Video Game Pirates Given A Taste Of Their Own Medicine, Got Hacked Back

The video game industry has been struggling with the issue of piracy for a long time, even going so far as to intentionally brick games in their pirated versions. One developer, however, used a unique technique that is now causing a ripple of controversy. Anyone who pirated the game called Prepar3d will also be downloading malware that is designed to steal their passwords.

One of the first to notice the issue was a user who posted about it on the sub-Reddit, /r/flightsim. According to the post, the maker of add-ons for the flight simulator, FSLabs included an extraction tool designed to steal passwords. The user was confused as to why this was the case in a game that was considered safe.

As expected, the reaction was not one of good will. Many of the users on the forum who bought the game were outraged at the fact that the developers intentionally installed malware on their computers. Some have already expressed intent to ask for a refund while others are considering taking legal action and are meeting with lawyers.

As Fidus Information Security founder Andrew Mabbitt noted to Motherboard, this was a crazy move on the part of the developers. It constitutes a major breach of trust and a huge danger to even legitimate gamers who paid for their copy of the simulator.

“When run, the program extracts all saved usernames and passwords from the Chrome browser and appears to send them to FSLabs. This is by far one of the most extreme, and bizarre, methods of Digital Rights Management (DRM) we've ever seen,” Mabbitt said.

While FSLabs did change their download process following the slew of complaints from users, it might be too late, at this point. Talks of major class-action lawsuits are already brewing in the community.