to make a self-spreading worm too , according to hackers and security researchers . Steam 's operator Valve announced that it fixedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilitythe bug earlier today , but with over 125 million monthly active users on its platform , the exploit could have wreaked havoc for thousands of people , and for the company itself . `` Anyone who views a specially crafted profile gets popped , '' a white hat hacker who has foundVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityseveral bugs in Steam in the past , and asked to remain anonymous , told me in a Twitter DM . Several users and security researchers noticedVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilitythis week that it was possible to put malicious javascript code inside a Steam user 's profile page , and the code will execute whenever someone visits that profile page , without any need for the victim to click anywhere . This type of bug is known as a cross-site scripting vulnerability , or XSS , a problem that 's plagued Steam for years. `` Phishing scamsAttack.Phishingand virus downloads are possible at the very least , but if account take overs are possible , that 's about as bad as XSS gets , '' Jeremiah Grossman , a web security expert , said in a chat . A Valve spokesperson said the bug was fixedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilityon Tuesday at noon , but there 's no telling how long the door was open for hackers to exploit it . ( The spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment . ) The bug was so bad that the moderators of the Steam subreddit told users to refrain from visiting other user 's profiles . `` Do NOT click suspicious ( real ) steam profile links and Disable JavaScript on Browser , '' a moderator wrote in the warning post . Grossman and Jake Davis , a former LulzSec hacker , confirmed thatVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilitythe bug existed asVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityof Tuesday morning and analyzed the potential attacks that bad guys could do if they were to exploit it . `` If something like this were to be foundVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityon Google or Facebook , it would be a high-severity issue , '' said Grossman , who 's the Chief of Security Strategy at security firm ‎SentinelOne .