Rockstar Games issues a statement on the current exploit plaguing the PC version of GTA Online, but there’s still cause for concern.
A serious exploit that currently exists in GTA Online has been officially acknowledged by Rockstar Games. While most exploits in games only extend as far as tampering with the behavior of the game, this one may go further and has the potential to potentially harm a user's computer, making it a very serious issue.
Concerns regarding this exploit initially arose on January 20, when Rockstar reporter Tez2 took to their Twitter account to reveal and detail the GTA Online PC exploit. While it's only impacting PC users at this time, it's been serious enough that the best recommendation among the community is to avoid the online component of the game entirely, lest a player's account end up corrupted.
Now, Rockstar Games has issued a statement on the matter over on its Twitter account. The brief tweet notes that the company is aware of the matter, and it intends to patch out the problem in a security-related Title Update set for sometime in the future. Players are also asked to reach out to Rockstar Support if they've experienced any of these problems, though prior reports indicated that Rockstar is keeping tabs on tampered GTA Online player accounts on its end. Unfortunately, Rockstar didn't provide any kind of method of avoiding these problems, so players may be best off still avoiding the PC version until the promised update launches.
While many game exploits can potentially do harm to player characters or the way that the game functions, this one is a serious problem in and outside of the game. Standard GTA Online uses peer-to-peer connections, and this particular exploit relies on remote code execution. In-game, this method can be used for anything from removing a player's money to completely corrupting their account and making it impossible to play the game. In theory, though, this same kind of exploit could be used to alter files on a user's PC, which could lead to all kinds of problems for players.
Needless to say, fans aren't particularly happy about the existence of this exploit and many are calling on Rockstar Games to do more to protect its users. The lack of a launch date for the fix has many concerned that it could take some time to see the problem resolved. With any luck, Rockstar will be able to work with impacted players to fully reverse any changes made to their accounts so that they can play safely again, but for now, it's not clear exactly when that will be.
GTA Online is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Sarah is an old-school gamer, and has been an editor and contributor for Game Rant since 2015. Sarah was introduced to the world of gaming via the Atari and original Game Boy. After meeting her first Chocobo in Final Fantasy Adventure, she never looked back. Sarah majored in game design in college and utilizes that knowledge to analyze games for her written content for the site.
