A number of Grand Theft Auto Online accounts have been struck down as a result of an exploit in the game's code that lets nefarious hackers change players' characters, their according stats and ban or delete the account. Given that players sink hours and hours into Grand Theft Auto Online in a week, the losses have been momentous.
Industry insider Tez2, who specialises in Rockstar Games' catalogue, revealed to Grand Theft Auto Online players that this remote code execution exploit has the capacity "transform into something much worse" to harm the PC itself too. Talk about insult to injury. The exploit is possible through a mod menu which is now being offered in new packages by cheat distributors to their customers. These features, which have plagued the game for years, unlock actions like overriding microtransactions, killing other players or transforming them into inanimate objects, and now in this instance, wreaking havoc on their accounts.
Check out these hilarious Grand Theft Auto V wins and fails here:
Fortunately, Rockstar Games is aware of the issue and is aiming to roll out a solution in a planned security-related update for the game. Those who are still affected are advised to get in touch with the support team as soon as they are able to. However, some are not too satisfied with the time it's taken for these attacks to be identified.
These hacks were reported to be occurring in December of last year and it's only towards the end of January that there is an official acknowledgement of the loss of the accounts. I suppose the best advice we can give you is to hold off logging into Grand Theft Auto Online til the fix is live.
Topics: Grand Theft Auto, GTA Online, Rockstar Games, PC