Popular survival game Valheim is under attack from hackers and has had to lock down its Discord channel after bad actors got in and spammed multiple links containing malware.
Community leads at Iron Gate have locked everything down and pulled the community server according to PCGamesN, while warning players not to accept any invites or click any links until further notice.
It seems that admin accounts were compromised and taken over before being used to to post links to innocent-looking files. It is unknown at this stage how many people downloaded from these links which uploaded files via a phishing attack. It is thought that the exe files downloaded were capable of obtaining some degree of personal data from the victim’s machines.
PCGamesN reports that social media links to the Discord have been removed from the game’s website and the channel no longer appears in search results.
A Valheim Steam moderator posted, “Multiple Discord accounts with admin permissions were hijacked. A phishing link was spammed containing an infected file. Additionally, an attempt was made to delete all channels and ban users. The Discord is in lockdown while Iron Gate is working on resolving and reaching out to Discord for assistance. Thank you for your patience.”
The attack occurred in the evening last night (29th January) and centers around a post, purportedly from the admin about downloading a free game. Those that took up the offer found a file called Windows Boot Manager had appeared and this has been scanned as malware.
The advice on the Steam post from Valheim mods reads, “Please do not click on any links sent on the Discord! Currently, the .gg/Valheim Discord invite leads to one of the hijacker’s servers. Do not join or interact with them in any way.
Survival games are hugely popular right now with Palworld having become an overnight success and games such as Winter Survival ready to launch in Early Access.
More as we get it.
