Credit: Getty Images
The ‘noclip’ and ‘angry planes’ mods of GTA 5 are reportedly installing malware on users’ computers.
We all love using mods while playing GTA. We love to make our cars fly and get zero stars so that the police would leave us alone when we go on our killing streak. In GTA V you can make the cars fly and make whales fall from the sky amongst many other things.
These mods can now make other people taker over your computer and run malicious code. The mods change the code of the game. We do this so that we could get new features, objects and landscapes. Some believe that malicious code has been injected in the mods.
When you install the mods, you install the malicious code. On a GTA V forum one player reported that the malicious code has been put into the noclip and angry planes mods. The noclip mod allows people to walk through walls and objects, whereas the angry planes mod spawns planes to attack the players.
The mods come packaged with code that installs a file called fade.exe which connect to the internet. The internet connection helps the malicious code to find out what the user is doing and then it sends the user’s data across the internet.
Then the data could be used to break into accounts and commit identity theft. This code watches the user by hijacking a genuine part of Windows. The code doesn’t come into effect until players open GTA V. Simply downloading the mods wouldn’t activate the malicious code.
The identified mods have been removed from the websites that were hosting them. The problem now exists and it is believed that more such malicious code injected mods are coming our way.
Users have also been warned to be wary of future downloads and they have been told to change their passwords. It is advised that you should remove the mods at once from your computer and you should change all of the passwords that you have entered in your computer since installing the mods.
Source: GTAForums