GTA V exploit let hackers affect single-player games

[midian182]

Why it matters: Despite many attempts to address the issue, cheating is still a widespread problem in Grand Theft Auto V. Many use software to give them an unfair advantage in the game’s popular online multiplayer, but last week saw hackers briefly able to harass people who were enjoying the single-player mode.

In a Reddit post from last Thursday, Twitch streamer ‘FriendlyBaron’ writes that a 'modder' who killed him and some friends earlier in the week also killed him during a solo speedrun on that day. FriendlyBaron shared a video of his character exiting a car before suddenly dying for no obvious reason. The troll was also able to spawn jets into his game.

Other GTA V players reported experiencing similar things. In this Twitch clip, SnowieLive is kicked from an online game by a hacker and is then repeatedly killed in the solo mode.

The ability to mess with people in GTA V’s single-player element comes from a mod menu with the newly found ability to discover someone’s Rockstar Social Club ID. The number can be used with the hacking tool to access admin-only features that affect single-player games. Abilities include: Rockstar admin kick, Network kick, Ragdoll, Fake money correction, Kill, Spawn vehicle, and send crew message.

Rockstar is reported to have patched the vulnerability over the weekend, but the company will likely be embarrassed to see the tight integration between its single and multiplayer modes exploited like this, even if it was only temporarily.

Last week, Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games recently obtained a court order to search the homes of five people who are allegedly connected to the ‘Infamous’ mod menu for GTA Online.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/77055-gta-v-exploit-hackers-affect-single-player-games.html

 

[NahNood]

High-larious!

 

[alabama man]

"but the company will likely be embarrassed"

I don't think they can be embarrassed as the game has been ruined by hackers from day one and their only fix is to add text to the start that they fixed hacking. They are angry/mad about bad PR and lost revenue but they don't care about the players, just the customers (shareholders).

 

[Lemonpopz]

This happened to me as well. I bought the game about 2 weeks ago, and the first day I streamed it I began being hacked like this. The person was spamming racist messages on my screen via crew messages, dropping jets on me. They came into twitch chat and harassed me there as well.

As a new customer to Rockstar, this feels lawsuit worthy. I bought a game that immediately left me feeling compromised, with people threatening to swat me. They leaked my IP address as well. I was in shock that such a major company would have such flawed security on a game that they've been supporting for nearly a decade, that I really feel this is criminal negligence. The company is doing nothing to protect consumers, and I cannot believe what I am seeing from one of the largest game studios. Something needs to be done, regardless of if they slap a bandaid on this or not.

They also impersonated my viewers on in game chat, changing their name to various viewers names and mocked me openly.

As of Tuesday, the last time I attempted to stream this, the exploit was still functional. So despite this article saying it was fixed last weekend, it was not. I have plenty of video evidence as well, if anyone is interested in such clips. You can find me on twitch at the same name.