Fortnite cheats were pwned by malicious software posing as a butbot

What just happened? Cheats tend to be rampant in online games, especially ultra-popular titles like PUBG and Fortnite. These unscrupulous losers are worse than a nuisance as they tend to distance legitimate players from the game. That's why no one will feel too bad that thousands of Fortnite cheats have been infected with malware.

Rainway's online games streaming platform reports that on June 26, it began to receive hundreds of thousands of error reports – more than 381,000 in fact. The company's engineering team has dug up the logs to try to find the source of the problem. In sorting out the damage, they discovered that the errors came from all kinds of users with different hardware and ISPs. The only thing they seemed to have in common was that they were all playing at Fortnite.

It appeared that a form of malicious software was trying to call different advertising platforms via Rainway servers. Since the company internally lists the URLs, the calls generated errors and had the "unintended side effect of shedding light on a much larger problem". It also provides engineers with a URL that they then used to identify the source of the malware. 19659004] By sifting through thousands of YouTube videos on Fortnite hacks, and subsequently hundreds of cheat programs, the team finally found a hack that used the URL that came back into its logs . The software claimed to provide the player with a goalbot and a way to generate free V-Bucks (Fortnite game currency).

"Sometimes the lure of cheating is powerful, and a strong presence is needed to help people get in. The right direction."

This was a ploy Malicious enough by the malware makers – a way to quickly kill your opponents and get free money in the process would be difficult for a cheater to resist. Indeed, the program had already been downloaded 78,000 times by the time Rainway found it.

However, instead of cheating, the hack put up a man in the middle attack. When running, the software immediately installs a root certificate on the computer. It then instructs Windows to transmit all the traffic by itself.

"The adware then began to edit the pages of all web queries to add tags to Adtelligent," Rainway explains

. immediately removed. He also warned all infected users of Rainway malware and warned everyone not to download random programs – something that should be taken for granted.

The company also notes that Epic could do a better job by informing its players that cheating has serious consequences that go beyond bans and suspensions.

"Sometimes cheating is powerful. A strong presence is needed to help people go in the right direction, "said the company.

She also thinks that Epic should make an effort to have YouTube videos advertising these hacks removed The fake malware from Aymote / V-Bucks he dealt with was just one of the hundreds of cheat programs he found via YouTube.

It's unfortunate that Rainway was affected by this outbreak , but it's hard to have sympathy for the cheats virus that, in my opinion, had what they deserved.