DigiGuard.md

October 31, 2024 · View on GitHub

Names:

DigiGuard1, DigiGuard ESD2

Categories:

Online Activation DRM

Developers:

Greenleaf Technologies Corporation1

Years Active:

19993-2001(?)4

Known Versions & Differences:

  • "DigiGuard3": Currently only known distinct version, as found in the file description of "Start.exe" in "Dell Software Center: The Big WIG DVD Keeper".5

Known Samples:

Confirmed:

  • "Dell Software Center: The Big WIG DVD Keeper".5

Unconfirmed:

  • "The Accolade Family Spectacular".6

  • "The Big WIG DVD Keeper".7

  • "Big WIG DVD Keeper Series 1".8

  • "The Big WIG Software Locker".9

  • "The Dell Software Center".10

Protection Features:

Online Activation, Phone Activation, Encryption/Obfuscation of data

Minimum Required Image Format to Run:

File Copy

Software Known to Detect:

BinaryObjectScanner11

https://github.com/SabreTools/BinaryObjectScanner/blob/master/BinaryObjectScanner/Protection/DigiGuard.cs

Preservation Instructions:

DRM relies solely on online activation, so a simple disc image should be more than enough.

Overall Description:

DigiGuard was a DRM created by GLFC (Greenleaf Technologies Corporation), and was seemingly first mentioned in 1999.3 It is unknown if it was first created at this point, as it may be a rebranding of the company's previous encryption product, DIGITREK.12 Little is known about DIGITREK, or anything about "Greenleaf Capital Corporation" (GLFC's name at the time) as a whole.

In any case, DigiGuard's purpose was to encrypt games so they could be distributed to consumers for free, but would require online or phone activation to install and play. It was initially mentioned as being used for an unnamed OEM DVD produced by WAG, a "media association" consisting of Warner, Accolade, and Greenleaf.3 This unnamed DVD was most likely "The Accolade Family Special", which was shown months later at E3.13 It was supposedly launched around a month later,6 but I haven't been able to confirm that it actually did.

WAG was later renamed to WIG once Accolade became Infogrames, and seemingly the first product developed under this association was "The Big WIG DVD Keeper".7 There were already high hopes for this series by this point, with plans to include a variety of purchasable triple A games, free trials of some games, a handful of entirely free games, as well as various 3rd party content. Due to this being referred to as "the first PC game bundle on DVD"7, it may be that the previous product ("The Accolade Family Special") may not have been fully released, as it would otherwise have had that title instead.

Seemingly the first release of this was the "Big WIG DVD Keeper Series 1" DVD, which was distributed with the S3 Diamond Viper II graphics accelerator.8 Hopes were still quite high for this series, as Paul Trowe claimed "The Big WIG DVD Keeper Series 1 is a model for how content will be delivered to consumers in the digital age".8 Frank LoVerme of GLFC also used the apparent success of the "WIG DVD Keeper Series" as a talking point when he spoke at DVD Summit III.14

This success was enough to allow WIG to form deals with both Dell and Sony to include WIG DVDs with newly sold computers as OEM bundles. These products were known "The Dell Software Center"15 for Dell, and "The Big WIG Software Locker"9 for Sony. It appears that the terms of these deals involved Dell and Sony supposedly distributing millions of these DVDs, with the catch that GLFC wasn't charging them a licensing fee and was supposed to provide them with a "refreshed" DVD every 3 months.16

Despite these promising deals, on top of having various other projects in various stages of production, GLFC was unable to remain operation for much longer. Towards the end, it appears that GLFC had gone through significant financial hardships to the point where a company officer had even loaned the company money to stay afloat.4 In fact, one of the final press releases from GLFC ends with a somber "There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to obtain the necessary financing to continue as a going concern."4

Rairii (@Rairii@fedi.nano.lgbt) also provided me with the following information, which is added here with his permission:

the main idea of the protection is to crypt data sections of original game PEs on disk, and have a loader that starts the process suspended and does ReadProcessMemory/decrypt/WriteProcessMemory followed by ResumeThread.

crypted sections are done by name, not by flags: sections named ".data", "DATA", "DGROUP" are crypted.

the loader is itself encrypted and is what is decrypted by DecryptWrap.exe.

both the loader and DecryptWrap do protection checks based on crypted registry entries.

the crypto is custom, but the keys are all hardcoded into the various binaries.

as such, you can patch DecryptWrap.exe to execute the goodboy code instead of the protection check; then use it as an oracle to decrypt the actual loader; then patch the loader in the same way, run it in debugger, set breakpoint at the correct "call ResumeThread" instruction, then attach to the suspended process in debugger, and dump the plaintext sections and patch the PE on disk with them.

the sims executable in big WIG is actually a later build of the game, from 2000-07-11, and seems to have no further protection other than the crypted se
ctions.

Known Associated Files:

"DecryptWrap.exe":

Found in the game files of various games in "Dell Software Center: The Big WIG DVD Keeper"5. Presumably used to activate the game and decrypt the game files to be played.

Game Specific Files:

"PJS3.exe":

Found in "Dell Software Center: The Big WIG DVD Keeper"5, used to run "Pajama Sam 3". Appears to have the same or a similar purpose to "DecryptWrap.exe", especially since both contain the strings "AccFunc0" - "AccFunc5", which appear to be related to activating the product.

Known Associated Executable Sections:

N/A.

Media:

N/A

Additional Resources:

Official Resources:

Press releases:

Unofficial Resources:

Authors/Contributors:

  • TheRogueArchivist - Entry author.
  • Rairii (@Rairii@fedi.nano.lgbt) - Additional research into DigiGuard.

Footnotes:

Footnotes

  1. Greenleaf Technologies Corporation Products. (Archived 2000-10-23) ↩ ↩2

  2. Found in the "Dell Software Center: The Big WIG DVD Keeper"5: EULA text. ↩

  3. GLFC press release dated 1999-02-23 regarding their pact with Accolade and Warner to form "WAG". (Archived 2000-10-10) ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. GLFC press release dated 2001-03-02 regarding several aspects of their current situation, including the warning that they may not "obtain the necessary financing to continue as a going concern." (Archived 2001-04-30) ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Internet Archive upload of "Dell Software Center: The Big WIG DVD Keeper". ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  6. GLFC press release dated 1999-06-07 regarding the use of DigiGuard on "The Accolade Family Spectacular". (Archived 2000-10-10) ↩ ↩2

  7. GLFC press release dated 1999-11-03 regarding GLFC becoming WAMO's "exclusive encryption partner". (Archived 2000-10-10) ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. GLFC press release dated 1999-12-10 regarding "The Big WIG DVD Keeper Series 1", which was bundled with "S3's Diamond Viper II(R) graphics accelerator". (Archived 2000-10-10) ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  9. GLFC press release dated 2000-08-23 regarding their agreement with Sony to bundle the "Big WIG Software Locker" with Sony laptop and desktops. (Archived 2000-10-10) ↩ ↩2

  10. GLFC press release dated 2000-10-06 regarding their agreement with Brilliant to include their content in a bundled DVD for Dell (presumably "The Dell Software Center"). (Archived 2001-04-30) ↩

  11. BinaryObjectScanner's DigiGuard detection code. ↩

  12. GLFC press release dated 1998-01-12 describing them entering an agreement with Multicom that mentions their products "CommShield", "DIGITREK" and "MusiKey". (Archived 2000-10-10) ↩

  13. GLFC press release dated 1999-05-06 regarding "The Accolade Family Spectacular" being shown at E3. (Archived 1999-10-10) ↩

  14. GLFC press release dated 2000-04-28 regarding the success of the "WIG DVD Keeper Series". (Archived 2000-10-10) ↩

  15. Copy of a GLFC press release dated 2000-10-04 regarding their agreement with Dell to bundle "The Dell Software Center" with Dell laptops and desktops. (Archived 2023-10-03) ↩

  16. GLFC press release dated 2000-10-16 regarding the further use of GLFC DVDs to Dell and Sony. (Archived 2001-04-30) ↩