This Flight Simulator Uses Password-Stealing Malware To Fight Piracy

Piracy is a real problem for indie studios and even big developers who earn revenue through sales of legit copies alone. But FlightSimLabs is going to extreme lengths to forbid piracy.

The company which specializes in developing add-ons for flight simulators, has been found guilty of embedding malware in its A320-X module as an anti-piracy tool. The visitor claims that the malware, which is capable of stealing usernames and passwords from a users' spider web browser, is simply used against pirates who have illegally downloaded the module.

Flight Sim Labs inserts malware in its game

The incident was first spotted by Reddit user crankyrecursion who wrote:

"Using file 'FSLabs_A320X_P3D_v2.0.1.231.exe' there seems to exist a file chosen "test.exe" included. This .exe file is from http://securityxploded.com and is touted equally a "Chrome Countersign Dump" tool, which seems to work- peculiarly equally the installer would typically run with Administrative rights (UAC prompts) on Windows Vista and higher up…Can anyone shed light on why this tool is included in a supposedly trusted installer?"

Turns out the test.exe file is nada simply a malware capable of stealing a user's login credentials. When news near the discovery reached FlightSimLabs main Lefteris Kalamaras, he released a statement which said:

"Nosotros were fabricated aware there is a Reddit thread started tonight regarding our latest installer and how a tool is included in it, that indiscriminately dumps Chrome passwords. That is non correct information- in fact, the Reddit thread was posted by a person who is not our customer and has somehow obtained our installer without purchasing…[t]here are no tools used to reveal any sensitive information of any client who has legitimately purchased our products. We all realize that you put a lot of trust in our products and this would be opposite to what we believe. At that place is a specific method used against specific series numbers that accept been identified as pirate copies and have been making the rounds on ThePirateBay, RuTracker and other such malicious sites".

In simpler terms, the company installed a countersign stealing malware on all of its users' machines, whether they were pirates or not, but claimed to only activate information technology when it determined that the person using the software obtained information technology via illegal means. Additionally, Kalamaras revealed that the information obtained from the pirates' machines was to be used in court or other legal processes.

Even though the company claims that the tool was simply used against pirates, in that location is absolutely no substantial evidence towards their claims. As some other Reddit user points out, "Nobody can guarantee how the malware behaves that they installed."

Following that, the visitor seems to accept had a change of center and started redirecting users to a new installer which didn't include the malware. Kalamaras in an updated statement said, "I want to reiterate and reaffirm that we equally a visitor and as flight simmers would never exercise anything to knowingly violate the trust that you have placed in the states by not only buying our products simply supporting them and FlightSimLabs".