Activision discovers destructive malware hidden in Warzone hacks

Activision has revealed a piece of malware circulating right now, which the publisher says was “masquerading” as Warzone cheating software, which had the ability to install a “more destructive” program without the user knowing it.

At this point, it’s abundantly clear how connected Warzone and hackers/cheaters are. Pretty much ever since the game launched, hackers and cheaters have been extremely prevalent in the first-person battle royale, primarily on PC.

While these hacks generally give people who use them unfair advantages like aimbots, it now seems like at least one cheat that’s been circulating includes another feature: full-blown malware.

According to a brand-new report by Activision, as originally reported by VICE, a “cheat” has been circulating through the PC community right now, which actually includes a piece of malware called a “dropper.”

While this phishing software, which is called “COD Dropper v0.1“, doesn’t actually include anything destructive in-and-of itself, it installs other malware, which does the main damage. The types of software that the dropper in question can install is “customizable” according to the report but one specific example Activision uses is “credential stealing malware.”

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According to the report by Activision, this cheat has been around since at least April 2020, only a month after the game was originally released to the world, and has been spreading through the community ever since. This means that it’s been spreading for around a full year, as of March 2021.

The report also says that this dropper has actually been advertised and that there are multiple YouTube videos online showing how one can install it, just lending more evidence to the fact that it’s been circulating for a while.

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Currently, it’s unknown the current state of the hack itself. Activision’s report says the cheat was most recently posted on a forum at the beginning of March 2021 so it sounds like it’s still around to some extent. Here’s hoping that it’s not as widely as distributed as it was before and that there’s an easy solution for those who already have it installed.