GTA 5 hackers targeting PC players

A new GTA 5 exploit has seen hackers gaining complete control over their victims’ accounts, which can result in players getting banned.

A new exploit for Grand Theft Auto 5 has seen hackers hijacking players’ accounts, messing with their characters, and getting them banned.

The news comes from Twitter user and Rockstar news account Tez1, who was reportedly tipped off by a follower who said that PC players were getting their accounts hacked in the online game thanks to a new exploit.

The exploit reportedly allows hackers to alter players’ characters, change and remove stats, and even outright ban or delete accounts. If affected, there’s reportedly very little a player can do about it, other than hope that Rockstar support can help.

The hacking issue seems to have begun in December, but developer Rockstar Games has yet to acknowledge the problem, leading to its tweet about a Lunar New Year event in the game being flooded by responses from angry fans. The first dozen responses to the tweet have players encouraging others not to risk their accounts by logging in during the event just for a relatively small amount of in-game currency.

GTA 5’s online mode has been a huge success for developer Rockstar, bringing in billions of dollars each year. Picture: Rockstar Games

That’s because there’s no method that seems to exist to avoid getting targeted by the exploit, despite a few supposed fixes floating around on the internet. According to players, anyone who logs into the game could get hacked, and simply logging in is often enough to make your account vulnerable.

Australian web developer and Twitter user Speyedr attempted to create a custom firewall as a temporary workaround, with the thinking being that an extra protection measure could help to keep accounts safe, alongside other measures like playing in a locked session.

Tez2 retweeted Speyedr’s firewall post from December 2022 and recommended using the program, but it didn’t last long. In recent weeks Speyedr said that the firewall didn’t guarantee safety, before removing portions of the program from GitHub and saying that players who incorrectly configured the program could lose access to their accounts or even their PC files.

“In an attempt to dissuade users from going online with a method of Guardian that wouldn’t protect them, I am temporarily hiding access to builds,” Speyedr said, “This exploit is so serious that one wrong setting or action could result in the loss of your account or even your PC files”.

GTA 5’s single player mode was praised for letting players control three different characters. Rockstar Games

Speyedr followed up by saying that they’ll restore access to the program once the most serious aspects of the exploit are patched, but suggests players take a break in the meantime.

Grand Theft Auto is no stranger to hacks. The studio that makes the games, Rockstar Games, was hacked last year, resulting in dozens of videos of Grand Theft Auto 6 leaking. The hack was called by many “the worst leak in gaming history”.

An ad that was using leaked GTA 6 footage was pulled late last year, after publisher Take-Two issued a take-down notice for it. The ad was for Goat Simulator 3, developed by Coffee Stain Studios, who has a long history of mocking other games in its marketing.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.