Rockstar Games has released a Title Update forGrand Theft Auto Onlinewhich aims to improve security for the game and eliminate a potentially ruinous exploit. Members of theGTA Onlinecommunity have been sounding the alarm regarding a newly discovered security flaw that enables hackers to access the PCs of other players.GTA Onlineis no stranger to hackers, and neither are the developers of the incredibly popular multiplayer mode forGrand Theft Auto 5. Rockstar suffered a severe network intrusion several months ago which saw in-development footage ofGrand Theft Auto 6leak, one of the most anticipated games of all time. Although the third-party attack allegedly did not impact any live services or the production ofGTA 6, a remote code execution (RCE) exploit hasrecently been wreaking havoc withGTA Online’s servers, allowing hackers to alter a variety of attributes and corrupt user data.RELATED:GTA Trilogy Launches on Steam and is Steam Deck VerifiedRockstar commented on the exploitshortly after it made headlines, merely stating that it was aware of the issue and would seek to release a patch soon.GTA 5Title Update 1.66 is described by the Rockstar Support Twitter account to be a security-focused patch that is now available on PC. The patch notes relevant to security include two bullet points, with the first about a new data protocol added toGTA Onlinewhich should “improve the security of network sessions” and messages sent between players.
The second point directly addresses the exploit and notes that the issue whereby a third party could modify in-game stats, such as GTA$ balance, RP level, and Bad Sport status, has been fixed. Replies to the announcement on Twitter were full of fans still concerned about security risks, questioning why it took nearly two weeks for a patch to arrive. It is unsurprising that playerswould be wary ofGTA Online’s reliabilityseeing as only last December yet another exploit was making the rounds, capable of crashing game sessions even during single-player.
But even the prevalence of hackers has not discouragedGTAfans entirely, some of whom are convinced that the next entry into the franchise is finished and in the final stage of development. Then again,speculation regardingGTA 6has been at its highest point ever since Rockstar officially confirmed its existence last February.
Grand Theft Auto Onlineis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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