The original servers of Modern Warfare 2 were taken offline after players reported the discovery of self-replicating malware

The original version of the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for PC had its servers temporarily shut down due to hacked lobbies in the multiplayer mode. These hacked lobbies were unusual because they contained a self-propagating worm virus.

Last week, the official Twitter account of Call of Duty Updates announced the temporary suspension of the multiplayer mode of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) on the Steam platform, citing an ongoing investigation into an issue. The exact details of the problem were not disclosed, but based on players' reports of encountering the Wacatac.B!ml worm virus in MW2 lobbies over the last month, it is likely related to this.

A Steam forum user reported that they conducted an analysis of the malicious software and found code specifically targeting MW2. Some lines in the code indicated that the malicious code was randomly spread among users in modified lobbies, posing a threat of infection to all players. This may have been the reason why Activision took measures even concerning older games to prevent potential problems.

An unknown source, interviewed by TechCrunch, confirmed the existence of code lines related to the worm virus.

At present, hundreds of players who are still actively playing MW2 in 2023 are eagerly awaiting updates from Activision. The message about server shutdown did not specify the duration of the suspension, and there have been no new updates on the official account since then. It is hoped that the issue will be resolved as soon as possible to avoid a situation similar to what occurred with the problem in the game Dark Souls, which took several months to be resolved.