Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, originally released in 2009, has recently encountered a significant issue impacting its small but dedicated fan base of about 600 daily players. The PC servers on Steam for this revered classic have temporarily been taken offline due to reports of users encountering hacked lobbies that spread a self-propagating worm virus, identified as Wacatac.B!ml.
MW2's community began reporting encounters with this malware as early as June 26. Interestingly, these were not your run-of-the-mill hacked lobbies that merely tweak your settings or mildly frustrate you. These lobbies served as hothouses for a worm virus that, upon infection, could potentially transform any player into a conduit for its propagation. The worm was coded to specifically target MW2, and strings found within the malware indicated its specialized nature. The phrase "User was randomly selected to be a spreader in modded lobbies" suggests an almost insidious mechanism of selection and dissemination.
While Activision, the game's developer, has been less than forthcoming about the specifics of the "issue" leading to the server shutdown, its sudden move is hardly surprising. Earlier this year, they took definitive action against modding servers like X Labs, issuing cease and desist letters, to ensure safety and fair gameplay. However, it now appears that their official servers have fallen prey to an even more serious security issue.
Call of Duty has been no stranger to malicious attacks and hacks, with past incidents raising alarms about IP addresses and personal information being compromised. Although the scale of the current predicament might be smaller because of the reduced player base of MW2, the potential consequences cannot be downplayed. Each of these 600 or so players, who nostalgically engage with this 14-year-old game, now faces the risk of their PCs being compromised.