The Wallpaper Engine provides many users with beautiful and interactive backgrounds on Steam. However, hackers have also distributed viruses through the tool via a backdoor. Now the developers have implemented new restrictions.
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What is this tool? The Wallpaper Engine is a tool used by hundreds of thousands of gamers that brings you animated background images for your desktop. You can freely choose from your favorite anime, lightly dressed characters, or even lofi scenes.
The tool itself simply serves as a technical aid, while the backgrounds are developed by the community. This allows you to choose from thousands of backgrounds and scenes for all kinds of monitor resolutions.
However, the animated scenes are often also programs, and that is exactly what hackers have exploited.
Anime Girls give you viruses
What have the hackers done? Since the backgrounds are actually just programs on your computer, cunning hackers managed to inject viruses through them. They were simply hidden behind the normal function of the tools and users usually did not notice it because the background worked as expected. MeinMMO reported on the case.
After this method became known, the gaming platform Steam intervened, removing the backgrounds from the platform and warning users. But that is not enough, as even if known viruses are removed, hackers can always sneak in new viruses.
What are the developers doing about it? The developers have decided to put an end to this. Soon, .exe files will no longer be downloadable. According to PCGuide.com, this only concerns 0.5% of all backgrounds anyway.
In addition, users can still save the backgrounds locally for a week if they really want to hold on to them. The tool would then continue to play them, but they could no longer be obtained via the normal distribution path.
The developers come to this radical decision because they must acknowledge that there is no way to ensure that .exe files are truly safe. They are accordingly addressing this risk.
Do you use the Wallpaper Engine? Or do you prefer the standard background of Windows? Feel free to write it in our comments! You can find more cool backgrounds from your favorite games here in this article: 10 great wallpapers from your favorite MMOs and their history
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