i can't figure it out how it would be...

 

discussion is on!

 

UnLok2

 

Nice info man

 

I hope iLok doesn't have something up their sleeve to replace the iLok2. I fucking hate those dongles when using my *legit* Avid Pro Tools 12 HD on my *Mac* - among other shit such as Machfive 3, EWQL, UVI Falcon, Synthogy Ivory 2(which are some of the best sounding piano's I've heard in quite some time), and then some. Pain in the ass and the fact that it's in the news (torrentfreak, no less) sends more cringe my way, now they'll likely fight back immediately with something extremely powerful. I hope I'm wrong, though.

 

The only thing that I would be interested in your list in your article really is the Revoice pro all the other ones I really dont care about I have plenty of other good stuff for mac

 

ByeLok2

 

Indeed they probably will. But will their former customers (the developers) trust their services again? This is the second time iLok has been compromised. They do say the third time's the charm, so maybe developers will give them another go. I can't imagine them doing otherwise, really.

 

Developers can only do so much man create something and another man can uncreated guys that code the stuff yes they are brilliant smart guys but there's always somebody smarter out there

 

whats an ilok2? Isn't it that dated protection thingy that they used on audio plugins...pffft that was like soooooo few days ago...

Also, this article annoys me a little because its target audience is obviously people who have no clue about ilok, I felt like it was just telling me shit I already knew and trying to educate me on what ilok was... lol

 

But iLok2 still has been succesful. Combined with another methods still can't be broken, and 5 years for a relatively cheap protection is quite good. Of course, I can't talk for Avid customers lol

 

yes, but i think they write for a broad public, and i think is fine to inform in general... read the discussion under the article, there are a lot of fine commentaries about this subject!

 

look at the rating at Amazon.de > Germany... nor two stars...

 

iLok X

Made by Apple

 

Two days later...

 

iLok X, made by Apple to protect and serve iLogik Pro XX , our brand new flagship DAW.

 

Sadly, even though it has been cracked, I still imagine the ilok 2 will be viewed largely as a success by both Pace and their customers. I don't believe any of their customers were ignorant enough to believe it would last forever – but the fact that they got three years out of it before it was cracked will be viewed as a success if, and this is a big if, Pace has something new waiting in the wings that they can implement immediately and that will be good enough to last uncracked for another three years. Then again, if I was a Pace customer and Pace told me, "don't worry we have something new, iLok 3, we can implement right away it's even stronger than iLok 2 ever was", I'd probably be pretty pissed because I'd want to know why the hell this new and better iLok 3 protection hadn't been offered to me before the cracking of iLok 2 happened.

If on the other hand the customers did believe that their precious ilok 2 protection was uncrackable, well then they just got what they deserved for their hubris.