Rockstar has now addressed the security vulnerabilities in GTA on PC with title update 1.66.

[Uttamattamakin]

Summary

Basically, and in short simple oversimplified terms they mess with your save game data and character data that is in the cloud.  Effects the data stored on your computer and can in some cases effect the data stored in the cloud.  This can be done even if they are not in the same session with you.   RockstarSupport has now acknowledged the exploits and their seriousness.  So far the only help is for them to try and make you whole (not necessarily restore your data to how it was before).   See last post for more information which is not "official news" by a third party but is credible. 

 

Quotes

 

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If you think a modder has to join your session to do this, THINK AGAIN.   Because they can literally just do it from another F***1ing website on the internet without even lifting a finger.  They can sit their fat ass, leaning back on their couch, watching their dumb anime shows because you insulted their mom.  It's really that simple. 

 

Rockstarintel.com now reports on this. 

https://rockstarintel.com/new-gta-online-exploit-now-lets-cheaters-to-ban-your-account

 

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A credible source within the community known as Tez2 has reported that hackers can now delete and ban peoples online profiles on PC.

 

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/gta-5-online-pc-report/

 

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How this has been allowed to happen, we don't know, but as you may know, this isn't the first security issue that has plagued the game, which is riddled with hackers and cheaters no matter how many ban waves Rockstar Games issues. And as you may know, during the holiday season, and for a few weeks after, these issues always worsen, presumably because fewer developers are working on the game due to breaks.

 

 

UPDATE 3

According to PC Gamer magazine. 

Quote

One user on Twitter, @Bulkiboy(opens in new tab), demonstrated being immediately kicked from their own GTA Online session after unlocking their Guardian firewall. Another, @Fluuffball(opens in new tab), showed off gameplay from a purportedly "corrupted" account. Whenever connecting to GTA Online, the camera would zoom up into the air and just stay there, never connecting to the game.

 

 

My thoughts

This is not just the usual remote crash or making your game do strange things.  Blowing you up at random.  No.  This is going after your player ranks, Unlocks (achievements? purchases?), putting you in badsport with the worst of the worst miscreants and prevents you from doing any game modes, takes your in game money or gives you money which R* will delete an account that spends it, etc.  Basically, and in short simple oversimplified terms they mess with your save game. 

I think what GTA men said is about right.  Maybe wait and see if Rockstar will take care of this one.  Hopefully not being logged in will be enough to avoid this issue.   When it comes to an online game that relies on cloud servers there is really no way to protect yourself against this that I can think of.   Unlike other recent events this one effects a very popular game and a large portion of gamers.  GTA is so many different games it is a great PVP, PVE, action adventure, golf, and flight simulator where you can gamble go to a strip club and be naughty.  You can play modes that are like Rocket league or dominate the map with a submarine. 

 

Now if you want all the technical details and want all the caveats etc etc please see the nice links below.  What more can you ask for at the price of free? 

 

UPDATE a possible fix for this  This sounds credible to me knowing how GTA online works.  IT is a mixture of P2P and also RockStar Games hosted servers.  So if you delete the files from your computer and download everything new from Rockstar's servers your data will be clean.  At least until another modder corrupts your data.   That said, there are reports that this does not fix it in some cases even with a full install.  So it lies somewhere in what the modders have done in detail, and how GTA online works.   
 

One thing to note in this thread here if you go to it there is a claim from someone who is  or claims to be a modder, and claims to have removed the version of their mod menu that allowed this.  They also claim to have created a program to fix the corrupted files.  PLEASE do not download and run software from an admitted bad actor claiming to be doing something out of their kindness to run it on your computer.  This is what is known as social engieering and is the most powerful term "hackers" use to gain unauthorized access to data. 

 

My opinion on this is do not run this game GTA online until there is an all clear from Rockstar Games or at least reputable community sources saying that this is really fixed.  Rockstar has a habit of not fixing things until they are.  Don't like my advice hear it from someordinarygamers. 

 

Sources

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LVmrMim8to --GTAmen's video
//twitter.com/TezFunz2/status/1616575783215964166?s=20&t=2PNO5L_LaZGPoXzLeWKHyw  --Fun2's tweet

More "reptuable" sources that a youtube channel.  You know because you can never trust those bounders. 

 

https://rockstarintel.com/new-gta-online-exploit-now-lets-cheaters-to-ban-your-account

 

https://www.pcgamer.com/grand-theft-auto-online-has-its-own-dark-souls-style-critical-security-vulnerability-on-pc/

 

 GTAmen's community and Tez2 are both very reliable sources of information on GTA.  Fun2 is an insider whose info has never been wrong usually debunking rumors.  Plus he has the receipts

Edited January 24, 2023 by Uttamattamakin
Added a source from PC Gamer and also Rockstar Support.

[Uttamattamakin]

NOTE: According to the person who posted a possible fix that fix does not really work for this unless it is done just right.  

[da na]

Oh jeez, wow. Looks like I'll stay away from GTA Online for the next few days.

Unrelated, I've noticed a serious influx of hackers lately. Every game I joined yesterday had at least one invincible person who didn't die to multiple tank shots or someone who teleported around the map crashing people's games, et cetera. Even more than the usual number of hackers.

[Uttamattamakin]

<redacted>

Anyway  Things have progressed.  

 

 

Whether you call this news or not this is something gamers need to be aware of.   It seems that they are not merely going after cloud stored data but also going after execution of remote code on your PC.   

 

14 hours ago, Mel0n. said:

Oh jeez, wow. Looks like I'll stay away from GTA Online for the next few days.

At least until their is official word from R* games.  Hopefully the wise will act now instead of after they loose their characters. 

 

14 hours ago, Mel0n. said:

Unrelated, I've noticed a serious influx of hackers lately. Every game I joined yesterday had at least one invincible person who didn't die to multiple tank shots or someone who teleported around the map crashing people's games, et cetera. Even more than the usual number of hackers.

I've noticed being crashed out a lot in GTA online.  A semi full lobby might be stable for a brief period before someone with a mod menu will crash it all.    When it was people more or less ruining the fun for us it was just annoying.  Now trying to nuke a persons character and go after their PC outside the game that's ... basically at some point the game itself is to blame.  That should  not be possible in a well crafted game. 

Edited January 21, 2023 by SansVarnic
Removed content.

[da na]

1 minute ago, Uttamattamakin said:

That's fair.  It can be hard to know I mean one is a youtube channel that is well regarded among GTA players on PC. 

Anyway  Things have progressed.  

 

 

Whether you call this news or not this is something gamers need to be aware of.   It seems that they are not merely going after cloud stored data but also going after execution of remote code on your PC.   

 

At least until their is official word from R* games.  Hopefully the wise will act now instead of after they loose their characters. 

 

I've noticed being crashed out a lot in GTA online.  A semi full lobby might be stable for a brief period before someone with a mod menu will crash it all.    When it was people more or less ruining the fun for us it was just annoying.  Now trying to nuke a persons character and go after their PC outside the game that's ... basically at some point the game itself is to blame.  That should  not be possible in a well crafted game. 

Yeah, R* is certainly to blame for a lot of this. I love the goofy fun that can be had, but jeez public lobbies can be annoying.

[Uttamattamakin]

Just giving more information on this situation.  Bear in mind things like this tend to evolve and the picture changes.  I am trying to focus on my real life need to write and rewrite my syllabi for the semester.    Which is boring and I write here to distract from that.  

That said this is a cross town bus headed right for a lot of gamers.  Gamers are the demo that will be my students soon enough and I'd like them to not loose their data because someone can't take being outmatched in a  PVP situation on a game....or really just because. 

It appears there is a fix but it is not really a fix.   

 

Consider that someordinarygamers who runs a system similar to mine (same mobo even) to run windows in a VM for utmost security won't even try it. 

 

Rockstar's actions on this and so much with GTA have more less made me agree with Johnny Silverhand about corporations.  They make Arasaka and Millitech look good. 

Ok Have fun everyone. Stay safe. 

[Uttamattamakin]

Well you know when GTA online has lost MR Boss FTW has said to not play GTA online that things have to be serious.    The problem with things like Giving you more rank or money is that if you are a clean player R* will ban you for life if you have modded money.    There are some reports of this partial Remote Code Execution resulting in some hackers getting full control of a players PC.   Of course this is not confirmed but on things like this it is best IMHO to err on the side of caution. 
 

Your whole life may be on your PC.  Keep an eye on this situation as it evolves.  Play something else.   Do the things you should be doing all the time to maintain backups of your data. At some point GTA will be patched to correct this.  We hope.  Rockstar has a history of only caring about exploits and glitches that get you money. 

[Jerakl]

I'm honestly amazed that 

 

1. Gta online is still up

2. People still play it

 

 

[Uttamattamakin]

NOT a full final ANSWER,  The Game is not patched to fix it.  However, if you want to take the risk there are options.  I don't recommend them though.

 

18 hours ago, Jerakl said:

I'm honestly amazed that 

 

1. Gta online is still up

It makes Rockstar games like a billion dollars a year. 

18 hours ago, Jerakl said:

2. People still play it

It's one game where you can race, do PVP  Real Time Shooter, vehicle races, demolitions, interesting missions, flight simulation, gambling, go to a strip club,  drive a submarine ...  Get GTA and you have a place to do all kinds of gaming. 

Anyway there is a "ANSWER" of sorts to this.   Not really though.  The final answer will be for Rockstar to fix the vulnerabilities in the game and in Rockstar Launcher.   THey have not done this.  However they are logging changed accounts so they could be able to undo the damage.  That said people effected report this is not the case.  Rockstar Launcher is the program that launches GTA.  I have seen all kinds of claims for what has been done with this.  From "it just runs scripts" to a claim that some modder was able to launch a VNC or session and use their calculator.  (In that situation such software must've been installed and in place already.  

Here is a video from an effected user trying to get back into their account.   So people can see what the result is.  Also note this effects single player too.     Play something else for now.  I know the very concept that computers get hacked, is scary "scaremongering" to some people.  Be vigilant not alarmed. 

 

The only thing that worked was installing a mod menu themselves. Looking up the menu they installed, while there is a free teir to really be protected from all the exploits cost 50 Eddies.  Then there is the big security issue of installing modding/hacking software made by a modder/hacker.    IMHO just play something else for now. 

Edited January 25, 2023 by Uttamattamakin
I was going to call this an "answer" but that gives the impression of being an all clear.

[suicidalfranco]

On 1/25/2023 at 4:34 PM, Uttamattamakin said:

IMHO just play something else for now. 

Imho just stop giving R* your money and finding excuses for them like this one

On 1/25/2023 at 4:34 PM, Uttamattamakin said:

It's one game where you can race, do PVP  Real Time Shooter, vehicle races, demolitions, interesting missions, flight simulation, gambling, go to a strip club,  drive a submarine ...  Get GTA and you have a place to do all kinds of gaming. 

But then again gamers as a whole have the backbone of a jellyfish

[Jerakl]

2 hours ago, suicidalfranco said:

Imho just stop giving R* your money and finding excuses for them like this one

But then again gamers as a whole have the backbone of a jellyfish

The amount of times I've heard g*mers rant about "voting with your wallet" and then proceed to buy and play the exact game/give the company money that caused the rant is too high for me to count tbh

[Uttamattamakin]

The answer for now is Rockstar is Aware and working on a fix but this IS NOT FIXED.  They are going to do it as part of a "security related title update".   Why they don't just patch this ASAP I don't know.  Based on their own communications a title update could mean the summer update with gaming content related to security.  Like they plan to market around this?  See more to see why I write this.  

 

On 1/26/2023 at 4:41 PM, Jerakl said:

The amount of times I've heard g*mers rant about "voting with your wallet" and then proceed to buy and play the exact game/give the company money that caused the rant is too high for me to count tbh

Meanwhilte Rockstar has released drip feed content for GTA online but seems to have no urgency about fixing this issue.    They say they will fix it in a security related title update.  This pair of tweets gives an idea of what they mean by a "title update". 

 

I hope they mean a title as in "Urgent security patch 1.65"  that they push out ASAP.  Historically a "title update" has meant releasing new titled content like the Cayo Perico Heist, or The Casino Heist, and so on.  These are released on a time line of about every sixh months.  One around the 4th of July and another around Christmas. 

The final resolution of this issue will take months.  For now I personally would not recommed playing this game on PC.  Streamers who stream it on PC have abandoned the platform for consoles.    If like them you use your computer to make money, or to manage money, or have data that is just valuable to you don't risk it.  This vulnerability opens a crack in a door and effects a game.  It may never be more than that, or it could be much more.  Don't risk being the case that lets us know it is a worse situation.    Play other games. 

[Uttamattamakin]

Rockstar has implemented a fix for this.  This updates the version number from 1.64 to 1.66.  and addresses the security vulnerabilities  on PC that have been used by some modders to compromise players computers. 

https://support.rockstargames.com/articles/13577231779475/GTAV-Title-Update-1-66-Notes-PC

 

Based on Rockstars past behavior the extreme backlash they got over continuing business as usual, releasing FOMO content to entice people to join when the game is so broken it can effect your computer more broadly, is part of why they acted so fast.  

At any rate it is now apparently all clear to play GTA

[Donut417]

On 1/24/2023 at 4:56 PM, Jerakl said:

I'm honestly amazed that 

 

1. Gta online is still up

2. People still play it

 

 

It’s still fun. We used to play it for a time, me and two buddies. They implemented private rooms, so you could do missions without getting screwed over. Had tons of fun doing races. To be clear we did NOT buy any shark cards, just played to have fun. 

[Quackers101]

its not "all clear", but improved.

As SomeOrdinaryGamers and others point out, if this is an peer to peer relay system they are using now?

But there can always be some leaks or relay issues. Also those remote hacking issues might exist in other MMOs or online titles or older titles too.

very hard to know which ones are patched or solved some of those issues.

From SomeOrdinaryGamers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYpftUYRrug

 

[Uttamattamakin]

3 hours ago, Quackers101 said:

its not "all clear", but improved.

As SomeOrdinaryGamers and others point out, if this is an peer to peer relay system they are using now?

But there can always be some leaks or relay issues. Also those remote hacking issues might exist in other MMOs or online titles or older titles too.

very hard to know which ones are patched or solved some of those issues.

From SomeOrdinaryGamers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYpftUYRrug

 

It's about as all clear as GTA online gets.  

Kinda like the all clear signal after a nuclear exchange.  Things are still pretty radioactive but MUCH improved.