EDIT: Added ArsTechnica and Motherboard links

This story now has an article from Rock Paper Shotgun, but has original post on reddit

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/02/19/flight-sim-group-put-malware-in-a-jet-and-called-it-drm/

Motherboard Vice: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pamzqk/fs-labs-flight-simulator-password-malware-drm

Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/02/flight-sim-devs-say-hidden-password-dump-tool-was-used-to-fight-pirates/



I personally own the said flight simulator aircraft and am absolutely appalled by FlightSimLabs' actions with this blatant spyware in their software, wether it be for pirates or not, they are distributing malware to all their customers.

FlightSimLabs added a Chrome password dumper to their installer, and if someone used a known pirate key their information would be sent to the developers.

The CEO, Lefteris Kalamaras of FlightSimLabs himself stated:

Quote If such a specific serial number is used by a pirate (a person who has illegally obtained our software) and the installer verifies this against the pirate serial numbers stored in our server database, it takes specific measures to alert us… That program is only extracted temporarily and is never under any circumstances used in legitimate copies of the product. The only reason why this file would be detected after the installation completes is only if it was used with a pirate serial number (not blacklisted numbers). This method has already successfully provided information that we’re going to use in our ongoing legal battles against such criminals.

Source: https://forums.flightsimlabs.com/index.php?/announcement/10-a320-x-drm-clarification/