Flight Sim Labs make premium add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator X and Lockheed Martin’s Prepar3D software program. With costs on particular person planes coming close to – and exceeding – $100, it’s in all probability no shock that some gamers have taken to pirating these digital jets. More stunning is the truth that Flight Sim Labs loaded their add-ons with DRM that has the facility to steal passwords in an effort to thwart these pirates.
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A person on Reddit famous a suspicious file coming with the installer for the A320-X jet airliner referred to as “text.exe,” which is listed as a Chrome password dump software. He tells Rock, Paper, Shotgun that he “was keen to understand why exactly the installation package was triggering antivirus alerts so often.”
Lefteris Kalamaras at Flight Sim Labs responded shortly after on the official forums, saying “we were made aware there is a reddit thread started tonight regarding our latest installer and how a tool is included in it, that indescriminantly [sic] dumps Chrome passwords. That is not correct information – in fact, the reddit thread was posted by a person who is not our customer and has somehow obtained our installer without purchasing.”
Essentially, the password dump software prompts on copies of the installer with the identical serial quantity as these on ThePirateBay, RuTracker, and different piracy websites, after which “takes specific measures to alert” the corporate, including that the file wouldn’t stay after set up on correctly bought copies. Kalamaris says “this method has already successfully provided information that we’re going to use in our ongoing legal battles against such criminals.”
“There are no instruments used to disclose any delicate info of any buyer who has legitimately bought our merchandise,” Kalamaris says, together with his personal daring for emphasis.
Still, the controversy of together with a password thieving software as DRM was naturally controversial, with gamers feeling it’s a step method too far to fight piracy, even questioning the legality of the measure.
In a later replace, Kalamaris confirmed that the installer had been modified to take away the software, saying “we realize that a few of you were uncomfortable with this particular method which might be considered to be a bit heavy handed on our part.”
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