--- title: This "Steam Game" has a backdoor | daily.dev description: A security researcher investigates a Steam game called 'Deadwood' (internally named 'Hollow House') that was alleged to be malware. After static and dynamic... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/this-steam-game-has-a-backdoor-mtxig21jo twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: This "Steam Game" has a backdoor | daily.dev og:description: A security researcher investigates a Steam game called 'Deadwood' (internally named 'Hollow House') that was alleged to be malware. After static and dynamic... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/this-steam-game-has-a-backdoor-mtxig21jo og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/MTxIG21Jo.png og:image:alt: This "Steam Game" has a backdoor og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # This "Steam Game" has a backdoor **[Eric Parker](https://daily.dev/sources/ericparker)** · 15 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A security researcher investigates a Steam game called 'Deadwood' (internally named 'Hollow House') that was alleged to be malware. After static and dynamic analysis, the researcher discovers the game was stolen from an open-source project and contained an intentional backdoor in older builds. The backdoor works via a broadcast message from the server that, when containing a specific trigger, executes arbitrary commands on the player's machine with no visible CMD window. A C2 server was also found to notify the threat actor when a player joins. The attack was delivered via social engineering, with the malicious game offered after failed Roblox-based hacking attempts. The researcher concludes the likely payload involved credential theft and a RAT, and calls for better OS-level sandboxing and containerization of games to mitigate such threats. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Screeps: How A Game About Programming Sold Its Players a Remote Access Trojan](https://daily.dev/posts/screeps-how-a-game-about-programming-sold-its-players-a-remote-access-trojan-nitovvifa) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [WordPress malware campaign hides payloads in Steam profiles](https://daily.dev/posts/wordpress-malware-campaign-hides-payloads-in-steam-profiles-nm8uhmlpa) · BleepingComputer · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#malware](https://daily.dev/tags/malware), [#steam](https://daily.dev/tags/steam), [#reverse-engineering](https://daily.dev/tags/reverse-engineering) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/this-steam-game-has-a-backdoor-mtxig21jo) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"This \"Steam Game\" has a backdoor","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-steam-game-has-a-backdoor-mtxig21jo","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-steam-game-has-a-backdoor-mtxig21jo"},"datePublished":"2026-07-26T15:39:08.402Z","dateModified":"2026-07-26T15:39:28.054Z","description":"A security researcher investigates a Steam game called 'Deadwood' (internally named 'Hollow House') that was alleged to be malware. 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