Project Zomboid identifies and bans over a dozen Steam Workshop mods containing ‘heavily obfuscated code’ that was ‘creating malicious files’

If you’re a player of one of the best survival games ever made, Project Zomboid, I’ve got an important news alert for you. Check the list below to see if you downloaded and installed any of the 14 Steam Workshop mods developer The Indie Stone says contain “heavily obfuscated code” that was “creating malicious files outside of the Project Zomboid directory.”

In a post on Steam, the developer says multiple players began reporting yesterday that a mod in the Steam Workshop was “allegedly generating malicious code when run.” The Indie Stone investigated the mod and confirmed player reports. Then they found more.

“Further investigation revealed that the same user had uploaded a total of 14 mods, all containing the same exploit,” the developer said. “These mods had been installed on between 500 and 2200 devices. The user has since been banned, and all affected mods have been removed from the Steam Workshop.”

The exploit only affected Build 42 branches of Project Zomboid (the game’s current ‘unstable’ testing release), so if you’re on Build 41, you were “not vulnerable to this specific issue,” the dev said. While The Indie Stone hasn’t determined what the malicious files were actually doing, “we strongly recommend that anyone who downloaded them take appropriate security measures to ensure their system is safe. Simply uninstalling the mods is not sufficient.”

If you use mods in Project Zomboid, check them against the list below to determine if you’ve downloaded and run any of these mods, which all look to be sound or music-related.

• Risk of Rain 2 OST (True MoooZIC)
  • Workshop ID: 3681934105 Mod ID: RiskOfRain2Music
• Risk of Rain 1 OST (True MoooZIC)
  • Workshop ID: 3681810963 Mod ID: RiskOfRain1Music
• NieR: Automata OST (True MoooZIC)
  • Workshop ID: 3681765529 Mod ID: NierAutomataMusic
• Katana ZERO OST (True MoooZIC)
  • Workshop ID: 3681764942 Mod ID: KatanaZeroMusic
• Persona 5 OST (True MoooZIC)
  • Workshop ID: 3681756112 Mod ID: Persona5Music
• Jujutsu Kaisen S1 OST (True MoooZIC)
  • Workshop ID: 3681755051 Mod ID: JujutsuKaisenMusic
• Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number OST (True MoooZIC)
  • Workshop ID: 3681719339 Mod ID: HotlineMiami2Music
• Hotline Miami OST (True MoooZIC)
  • Workshop ID: 3681718339 Mod ID: HotlineMiami1Music
• Silent Hill OST (True MoooZIC)
  • Workshop ID: 3681477980 Mod ID: SilentHillMusic
• Cowboy Bebop OST (True MoooZIC)
  • Workshop ID: 3681476976 Mod ID: CowboyBebopMusic
• Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Vocal Tracks (True MoooZIC)
  • Workshop ID: 3681339955 Mod ID: MGRRevengeanceMusic
• Classic Roblox Music (True MoooZIC)
  • Workshop ID: 3681335952 Mod ID: RobloxClassicMusic
• DELTARUNE Ch3+4 Music (True MoooZIC)
  • Workshop ID: 3681334251 Mod ID: DeltaruneCh34Music
• Minecraft Alpha+Beta OST (True MoooZIC)
  • Workshop ID: 3680972796 Mod ID: MinecraftClassicMusic