Hijacking of Popular Minecraft Launcher by Rogue Developer Raises Malware Fears
Members of the Minecraft community using the PolyMC custom launcher are being told to switch to a different launcher after the owner removed contributors from the project in an attempt to “reclaim” PolyMC from people who promote queer and leftist ideology online.
According to a report from GamingonLinux, the owner, who goes by the username LennyMcLennington on the developer hosting site GitHub, revoked these contributors’ permissions yesterday alongside an update titled “reclaim polymc from the leftoids.”
When the update went live, members of the Minecraft community initially thought this was due to a security issue and that the main keyholder had been compromised, but LennyMcLennington has since posted an update on the PolyMC Discord (which IGN has verified) that links both a paste.gg page and GitHub file signed with their PGP signature saying their accounts were not compromised, and they were “just not hiding what [they] believe anymore.”
IGN was able to confirm the update on GitHub, the page.gg and GitHub file, but the original Discord message screenshot in GamingonLinux's report saying LennyMcLennington removed contributor permission from those who were "promoting radicalist leftist queer ideology" didn't show up in our initial searches, meaning it may have been deleted or posted in a private channel on the server, but is still unconfirmed as of this writing.
Following the takeover, Minecraft community members are urging others to switch to a different launcher, both on an ideological level and as a precautionary measure. As GamingonLinux points out in its original report, using PolyMC requires giving the launcher certain permissions with your Microsoft account, and the launcher is essentially run by one person now,
Read more on ign.com
