Certainly you have heard about the recent DoS problem around the servers, when everyone's ping spikes up to 999. The amount of discussions regarding this topic in L4D2 forum and the lack of help/awareness is concerning.
There's a kind of "solution", that should work for some people, that requires you to change your username to include ~ ~.
For example, my username currently is zzz, and my new username should be zzz~ ~.
I've tested it with some users and it apparently seems to have worked for most of them.
For more information about this, I strongly suggest you to take a look at https://www.reddit.com/r/l4d2/comments/1q8kms/comment/cdaiwyj and at r/l4d2, as this "solution" was taken from there.

Huge credits to u/3yebex AKA Xbye for the discovery and all the information given about the topic and time spent trying to help the community, you're appreciated ❤️

I also would like to highlight how trash Steam moderation is, banning users and deleting their content when they're trying to help. Certainly more people would have been informed about this if it wasn't for the Steam moderators.

If it doesn't work for you, don't complain to u/3yebex nor to those who are trying to help. It's no one's fault that this situation is happening other than the users causing this situation lately. If you can't appreciate any attempt to help the community without criticizing it, then stay quiet and play singleplayer or another game, you will be doing a huge favor for everyone. We are just trying to help. 🙂

Can't wait to get complaints from people who can't read specific words such as "most", "some", "should" and say "stop trying to cause fear in the community, you're not helping anyone!!" and complaining about those who actually try to help the community while they're sitting on a chair the whole day contributing to nothing at all.
Don't come up with "you're not spreading awareness, you're just causing fear" type of messages, the persons getting affected by this wouldn't say the same about it and would, as expected, be grateful with any type of help. Anyone would.
For that kind of persons, ignorance is a choice.
For those who actually didn't realize "most", "some", "should" and peacefully "complained" about it, mistakes happen. You are loved and appreciated.

TLDR: Those 3 addons contain malicious code. Report them, inform other players about it and unsubscribe from them.

Other "popular" users that seem to have stolen content and claimed it as theirs: Sheriff Huck and Slytherin.
Refer to the comments under this post for more information about the matter.
Especially by the users @Trunten and @地球からのランダムな. Huge shout-out to both!

Hello there, survivors out there in the wild!

Recently it has come to our attention that there are 3 addons in the workshop containing a malicious code.
The mentioned addons are:
- Better Weapons Sounds (ONLY MELEES)
- Better Weapons Sounds.
- Better Lighting
Those addons' author is Fantico404.

Those addons contain files[prnt.sc], from one of the addons mentioned, that contain a code which purpose is to crack the user's credentials and to send the data to an encrypted address. (This code is found in a popular GitHub password cracking repository, which also can be used as evidence on this claim.)
edit: some players have reassured that the game doesn't run the code, so there's no need to worry about it; however, the author is known for stealing content from other creators and blocking the users when confronted and it's still not appropriate for addons to contain that type of stuff as we don't know the author's intentions.
This file[prnt.sc], as you can see, contains code that, according to ChatGPT[prnt.sc] (for better evidence, check the link): "The context in which this code is used would determine its specific purpose and whether it is being used for legitimate or potentially malicious activities..";
This one[prnt.sc], which the author claims it's for adding reverb and echo effects[prnt.sc], is meant to adjust the password cracking configuration[prnt.sc];
This[prnt.sc]seems to be a connection-related code[prnt.sc];
Finally, this[prnt.sc] one is the main[prnt.sc] password cracking code. Codes like those work by testing every single combination of symbols of a password until they get it right.

We realized that this author is also actively deleting comments and blocking users who complain about this matter, and after further research, we also found out that this user is also registered on a popular cracking/hacking forum, to which they have contributed with about 600K users' credentials from many platforms.
This information along with the presence of the malicious code in a few of the author's addons means that they can not be trusted at all and people should report and unsubscribe immediately from their addons.

I've included parts of the code on the screenshots to be used as evidence and not to incite to the use of it, also by those examples you can spot other addons that might include the same type of code.
Generally, addons that are meant to improve media files, and others, do not need any scripts/code, only the .wav or .png files (for example), so remain alert when it contains code like these addons.

I've decided to post this here in the Steam group to reach more players, as the addons contain a small yet significant amount of subscribers, which is alarming.

Now you might wonder, Why should I care about this? You could be the one who has any of those addons subscribed to and you could be the one having your credentials leaked across the Internet, so that should be a good reason to care about this and spreading the word to contribute to a safer Workshop.

Why should I trust you? If you still don't believe after all the evidence posted, see it with your own eyes (I wouldn't recommend this. If you still want it, proceed at your own risk). Do not subscribe to the addon as you will have to run the game in order to have it installed, instead, search for "Steam Workshop Downloader" on the Internet in order to download the addon and then use GFCScape[gamebanana.com] to analyze it.

Why would you use ChatGPT to support your evidence since it can generate false information? For those who aren't experienced with coding, it will be hard to understand what each part of the code means, so that's the only quick and good way to prove a point and explain it.

You can still safely browse the Workshop and subscribe to the addons you want as cases like those are rare and most of the times they are detected and deleted. Unfortunately, as you can see, it can happen that they aren't detected, so we suggest you to investigate the addon files with GFCScape when it's a fairly recent and unpopular addon (this obviously doesn't mean popular addons are always 100% safe!).

With all of this being said, please, spread the message and report those addons along with the author so we can work together to contribute to a safer community and workshop. We cannot be 100% sure that the code actually works and that the users who subscribed to it have their credentials exposed already, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

I'll go ahead and create a special place on the group discussions so we, players, can flag other addons that may contain malicious/suspicious codes, so the rest of the players can remain aware and be careful.

If you still have any question about it, feel free to join our Discord server[www.discord.gg].

(I'd like to thank WinterNightST for informing us about those addons.)

Anything for a safer community.

There is always a crazy scientist able to do anything, right?
Let me know what you think!


Join our Discord server[discord.gg]!

Do not ever click the "Steam" links that are sent in the group chat, they are NOT real and you will risk getting your account stolen and losing it permanently.
If you ever see people sending "5$ gift" type of links, report it to us, and encourage other people not to open them.
Use common sense and don't trust free money stuff, nothing is free on the Internet.
Steam's official website is www.steamcommunity.com. Pay attention to the letters! Anything that is different means that it isn't the real website
Thank you!

And what would you do?
Let me know in the comments!

P.S. Join our Discord[discord.gg]!