Valve has removed “Sniper: Phantom’s Resolution” from its Steam store following reports that the game’s demo installer contained information-stealing malware. The title, published by “Sierra Six Studios,” was marketed as an early preview with a full release planned in the coming months.

## Red Flags and Suspicious Behavior

Users became suspicious when they noticed:
– Assets and descriptions copied from other games
– An unusual requirement to download the demo from an external GitHub repository instead of directly through Steam
– The installer file was deceptively named “Windows Defender SmartScreen.exe”

## Malware Analysis

Reddit users who analyzed the installer discovered several malicious components:
– Privilege escalation utilities
– A Node.js wrapper
– “Fiddler” tool for intercepting cookies
– Scripts that executed and terminated quickly to avoid detection
– A persistence mechanism using “createShortcut.vbs” that added a startup task

Further investigation revealed the developer’s GitHub profile “arda1337” also hosted cryptocurrency tools and Telegram bot toolkits, strengthening suspicions about malicious intent.

## Platform Response

Both GitHub and Valve acted swiftly:
– GitHub removed the malicious repository after user reports
– Valve deleted the game from Steam
– The developer’s website “sierrasixstudios[.]dev” has been taken offline

## User Recommendations

Users who installed the game should:
– Uninstall the title immediately
– Run a full system scan to remove any remaining malicious files

This incident follows a similar case just last month when another Steam game, “PirateFi,” was found distributing Vidar infostealer malware to approximately 1,500 users.