14 DAY TRIAL // Security researchers have stumbled across an Android game that appears to have been trojanized by animal rights activists in order to shame its users.
The controversial game is called "Dog Wars" and allows players to raise virtual dogs and pit them against each other.
Obviously, this kind of actions, even if only virtual in nature, did not go down well with animal lovers who protested to the game and even got it kicked out from the xda-developers community.
The game's creators don't think it violates any kind of terms. "Just because something is illegal in real life in certain countries, does not mean it is illegal to make a song, movie, or video game about it," they write.
They also point out the animal cruelty aspects of Angry Birds by saying: "Just go slingshot some virtual birds to kill some virtual pigs."
Nevertheless, it seems that some animal rights activists have decided to more than just protest the game's distribution.
According to researchers from Symantec, they took an older version of the app and attached a trojan component to it which they named "Rabies."
The trojan's payload involves sending SMS messages to the entire contact list reading "I take pleasure in hurting small animals, just thought you should know that."
It also subscribes users to an SMS alert service operated by animal rights watchdog PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Furthermore, the logo of the game that normally reads BETA in the right-bottom corner has been modified in the trojanized version to read PETA.
"In spite of the fact that few clues have been left behind, we have no reason to believe that PETA had anything to do with this app, and that it is most likely the work of someone attempting to associate the app with PETA or to gain sympathy by the association," the Symantec researchers write.