GTA Online Glitch Exploited, Corrupts Players’ Accounts & Ban

By   Adeola Adegunwa
Writer , Informationsecuritybuzz | Jan 24, 2023 01:53 am PST

Due to an alleged bug in the game’s PC version, Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Online gamers claim to have lost game progress, had their in-game money taken, and been blacklisted from the game servers. GTA Online is the multiplayer version of the well-known Rockstar Games action-adventure game franchise. It was first made available in October 2013 and received free content updates.

The creator of the Grand Theft Auto V cheat, known as “North,” reportedly took use of a new “remote code execution” weakness in the Online PC game client to remotely change player account attributes (such as zeroing their money amount), corrupt accounts, and even ban people from the game.

Everybody is vulnerable to attacks as long as they are online, according to user reports about the exploit, even gamers who are not in the same multiplayer lobby as the attackers. The North GTA Online cheat maker implemented these new cheats, according to a changelog “features as part of the release of version 2.0.0 on January 20th, 2023.

This purported vulnerability has a CVE and is tracked as CVE-2023-24059. On January 21, the North GTA Online trick’s creators deleted these malicious capabilities after issuing an apology for the mayhem they had brought about. 

The North cheat has a changelog that says, “Removed badsport/corrupt account for players (bad judgement on my side for adding this public).” Removed taking money from players (I made a mistake by adding this public),

Unfortunately, the change is too late; the problem has already impacted many players. Since the cheat’s debut, user reports of account issues have been pouring into the Rockstar Games support boards.

Playing On A PC Is Not Secured

Although Rockstar Games has not yet released a formal statement on the subject, developers and industry professionals, contend that the issue is a “partial remote code execution” flaw. That has the potential to jeopardize the security of GTA Online accounts and that of the computer itself.

The game should be played with a firewall restriction, or better yet, not at all, according to Twitter user Tez2, who frequently follows Rockstar Games. Removing the “Rockstar Games” folder from the Windows Documents folder and reloading the game to update profile data appear to be temporary fixes for corrupted accounts that have worked for some users.

The makers of the GTA V firewall tool “Guardian,” Speyer, have issued a warning that attackers are about to discover a complete remote code execution pathway for the recently discovered flaws. Speyer cautioned Windows users not to play the game until the flaw was resolved and suggested that Guardian be set up correctly to safeguard players against the exploit.

To reassure everyone, Guardian is still functional, and this new vulnerability does not somehow get around Guardian, wrote Speyedr in a tweet. But for such a risky exploit, it’s very likely that any user, especially a novice, will configure Guardian in a way that doesn’t shield them.”

If you have made a lot of advancements or spent a lot of money on the PC version of the game, it might be wise to wait until Rockstar Games has published an official patch to fix the issues.

Top Reasons For Ban In GTA Online

Millions of players log into GTA Online every day, making it possibly the most popular game in recent memory. As more people join the fan army daily, monitoring every user becomes practically impossible, and hackers sometimes take advantage of this.

  • Using Mod menus

In GTA Online, using mods is severely prohibited. This makes sense, given that mods can affect how the game functions. In addition, cheaters are the only ones that typically modify online games. They access game cheat-like features through mod menus. Take-Two only recently used legal ways to remove a well-liked mod menu for RDR2 and GTA Online.

  • Finding and using bugs

Additionally, Rockstar bans players who abuse any game-related bugs. Any automobile duplication or money multiplication bugs fall under this category. Despite the fact that some players have gotten away with it, many continue to face the possibility of being banned.

  • Hacking into game data

Players who hack the game in GTA Online are the most obnoxious. Although some players actively hack the game, mod menus accomplish this automatically. But for both infractions, the penalty is the same.

  • Toxic conduct

Players must communicate with one another when playing multiplayer games. On chat, this can frequently result in tense situations. Voice and text chat are both available in GTA Online. If toxic behavior by players is reported, such as harassing others through their messages, they risk being banned. Additionally, it depends on how severe the messages are and how Rockstar handles them.

  • Harassment

Nothing in GTA Online is more annoying than running into griefers. These gamers murder other players’ characters as a form of harassment. Low-level players, the griefers’ primary targets, operate in free-roaming lobbies. The majority of them do this to improve their kill-to-death ratio (K/D). However, others do it for amusement and prey on those who are on freight missions.

Conclusion

According to reports, a problem in Grand Theft Auto V Online is endangering PC players’ gameplay and possibly even their hardware. The issue purportedly enables cheaters and modders to control, alter, or corrupt the account data of PC gamers. Some users claim that their whole history of gameplay and account data has been deleted, while others claim that their in-game money has been taken. Worse still, the flaw apparently enables “partial remote code execution.” Which would let hackers change player PC data. While Rockstar Games, the company that publishes GTA, hasn’t yet made an official statement regarding the matter, several commentators have urged PC users to hold off on playing the game until everyone has a clearer understanding of what’s going on.

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David Maynor
David Maynor , Senior Director of Threat Intelligence
InfoSec Expert
January 24, 2023 5:11 pm

“People like to make believe they are gangstas till real gangstas target your game server. The world of online gaming is far more complex than most people think. GTA Online has specific 3rd party firewall tools to stop shady players, but it can’t stop this attack.

“You know it’s bad when some recommendations are to not play the game at all. Basically, don’t go to San Andreas (the fictional GTA Online city) or you will get robbed.”

Last edited 3 months ago by david.maynor

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