A GTA Online report has warned PC players that Rockstar Games is trying to fix the security issue, but there might be a compromise to keep playing.
Over this past weekend, a GTA Online report from a reputable Grand Theft Auto insider warned PC players that the new security issue and exploit could lead to accounts being corrupted or blocked. They suggested not playing the game until Rockstar Games could resolve the issue. Those playing on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, or Xbox Series X are safe. However, if players are desperate to play, there are safe alternatives to ensure your account does not get banned.
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The security breach was compared to the one that FromSoftware’s Dark Souls suffered most recently. The GTA Online report was reported by Tez2, which also detailed that the exploit could allow cheaters to remotely modify other’s stats. More specifically, the modder could take away another user’s rank and in-game money, completely reset their account’s progress, or even “corrupt” it in such a way that they are effectively banned from online play.
Twitter user Bulkiboy, showed how they were immediately kicked from their own GTA Online session after turning off their Guardian firewall. Others have demonstrated similar incidents, or would show how the game would not even connect. Tez2 stated that deleting the Rockstar Games folder from My Documents, then launching GTA Online should refresh profile data.
While this could be a good solution for accounts already corrupted, the best advice would be to allow Rockstar Games to fix the game and its online servers. But, the bottom line was that players should be using a firewall (Tez2 recommended Speyder’s tool, Guardian) to play the game to avoid the risk of their account getting hacked.
The Guardian developer has temporarily removed its files from GitHub, and warned that users do not use the service as many users may not know how to properly use it. They also mentioned how it was still a risk and that players should avoid playing GTA Online on PC altogether.
On Reddit, the GTA Online community made a pinned post that included the necessary links to mass-report the issue to the developer. The pinned post stated, “It is not safe to play the game on PC right now due to a very dangerous exploit that has just come to light. Neither invite only or possibly Story Mode are safe.” There were even some posts on the thread that advised players to avoid all Rockstar Games accounts to be safe, such as not playing Red Dead Redemption 2 either.
Overall, the consensus on how to play GTA Online would be to not play it on PC at all. But, maybe players can still enjoy it on consoles. Time will tell how Rockstar Games decides to deal with the situation, and if it will take a few months to fix like Dark Souls did.
