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Grand Theft Auto Online is currently under threat from serious security vulnerabilities, and a fix from Rockstar is still being worked on. The issue was highlighted by fans on social media, and was first shared by Tez2, a Twitter account that reports updates on Rockstar titles. The tweet was reported on by other content creators, and finally drew comment from Rockstar themselves.
The original tweet reads: “New extreme exploits have appeared allowing cheaters to remotely add/remove/moldify your stats and permanently corrupt your account aka ban/delete. Avoiding playing without a firewall rule or playing at all!”
#GTAOnline PC High Alert⚠️
— Tez2 (@TezFunz2) January 20, 2023
New extreme exploits have appeared allowing cheaters to remotely add/remove/modify your stats and permanently corrupt your account aka ban/delete.
Avoid playing without a firewall rule or playing at all!
Thanks to @HarryGotTaken for notifying. pic.twitter.com/tyh4tCInML
This is not the first security vulnerability to afflict GTA Online, nor is it the only problem the MMO is currently experiencing. Other community creators took the opportunity to highlight long-standing bugs, exploits, and hacks that are relatively easy for bad actors to access and execute. This includes invulnerability via God modes, a glitch that removes the cooldown on the powerful orbital cannon strike, and other ways to harass fellow players.
Rockstar released a tweet stating they intend to resolve these issues in a security-related update. There is no timeframe on when this update will arrive.
We are aware of potential new exploits in GTA Online for PC, which we aim to resolve in an upcoming planned security-related Title Update.
— Rockstar Support (@RockstarSupport) January 23, 2023
If you think you might have experienced any related issues, please reach out to Rockstar Support: https://t.co/Yqqj0SEDwa
GTA Online is a fun and bombastic crime sandbox, and Rockstar updated the game over the summer of 2022 to allow users to complete their business missions in private lobbies, which affords some measure of protection from hackers and bad agents. But the game continually struggles due to its online infrastructure (or lack thereof). Rockstar has recently added a taxi business and acid deals to the game, so there’s plenty of content to enjoy. Unfortunately, hell is other people, and the continual hacking and exploiting means that the game is currently a gamble.