Posted October 27, 2023
I saw this afternoon that a patch for Ion Fury was available for download, from version 2.0 to version 3.0.0.9. I went ahead and downloaded it, and installed it.
Launching the game after installation of the patch failed. Nothing launched at all when using the in-patch "Launch Game" button - instead it just opened "My Computer" and nothing else. I tried launching from the Start menu, but this returned an error that the game executable was not found ("fury_nodrm.exe"). The exact error message was:
"The item 'fury_nodrm.exe' that this shortcut refers to has been changed or moved, so this shortcut will no longer work properly."
"Do you want to delete this shortcut?"
After digging a little deeper:
When I went in to launch the game by searching for the executable manually, I found that it had not been modified at all. Launching the game manually revealed that the game was still version 2.0.0.something, with a 2021 copyright date, not 3.0.0.9 with a 2023 copyright date.
Scanning the patch file downloaded from GOG (named "patch_ion_fury_2.0_(51180)_to_3.0.0.9_(68519).exe") on Virustotal returns that there is a 60% chance that it is a trojan.
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/39cd1bf1b5104c4ce2ba12978d2d33b55ffaa0b24d3d184710b03e17627b69c2?nocache=1
Be advised.
Edit: Just to add to this, whatever this patch file actually is, launching it requires administrator access. So the "patch" A) Asks for Admin privs, B) Does something (WITH ADMIN PRIVS) that is not patching Ion Fury (as evidenced by the post-patch game still being version 2.0), and C) Breaks all shortcuts to the game for some reason. Given the 60% possibility of the patch being malware, this doesn't look good at all. Avoid this patch - and perhaps avoid downloading from GOG - until more light can be cast on this from an official source.
Launching the game after installation of the patch failed. Nothing launched at all when using the in-patch "Launch Game" button - instead it just opened "My Computer" and nothing else. I tried launching from the Start menu, but this returned an error that the game executable was not found ("fury_nodrm.exe"). The exact error message was:
"The item 'fury_nodrm.exe' that this shortcut refers to has been changed or moved, so this shortcut will no longer work properly."
"Do you want to delete this shortcut?"
After digging a little deeper:
When I went in to launch the game by searching for the executable manually, I found that it had not been modified at all. Launching the game manually revealed that the game was still version 2.0.0.something, with a 2021 copyright date, not 3.0.0.9 with a 2023 copyright date.
Scanning the patch file downloaded from GOG (named "patch_ion_fury_2.0_(51180)_to_3.0.0.9_(68519).exe") on Virustotal returns that there is a 60% chance that it is a trojan.
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/39cd1bf1b5104c4ce2ba12978d2d33b55ffaa0b24d3d184710b03e17627b69c2?nocache=1
Be advised.
Edit: Just to add to this, whatever this patch file actually is, launching it requires administrator access. So the "patch" A) Asks for Admin privs, B) Does something (WITH ADMIN PRIVS) that is not patching Ion Fury (as evidenced by the post-patch game still being version 2.0), and C) Breaks all shortcuts to the game for some reason. Given the 60% possibility of the patch being malware, this doesn't look good at all. Avoid this patch - and perhaps avoid downloading from GOG - until more light can be cast on this from an official source.
Post edited October 27, 2023 by Teflon.Djinn
