I’ve just read in Rock Paper Shotgun that apparently in some PC Ubisoft games, there’s a potential security risk related to the “Uplay” plugin that gets (invisibly) installed in your browsers. (Instructions on removing it are below.)
What happens is, others can potentially call up your Uplay window and load other programs from external websites, including nasty things no one would want to download on their own. This hole can be exploited using regular email links or your Favorites/Bookmarks list, and can be used to download viruses, install keyloggers, or simply wipe your hard drive.
To check for and uninstall Uplay:
Firefox: Go to Tools > Add-ons > Plugins > Disable the Uplay and Uplay PC Hub
Chrome: Enter the URL about:plugins and disable the Uplay plugin
Opera: Go to Settings > Preferences > Advanced > Downloads > Search for “Uplay” and delete it.
You can also uninstall the games below but apparently it’s really only the Uplay plugin that causes the danger.
A partial list of games affected:
Assassin’s Creed II
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Assassin’s Creed: Project Legacy
Assassin’s Creed Revelations
Assassin’s Creed III
Beowulf: The Game
Brothers in Arms: Furious 4
Call of Juarez: The Cartel
Driver: San Francisco
Heroes of Might and Magic VI
Just Dance 3
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Pure Football
R.U.S.E.
Shaun White Skateboarding
Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic
The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom
Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved
RPS is speculating that more games are involved, however, since other games do use the Uplay plugin.
They initially suggest uninstalling all the games just to be safe, but apparently just uninstalling Uplay is enough.
Supposedly UbiSoft has updated the Uplay plugin to 2.0.4 to ensure that only Uplay software can run in that window, but they’re not talking about it much and people are suggesting that until everything’s certain, it’s best to uninstall the stupid thing anyway.
You can read more about this on the Ubi.com forums.
Hope this helps. I don’t have an Ubi games on my system, so I can’t confirm the above directions, but they’re being passed along by RockPaperShotgun and those chaps are damn smart and trustworthy.