Vintage Story Mod Developer Admits Hidden Code Could Crash or Disconnect Players

A controversy has emerged in the Vintage Story modding community after hidden code was discovered inside Config Lib, a popular mod reportedly downloaded more than 650,000 times.

The code was designed to detect the presence of a specific paid cheat being used in multiplayer. When triggered, however, it could deliberately interfere with the player’s game by disconnecting them from a multiplayer session, closing the game, or causing the client to crash.

The developer behind Config Lib, known as Maltiez, has now acknowledged the functionality and apologized for including it without informing players.

Hidden Anti-Cheat Code Discovered in Config Lib

According to information shared by the community, the controversial functionality had previously been included in Config Lib as well as other projects associated with the developer, including Overhaul Lib and PML.

The intention was apparently to combat cheating in Vintage Story multiplayer servers by detecting a particular paid cheat.

The situation attracted attention after the creator of Caves N Caverns discovered that Config Lib could cause the game to crash when used alongside the mod. This raised concerns that the hidden detection system wasn’t limited to its intended cheat target and could potentially affect legitimate mods as well.

That became particularly concerning because Config Lib is a dependency used by a significant number of players, with the mod reportedly accumulating more than 650,000 downloads.

Developer Calls the Functionality “Malware”

Maltiez directly addressed the controversy in a statement shared with the community.

The developer confirmed that previous versions of Overhaul Lib, Config Lib and PML contained code intended to detect a specific paid cheat in multiplayer, explaining:

“When detected in a multiplayer session, that code could disconnect the player, close the game, or cause the client to crash.”

Maltiez went on to acknowledge the seriousness of including functionality capable of deliberately disrupting a player’s game without their knowledge.

“Any functionality that disrupts the game is malware.”

The developer also apologized for failing to disclose the code to users, saying they now understand the concern surrounding functionality like this being included without players’ consent.

Code Has Now Been Removed

According to Maltiez, the controversial code has been completely removed from the current version of Config Lib and had already been removed from some of the developer’s other mods in earlier releases.

Affected versions are also expected to be retracted.

While the original intention may have been to prevent cheating in multiplayer, the controversy highlights a much larger issue surrounding trust and transparency in game modding. Players installing a library or dependency generally expect it to provide the functionality advertised by its developer—not secretly determine what other software they can run and intentionally interfere with their game.

With Config Lib having reached hundreds of thousands of downloads, the incident is likely to generate further discussion within the Vintage Story community about how much control mods should have over a player’s game and whether anti-cheat functionality should ever be implemented without explicit disclosure.

For now, Maltiez has acknowledged that including the code was a mistake, apologized for not disclosing it, and says the functionality responsible has been removed.

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