[Update] The Final Hours of Portal 2 pulled from Steam over malware hack

[ríomhaire]

Update: The issue seems to have been resolved and the ebook is back on the Steam Store.

Original Story:
Lambda Generation have reported that The Final Hours of Portal 2 has been pulled from Steam over a malware hack. The story originally broke on the Steam Powered User Forums before Valve took note and both took down the store page for the ebook and blocked access to it for users.

Neither Steam itself nor Valve's servers have been hacked. The book accesses an external website not located on Valve's servers in order to load content. This website has been infected with malware and will try to infect your computer as soon as you open the ebook.

You should be fine as long as you haven't run the application recently. Simply having it in your Steam library is not dangerous. If you have opened it recently we recommend you run a full virus scan on your PC. We'll keep you updated.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Interesting news, why would it need to access external content in the first place?

Would this affect the iPad version as well?

 

[Chris D]

iPad version? Possibly. It depends. I've not read the source links but who knows what the malicios code is targeting or trying to do.

Typically I would imagine it would be affecting only Windows but these days you just never know.

 

[ríomhaire]

Interesting news, why would it need to access external content in the first place?

Would this affect the iPad version as well?

Some programs are set up pretty damn weird. I use a program for using a PS3 controller on the PC that links to a website as a control panel. IIRC the ebooks has multiple videos and polls embedded in it. For whatever reason it may have been easier to collect data (and keep the app size down for the iPad) by doing these by external embedding rather than in the app. It hasn't been removed from iTunes so it's still available to buy and use for iOS users. I'd be surprised if it could infect the iPad with anything malicious, but you never know.

 

[Krynn72]

Mac products dont get viruses.

 

[Chris D]

Mac products dont get viruses.

I'm tempted to flame you and call you incorrect. But I assume you're joking.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Some programs are set up pretty damn weird. I use a program for using a PS3 controller on the PC that links to a website as a control panel. IIRC the ebooks has multiple videos and polls embedded in it.

I remember the polls and videos when I got it when it first came out. But I was under the impression that the videos were stored in the client, and I was sure (though probably incorrect) the polls ask you permission to send your results.

 

[Lego]

It's fixed now!