What is secdrv.sys? Is secdrv.sys spyware or a virus?
How to fix secdrv.sys related problems?
1. Run Security Task Manager to check your secdrv process
2. Run a Windows Repair Tool to fix secdrv.sys related PC problems
3. Run an Antivirus to find persistent malware
Process name: Macrovision SECURITY Driver
Product: Macrovision SECURITY Driver or Security Windows NT or Security Windows NT/2K/XP or Security Driver or Command and ConquerTM or Civilization III Complete
Company: Macrovision Corporation, Macrovision Europe Limited, and Macrovision Japan and Asia K.K (macrovision.com) or Macrovision Europe (macrovision.com)
File: secdrv.sys
This device driver is part of Macrovision's SafeDisc copy protection scheme. SafeDisc is designed to prevent the piracy of PC games, but has been controversial since its introduction because of problems it causes on many computers. It poses a potential security risk because it grants ring 0 (kernel) access to the programs it works with. Note that terminating the process may cause the game it was installed with to stop functioning.
If you want a detailed security rating about your secdrv.sys (and all other running background processes) read the following user opinions, and download the free trial version of Security Task Manager.
Note: Any malware can be named anything - so you should check where the files of the running processes are located on your disk. If a "non-Microsoft" .exe file is located in the C:\Windows or C:\Windows\System32 folder, then there is a high risk for a virus, spyware, trojan or worm infection! Check it out!
Click to Run a Free Scan for secdrv.sys related Errors
Users Opinions
Average user rating of secdrv.sys: based on 99 votes. Read also the 89 reviews.
257 users ask for this file. 25 users rated it as not dangerous. 4 users rated it as not so dangerous. 19 users rated it as neutral. 25 users rated it as little bit dangerous. 26 users rated it as dangerous. 5 users didn't rate it ("don't know").
| All comments about secdrv.sys: | |
|---|---|
| part of SafeDisc CD protection scheme (some games use it) GP | |
| It get's loaded with win/xp not dangerous | |
| SafeDisk Driver (used by games to authenticate CD) See also: Link Chad | |
| it's a SafeDisc disc protection file Paul | |
| Appeared with the installation of NHL 2004 Solitaire | |
| somehow related to securom (3?) cd protection | |
| this file is anti-burning protection for game CD | |
| This is a driver that is used by some new games as copyright protection, games such as Brothers In Arms.. ETC use these products to prevent copying, however sometimes it will break your CD-Burner. As far as I can tell, it acts as a barrier between your CD-Burning program and the API and makes sure you arent burning copyright content... however this is buggy. See also: Link Travis Biehn | |
| The Sims uses this file, if it dose not load then the sims dose not load. "happend to me" God311 | |
| Part Of SafeDisc Copy Protection, Not Dangerous like Starforce, does not interfere with programs. Chris. | |
| How to get around it | |
| It arrived with either Need for Speed Underground or Superbike 2000,( EA games ) Tony Taraldsoy. IT consultant | |
| safedisc file, if removed, i think it is easier to bypass protection | |
| It provides no info about its origin, version, etc. I think this is suspicious and have renamed it pending more informatuion. qwa | |
| SafeDisk Kopierschutzdatei Tihocan | |
| I had to did around to find this installed on my computer, without my consent or knowledge. How can that be good? I rate it as dangerous because it does nothing to help out my PC, on the contrary, it may cause issues and possibly crate security vunerabilities. Lord EOD | |
| Scans CD/DVD content immediatly after disk insert. Slow down disk recognition time. Prevents access to entire disk if part of it unreadable. Nikolas | |
| game protection on some new game cds such as Prince of Persia (Sands of Time ) on disc 2 Billie | |
| cause WinXP Pro repeatedly crash on "THREAD_STUCK_IN_DRIVER" Alex | |
| Driver used for Ring0 access in Safedisc. Totally harmless, and nothing like what Travis Biehn has written. Tobias Karlsson | |
| safedisk. comes w/ daemontools so they can emulate sd images jj | |
| use daemon tools! | |
| Malware - even though installed by a legitimate company (game copy protection), it does so without asking, and reappears, virus-like, whenever you uninstall it. This is unacceptable. Its also interfering with my ability to burn minidvd's Vek | |
| SafeDisc 3.x driver : security risk (breaks system security policies); potential spyware activities (see C07ft5Y) foo | |
| Mocrovision's Safedisk driver Kha | |
| It may-be a bit of a nag, but not dangerous Anacho | |
| SafeDisc Copy Protection - does not interfere with programs but...when u have to copy a legal cd...NERO SUCHS.. BIMBOMIX | |
| Comes with MYST IV Digitus_Impudicus | |
| older securom driver | |
| Security driver running under kernel protection. Any driver hooking other drivers on this level is regarded to be seen with caution, because it can interfere with your system. Causes several security issues and incompatibilities. Does *not* break your burner, but can interfere with storage systems and prevent cd-software from working. Removing this file can render programs unusable, especially games, that install this driver without warning you. EA relies on this copy protection, as well as several other companies. Frank | |
| not affecting my system when i deleted it Jaap | |
| if this files,it is possible read it from an executable, what? Carlos Manuel_Venezuela | |
| causes my system to reboot continuously if a disk is left in the drive. I removed the disk, and the system was ok. | |
| This program is crap.... if its supposed to prevent bootleg games from running, it dosent work cause, i play copywrighted games, and i use virtual drives. although, i have performance issues, and i cant tell if it is causing problems or not. Manik1013 | |
| Macrovision software that loads Kernel memory driver - Real annoying! | |
| Was installed with WIN-XP SP 1a H K | |
| its a root reg key driver, witch diables the use of nocd cracks and physical copies of a game. loading the game cd with deamon tools v4.* while a no cd crack is placed is a way to bypass this sneaky little program ----- remove the file in the game install directory and remove auto start up in the program tweakall to detroy this driver activity destroys any change of running the game uses a constant 1 MB of your ram, on disk insert no delay if you have a 3.6MHz CPU See also: Link Link bill clinton :p | |
| Its a virus Joejoe | |
| Sims 2 (& all subsequent Expansion packs) dvd copy protection. Disable it & the Sims will just reinstall it when it next runs! pretty harmless. Rubus | |
| Its preventing all read/write access to my cdrom! modster | |
| It caused a memory dump/crash when I tried to stop it in device manager having looked at this forum thread and deciding it had to go! Dunc | |
| No SafeDisc driver or anything else. No virus or spyware. Secdrv.sys is a Security driver who prevent kernel debugger like SoftIce access to kernel-mode memory. Used by Microsoft to protect their work. See also: Link MilwOrm | |
| it is the damn driver from game using safedisc protection, however its not danger like starforce driver, it just wasting disk space (if u dont use original game/using crack) so just delete it from ur disk, everything is clean :) vivian | |
| Ring 0driver for copy protection. Could come from Daemon tools or from a game install. Tosse | |
| Causes blue screen of death on my XP machine, can't think of it as safe. On the contrary it must be regarded as malignant. Chopper | |
| SafeDisc DRM driver. Grants itself Ring 0 access, which means if it's not 100% airtight it can be exploited to compromise your system. If you have it and need it for games, complain to the game companies that you want an explicit warning that such a thing will be installed. If you can, remove it. See also: Link BobF | |
| Like all copy-protection schemes, it won't come with copied games, but will give you lots of troubles and issues if you have purchased a game that comes with it legally. Daniel | |
| Doesn't enable anything to work, was installed without my knowledge or consent, yet another unwanted PC slowing down "driver" so is at best bad & at worst adds to instability. Greenbandit | |
| Legitimate Windows Driver, however is prone to being infected with trojans. Phoenixzeus | |
| Used for Securom. Normal Size is 26.7KB. If it is 8KB theres a good chance its infected with a trojan. Phoenixzeus | |
| this file comes with Ubisoft Prince of Persia | |
| Create open doors for Trojan. As it is not an essential part of WinXP I recommend to delete it and clean the registry out of it NicoRouf | |
| This file can be used as a backdoor for trojan. It lays deep inside the registry (legacy key) and is very hard to remove so it will keep on re-installing on your machine once deleted and let your computer wide open for trojan intrusions. I don't think this was intended (at the beginning) and I presume it is merely the target of malware/Rootkits that replace it with a fake version. As this is not a key component for your PC, if you have you anti-virus that complains about it KILL IT IMMEDIATELY!!!! NicoRouf | |
| backdoor.generic7.USL virus muzza | |
| this is one of macrovision stupid (the most hated company in the software world) program. like flexnet installshield crap, it just keep you from total control your system. MUST UNINSTALL EVERYTHING FROM MACROVISION! | |
| Very Dangerous because it can be used by a local user in a privledge escalation attack. See also: Link Hiphopopotamus | |
| Has a major flaw, allows arbitrary code execution as Ring0 See also: Link Sean | |
| It runs in ring 0 and can be used to completely bypass security to run as SYSTEM See also: Link gollux | |
| I dont want to install company to install and test drivers whit me. I dont know if itīs cause performance or inestability problemes and I will not because i moved it to "quarentine". If a original game doesnt work because of this get a nocd crack. Cano | |
| Potential security risk was detected on October 18th that allows to get more rights on Windows XP or Windows 2003 by a buffer overflow. Also, tries to read CDs and DVDs while not being a DVD device driver. Is known as copy protection driver but may be potential spyware. It's unknown to me if it saves data, though. See also: Link SH | |
| It let my DVD writer unable to write DVDs and thus letting me without ways to do my hard drive backup. | |
| Prevents some USB drives from being recognized in WinXp | |
| Macrovision secdrv.sys Local Privilege Escalation.... security breach. See also: Link Kode Kyk | |
| part of SafeDisc. And it DOES mess with your burner. People denying this must be paid. Was left after incomplete deinstallation and made every CD/DVD unreadable in other drives, until I found and removed it. See also: Link jo | |
| File is currently being updated because of security issues. Sidelobe | |
| Part of Safedisc as noted. I set the driver to demand (manual) in Device manager so it doesn't run by default. Spike | |
| Basically, that file is the Driver for the SafeDisc protection scheme from macrovision. It DOES come from Microsoft, and it is needed for SafeDisc games to run correctly. A problem, though, has been found, and an exploit for it has been discovered recently. | |
| has flaw with 0 day exploit See also: Link Vlady | |
| secdrv.sys has a security vulnerability in that hackers can gain SYSTEM level access to your entire system! See also: Link Stin, Wakefield, UK | |
| Part of SafeDisc CD copy protection. Many Electronic Arts games circa 2000-2004 install it and it is a system driver. Known to cause blue screens and CD-ROM drive instability. Wayne H | |
| The file is shipped with Windows XP but is not critical to the OS if you want it gone badly enough use Sysinternals Autoruns to disable it and delete it. No more DRM | |
| Has been registered by Microsoft as potentially dangerous (spyware and trojans can use if for privildge escalation) Phillip | |
| This is not a security risk for home PCs as they are all logged on as admin anyway R2fishal | |
| New verison isntall with Wolfenstein, cause computer stutters, put on demand in Device manager to aviod problem Kyu | |
| SafeDisc crap. has security holes and is a general pain foo | |
| securom driver, digs deep into your system and compromises stability See also: Link TheRealFoo | |
| it is added with some EA games (i found the file on the installation CD!!!) | |
| It did came as a result of game instalation and yeah it is part of the safe disk cd protection sys rated it dangerous because for some reason it doesn't alow my avast 5 to properly start (starts with all real time protection disabled) grraf | |
| It's a standard shipping component from XP onwards and it's basically a shim to make Macrovision's SafeDisc system work with these OSes. It is not unsafe, per se, a vulnerability which exploited it (and required logon access anyway) has long since been fixed and it doesn't interfere with your system beyond being part of 'protecting' certain software. Gaidheal | |
| Macrovision-Malware See also: Link uwe | |
| Macrovison is NOT safedisc. Guys need to get their facts straigt. Macrovision is a DRM driver that prevents playback and recording of copyrighted movies on analog video devices via computer. | |
| The driver, secdrv.sys, is used by games which use Macrovision SafeDisc. The driver validates the authenticity of games that are protected with SafeDisc and prohibits unauthorized copies of such games to play on Windows. The secdrv.sys is included with Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista to increase compatibility of the games on Windows. Without the driver, games with SafeDisc protection would be unable to play on Windows. SafeDisc remains inactive until invoked by a game for authorization to play on Windows. See also: Link What is secdrv.sys? | |
| On Windows 7 Forums i had learned this. It is a file for authenticating games and is a known cause of Blue Screens. RingAnimated | |
| Due to Windows 10 "CD blocking update" I cant play any game before the late 2000's. Thanks Microsoft! Josh | |
| The version I had on Win 8 appears to be Malware. It installed itself without my knowledge or consent a few days ago and came active today. As soon as I loaded up any browser, it would start accessing malicious sites through that browser. Malwarebytes Anti-exploit caught and blocked this behaviour. As soon as I shut down this driver, the attacks stopped. Jason Ross | |
| Only affects software that requires cd or dvd to play. It grants level 0 access to the kernel in order to stop piracy of game CDs and DVDs. Microsoft disabled it in windows 7, 8 and 8.1 and stopped publishing it in windows 10. Because with out it a hole host of games can no longer be played, giving Microsoft a clear game publishing advantage I believe they should have offered a non obtrusive work around for free. David D | |
| this .sys file is used to play games from 2001-2008 it has some vulnerability when running some games on xp-vista-win7beculs if you have moworm,troagin,worm in a unkoun exe file it can execute sed file if it has a secdrv.sys file in the exe file trevor | |
| It's just macrovision's cd copy protection driver known as safedisc xD | |
| It's the process used for copy protection of CD games. | |
Show all 89 comments
More process information
Is secdrv.sys spyware or a virus, trojans, adware or worm? Is there a known secdrv.sys error?
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