Slovakian security firm ESET has discovered malware called Joao which attacks gamers who are using Windows and playing online games from the company Aeria Games.
The company said the malware was spread through hacked games from Aeria that were offered on unofficial websites.
Joao had a backdoor, could spy on the user of an infected machine and also serve as a participant in a distributed denial of service attack, the company said.
The malware version that ESET found was being distributed by the anime-themed MMORPG Grand Fantasia game offered on gf.ignitgames[.]to.
{loadposition sam08}But the company said it had found that several other games from Aeria had also been misused. The websites had been deactivated in some cases and in others the malicious downloads had been removed.
The Joao downloader in the Grand Fantasia installation folder.
Aeria Games, which is headquartered in Berlin, has about 40 million registered members after it acquired another company known as Ijji in 2012. Its games are free and use a micro-payment system to generate revenue through in-game purchases and advertising.
ESET said the only trace of the malware on a Windows machine was the presence of a single library – mskdbe.dll. When users ran the game launcher, this file was also launched.
Graphic: courtesy ESET