Virus?

[Minuteandone]

Triage flagged the latest version: https://tria.ge/250729-p5pe1sxxhv

Can someone explain everything?

[Gzh0821]

To provide you with a full-featured gaming experience, Gardendless needs to perform the following actions:

• Check for Updates: When the game starts, it connects to our servers to check for new versions, which requires network access.

• Discord Integration: To display your "Now Playing" status to your friends on Discord, the game needs to communicate with the Discord application on your computer.

• Open Web Links: In-game links (like our official website or community forum) need to open in your default browser. To do this, the game asks the system where your default browser is located.

• Save Game Progress: create a dedicated folder within your personal user directory (the AppData folder) to store your save files and settings.

From a security tool's perspective, this combination of actions can resemble the behavior patterns of some malware. However, the intent behind these actions is entirely legitimate and necessary for the game to function correctly.

[mentalfl0w]

I guess this game's executable is a package generated by Cocos creator or other pack tools.
The game is purely a web game, the executable is a wrapper of the browser/webkit and a simple http server, if you feel bad due to the packed game needs so many sensitive permission, I would suggest to use cd /PATH/TO/pvzge_web/docs && python3 -m http.server to start a self hosted http server, you could play this game safely in any browser you like which supports WebGL 2.0.
That would not request any other permission beyond browser needs.
I guess the author is concentrating on developing game, know a little about the packed executable files.

[Gzh0821]

If you still believe the exe version of the game contains viruses, you could:

1. Use the Docker image: https://hub.docker.com/r/gaozih/pvzge
2. Play the online version: https://play.pvzge.com

If you believe none of the above methods are secure, you can find the open source repository for the web version, browse the source code, and build it yourself.

[Minuteandone]

Thank you