According to two examinations of the malware, hackers are infecting gamers of a vintage Call of Duty game with a worm that propagates itself automatically in online lobbies.
On June 26, a player of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 warned other players on a Steam forum that hackers “attack using hacked lobbies,” and advised using an antivirus. The spyware referenced in the discussion appears to be on the website VirusTotal, which hosts malware.
Based on a number of text strings found inside the virus, another player who claimed to have studied it remarked in the same forum discussion that the malware “appears to be a worm.” An insider in the gaming sector, who requested anonymity since they were not permitted to speak to the media, verified
Neil Wood, a spokesman for Activision, cited a business tweet from a Call of Duty updates Twitter account that only obliquely mentions the malware.
As we look into complaints of a problem, multiplayer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) on Steam has been disabled, according to the tweet.
Why the hackers are disseminating this virus is unknown. The software called a worm since it seems to automatically propagate from one infected gamer to another through online forums. This implies that the hackers have discovered and are abusing one or more game defects in order to run malicious software on the PCs of other users.
Despite the fact that video game behemoth Activision launched Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 2009, there is just a modest online player base. There were about 600 players online at the time of writing, according to a service that keeps tabs on the amount of individuals playing video games.
Steam’s operator, Valve, did not respond to a request for comment.
Although there have been instances of malware being spread via video games, this typically happens through trojanized game installers and even cheats.