Gaming: Project Zomboid identifies and bans over a dozen Steam Workshop mods containing 'heavily obfuscated code' that was 'creating malicious files'
Players should take "appropriate security measures to ensure their system is safe. Simply uninstalling the mods is not sufficient." Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Unlock instant access to exclusive member features. Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. If you're a player of one of the best survival games ever made, Project Zomboid, I've got an important news alert for you. Check the list below to see if you downloaded and installed any of the 14 Steam Workshop mods developer The Indie Stone says contain "heavily obfuscated code" that was "creating malicious files outside of the Project Zomboid directory." In a post on Steam, the developer says multiple players began reporting yesterday that a mod in the Steam Workshop was "allegedly generating malicious code when run." The Indie Stone investigated the mod and confirmed player reports. Then they found more. "Further investigation revealed that the same user had uploaded a total of 14 mods, all containing the same exploit," the developer said. "These mods had been installed on between 500 and 2200 devices. The user has since been banned, and all affected mods have been removed from the Steam Workshop." The exploit only affected Build 42 branches of Project Zomboid (the game's current 'unstable' testing release), so if you're on Build 41, you were "not vulnerable to this specific issue," the dev said. While The Indie Stone hasn't determined what the malicious files were actually doing, "we strongly recommend that anyone who downloaded them take appropriate security measures to ensure their system is safe. Simply uninstalling the mods is not sufficient."
Source: PC Gamer