Popular ‘Final Fantasy 14’ mod Gshade deliberately includes malware

8 February, 2023

Final Fantasy 14

It’s been reported that Final Fantasy 14 mod Gshade deliberately included malware, with the creator Marot saying it was supposed to be a teachable moment for other modders.

Gshade allows users great control over Final Fantasy 14’s visuals, with some colour blind players even using it to help them adjust lighting and user interface controls.

However it’s now been reported (via GameRant) that Gshade contains malware that has the power to restart a users PC.

Apparently, Marot told another modder that the inclusion of the malware “was meant to be a lesson.

“Anything could have been in the payload and you’d have been responsible for distributing it to people and triggering it,” he continued. He went on to explain that it was impossible to trigger a shutdown if Gshade was used as intended.

“I chose a restart specifically because I wanted something that was still completely harmless, but slightly more noticeable than a quick process kill,” he added. “Consider it similar to what anticheat software does when something particularly bad turns up.”

Following the reveal, Gshade trended on Twitter and the mod is no longer endorsed by the official Final Fantasy 14 subreddit. The mod has also been temporarily removed from Github while an investigation takes place, while Marot has been banned from at least one modding Discord.

It comes as some Gshade users are having issues removing the mod from their PC, with other users having to create guides on how to get rid of the malware.

All player creator mods are banned from Final Fantasy 14, with producer and director Naoki Yoshida sharing a lengthy post about their use recently.

“The terms of service for Final Fantasy 14 state that the use of third-party tools is strictly prohibited. This has always been the case and will continue to be so,” he wrote after it was reported the first team to defeat new boss The Omega Protocol (Ultimate) was using a variety of mods.

“It is extremely disappointing for me personally to see this commotion surrounding third-party tools once again,” he added. ”If the presumption is that this content will be tackled and cleared with the use of third-party tools, then any reason to develop high-difficulty battle content seems to be lost.”

In other news Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, has claimed that blocking Microsoft’s acquisition of the publisher would bring a major blow to the UK’s aim of becoming a technology superpower.

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