A Steam Game Demo Has Been Identified As A Malware By Reddit Users
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- Redditors identified Sniper: Phantom’s Resolution demo to be a malware.
- The demo isn’t available to download on Steam itself and interested people will have to download it through their website, which was one of the first red flag noticed by Redditors.
- Upon checking, a Redditor by the name of meantben3 concludes that the demo is actually an info stealer.
On March 17, a Reddit post gained traction in r/pcgaming where a user spotted a Steam game and believed it to be a virus. Reddit users then hopped on the game and slowly unpacked it, revealing that it was in fact a malware.
The game’s name is Sniper: Phantom’s Resolution. According to the post, Reddit user FERAL_WASP said that the promotional art was ripped from other games. The game’s executable couldn’t be downloaded through Steam and gamers interested to play the game would have to access the publisher’s site which is on the Steam Page. Additionally, the game also consistently misspelled its name in its promotional materials.
These inconsistencies made FERAL_WASP become sceptical about the legitimacy of the demo. Another Reddit user by the name of meantbent3 was able to confirm FERAL_WASP’s suspicion about the demo’s legitimacy.
According to meantbent3, the demo’s main executable is named “Windows Defender SmartScreen.exe” which is a weird executable name for what is supposed to be a demo of Sniper: Phantom’s Resolution. They also added that the game’s files contain a program that would give it administrator privileges.
Meantbent3 also said that the software opens a web browser which leads them to believe that the demo is an info stealer. The software’s behaviour of opening a web browser gives them access to the cookies stored in the computer. Hijacking these cookies will give the attacker a chance to use the stolen session key to impersonate the person they are attacking.
A month ago, another Steam game was spotted to be Windows Malware. The game is called PirateFi. Steam has since removed PirateFi, however, Sniper: Phantom’s Resolution is still in the popular PC storefront.
