Rogue Super Mario Bros. Browser Game Apps Hijack Players (UPDATED)

by Jeffrey Davis, posted on 25 May 2011 / 2,111 Views

UPDATE June 1, 2011: There's no reason to worry about the offending games described herein from now on, as Nintendo has officially helped to eliminate the problem, and has subsequently released the following official statement:

"Nintendo video games are offered only on Nintendo systems such as the Wii and Nintendo 3DS. Applications on the Apple or Google marketplaces that purport to be Nintendo video games are not legitimate and users who download these applications may expose themselves to spyware or other malicious software. Nintendo actively monitors the unauthorized use of its intellectual property, and will continue to seek removal of any unauthorized content in these marketplaces. In this case, Nintendo worked with Google to have the applications removed."

Original story: In case there's a real need for yet another WTF!? moment in the same week... well, here it is anyway: Two rogue apps that rock point-by-point recreations of two classic Super Mario Bros. games have run amok on Google Chrome users who activate them.

No, seriously.

While fan-made recreations and/or reimaginings of classic games are nothing new, versions of classic games that mess around with your system are another thing entirely. In this case, the programmer of both apps (apparently named "chromitude") has interlaced the games with rogue (or roguelike) code that literally roots out your browsing history, location, bookmarks -- essentially all of the basic personal information that a complete hack (in the literal sense) would be able to get his plumbing system work gloves on.

Now obviously this kind of thing goes way beyond a normal subject for gamrFeed (the recent PlayStation Network hacking incidents aside); however, the fact that classic Nintendo characters in a third-party game are involved are the only reason this bears mentioning herein.

It's not all bad news, though: chief research officer Mikko Hypponen of Finnish security firm F-Secure hasn't seen any traces of fraudulent activity related to the apps -- instead, he suggests that whatever impetus lies therein relates to "aggressive marketing" for the purposes of analyzing "your online use so they [meaning whomever is linked to the apps] can market to you better."

At the original report's publication time, Nintendo did not respond to submissions of requests for comment.