Security News > 2022 > February > ‘Cities: Skylines’ Gaming Modder Banned Over Hidden Malware

The developer of several popular mods for the Cities: Skylines city-building game has been banned after malware was discovered hidden in their mods.

The modder, who goes by the handle Chaos as well as Holy Water, reportedly tucked an automatic updater into several mods that enabled the author to deliver malware to anybody who downloaded them.

An automatic updater was subsequently discovered, hidden away in Chao's Harmony version - an updater that enabled the modder to deliver malware to the devices of those who downloaded it.

According to a pinned post on the Cities: Skylines subreddit, some, but not all, of Chaos' mods have been removed from the Steam Workshop, and the author's accounts have been suspended.

Valve has reportedly yanked several of the mods that feed into the automatic updater and has banned Chaos' most recent accounts.

Lacing Harmony with malware is particularly pernicious, given that it's one of the mods that Chaos "Redesigned." Chaos listed the modified version as a core download, as in, a dependency for other mods that players would have to download in order for other dependent mods to work.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/cities-skylines-modder-banned-over-hidden-malware/178403/