Tag Archives: Grand Theft Auto

Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto Online Has a Serious Security Bug for PC Users

Photo: Sergei Elagin (Shutterstock)

Reports indicate that a bug in Grand Theft Auto V Online is putting PC gamers’ gameplay—and even, potentially, hardware—at risk.

The bug is allegedly allowing cheaters and modders to hijack, edit, or corrupt PC gamers account information. Some players report having all of their gameplay and account data erased, while others have said that their in-game currency has been stolen. Worse, the bug allegedly allows for “partial remote code execution,” which could allow malicious users to edit players PC files. While GTA’s publisher, Rockstar Games, hasn’t officially commented on the situation yet, many commentators have encouraged PC players to refrain from playing the game until we all have a better picture of what’s going on.

News of the troubles first started popping up in various pockets of the internet over the weekend, with one particular observer, the twitter account Tez2 (which regularly updates about Rockstar news), posting extensively about the exploit. Complaints also exploded in Rockstar’s official support forums.

“Gta online on pc is currently unplayable due to severe exploits, this needs to be fixed,” one user posted.

“Scared to play online,” another commented. “Please fix this rockstar, I really like this game.”

Another merely said: “GET YOUR *** TOGETHER ROCKSTAR!”

Meanwhile, a subreddit devoted to the game has called for players to avoid the game until further notice. “As we’ve learned it is not safe to play the game on PC right now due to a very dangerous exploit that has just come to light,” reads a pinned post shared in the subreddit. “We need to mass-report this to Rockstar so they can’t ignore it.”

On the same subreddit, users have expressed frustration that Rockstar hasn’t addressed—or even confirmed—the security issue yet: “Absolutely the most unforgivable element of this. R* is more concerned with bad press than telling people the extent to which their game has been breached and what danger it poses to their personal information,” commented one user. “It really makes me think the worst, if they can’t even come out and say X is safe for now.”

Tez2, which has been monitoring the situation, has written that “Rockstar is aware [of the problem] and have been logging any affected account before the first mod menu started abusing the new exploits.” However, the company itself hasn’t published an official statement on the issue yet.

BleepingComputer has reported that the vulnerability associated with the exploit has already accrued an official CVE designation and is being tracked as CVE-2023-24059. The CVE describes the bug as allowing a hacker to “achieve partial remote code execution or modify files on a PC.” There aren’t a whole lot of details available about how the exploit is supposed to work, however.

Gizmodo reached out to Rockstar for comment on the apparent security problems but have not heard back. We will update this story if they respond.

If the bug does turn out to be real, it would be far from the first bit of security trouble that Rockstar has been through lately. Last year, a cybercriminal managed to compromise the gaming giant’s systems and proceeded to steal (and later leak) source code to the upcoming GTA 6.



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GTA 6’s Massive Leak Makes It Hard To Play GTA Online In 2023

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – 2002
Screenshot: Rockstar Games

Last year, footage of the next Grand Theft Auto—assumed to be GTA 6—leaked online. While Rockstar quickly tried to erase the videos from the internet and plug the holes in the ship, it was impossible to completely contain such a massive, unprecedented leak. So fans around the world got a very good look at the future of Grand Theft Auto. And now myself and others find it hard to go back to the aging GTA Online.

Late on September 19, 2022, 90 short videos of early gameplay of what would later be confirmed by Rockstar as the next GTA entry leaked online via a hacker. The footage revealed a lot about the next game in the massively popular open-world franchise, including that the series would be returning to Vice City, Florida, a fan-favorite location last seen in GTA: Vice City Stories, the prequel to the beloved PS2 classic, GTA: Vice City. It also gave us a good look at the new protagonists of this next criminal adventure and some of the missions we might experience when GTA 6 is eventually released. Fans even began mapping out the game’s virtual world using the leaks.

Rockstar undoubtedly hates the leak and likely wishes it could rewind time and prevent it from ever happening at all, but it did end up revitalizing the playerbase. For the first time in a long time, there was excitement and energy in the GTA community, which after years of GTA Online updates and poorly received remasters was in a pretty bad place prior to the leak. Even an early, unfinished or unpolished leak of GTA 6 was better than radio silence and glitchy remasters. People were pumped and hyped about the future of Grand Theft Auto in a way I hadn’t seen in years.

But then, once the leaks were scrubbed from the web and it became clear Rockstar wasn’t going to release any official teaser or trailer to capitalize on the moment, all I and other GTA fans could do was go back to GTA Online. And that’s harder to do now that I’ve seen the future.

Rockstar Games

The latest big and free expansion to GTA Online, Los Santos Drug Wars, was released late last year at a really bad time for me to play and cover it for the site. So I just…didn’t play it. For the first time ever in the history of GTA Online, I skipped a new update completely. I’ve still not played it. At first, I blamed my skipping of the latest update on bad timing and a busy schedule due to holidays and end-of-the-year content. But now, weeks removed from all that, with more free time to play stuff, I’ve still not fired up the new update. And I think it’s time to admit to myself that my growing burnout around GTA Online was increased greatly by that small taste of what’s to come. That look at the future of GTA in Florida ruined me.

I could go back and drive around the same highways and streets of Los Santos I’ve been cruising around since 2013. I could fire up the game and check out the newest business and missions connected to it. I could, sure. The thing is, I don’t know if I want to. I mean, eventually, I will play more GTA Online. I sort of have to as it’s part of my job here at Kotaku. Yet, if it wasn’t part of my career there’s a real chance that I might just never play GTA Online again.

To be clear: It’s not because GTA Online is worse today than it was a decade ago—it’s actually much better to play in 2023 than in 2013—but because getting a glimpse of a fresh new world has killed my desire to boot up the same old Los Santos after a decade of GTA Online and GTA V. I mean, just having new songs on the radio will be amazing. I love Queen’s “Radio Ga-Ga” but you can only hear it so many times in 10 years before you’re ready for new tunes, too.

At this point, I’m hoping the wait for Grand Theft Auto 6 and its sunny beaches, palm trees, and new characters isn’t too much longer, because I’m ready to leave Los Santos behind for a tropical vacation to Vice City.

 

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NFL’s Best Team Plays A Lot Of GTA Online Roleplay Together

Photo: Mitchell Leff (Getty Images)

The Philadelphia Eagles currently have the best record in the NFL, with 10 wins and only a single loss. And while you might expect this great record is the result of hard work, lots of practice, talented players, and some luck, you might be surprised to discover that Grand Theft Auto and online roleplaying are also a potential part of the team’s successful season.

Grand Theft Auto V is a very, very popular open-world video game that has been released on nearly as many consoles as Skyrim at this point. It also has a large online mode that is still—nearly a decade after its 2013 release—one of the most played games in the world. But, for many players, GTA Online isn’t the multiplayer experience they crave. Instead, players have flocked to modified versions of GTA V to play online in roleplay servers. These mods and fan-run servers allow people to roleplay together as cops, EMTs, firefighters, criminals, taxi drivers, and more. And it’s this specific type of online GTA experience—which Rockstar Games doesn’t regulate or control as tightly—that many Philadelphia Eagles team members are playing when off the field.

As reported by The New York Times, many Eagles players get excited to hop online and play with other team members after spending hours watching past games, studying, practicing, and weightlifting. For many, this offers them the chance to stop being NFL players and to be someone totally different. It also helps players in different positions, who don’t normally spend much time together, bond more, developing closer friendships that Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson says is the team’s “secret sauce.” He also runs one of the team’s own GTA roleplay servers from his basement, where he has a gaming PC setup that cost him $10,000.

Read More: NFL Linebacker Retires After Selling Rare Pokémon Card For Over $650,000

Other players told the Times that after playing GTA together online, they are all more connected and happier for each other, leading to players wanting to do more for each other on the field. For many Eagles, playing Grand Theft Auto with fellow teammates fits perfectly into their schedule, too.

“A lot of people, especially me, are just at home doing nothing,” Eagles running back Miles Sanders said. “Since I’ve got my PC, I’ve been on the game more and calling people more.” Other Eagles teammates who play GTA with each other include defensive players Darius Slay, Avonte Maddox, linebacker Stewart Bradley, and running back Miles Sanders. In fact, according to The New York Times story, Sander’s GTA character was stuck in prison on Gardner-Johnson’s server earlier in the season. Some players, like running back Kenneth Gainwell even stream themselves playing GTA on Twitch for hours at a time.

Not only has roleplaying together in modded GTA servers helped players connect more, but it also offers them more things to talk about off the field beyond football. And for players like Gardner-Johnson, it’s all they want to do after working hard all day.

“I just want to play football, come home, and play video games,” said Gardner Johnson.

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GTA V Requires You Kill At Least 96 People To Beat It

Image: Rockstar North

Matthew Judge, or Twitch streamer and YouTube creator DarkViperAU, has been working on his “pacifist run” of GTA V for three years. You might know “pacifism” as abhorring all violence, but pacifist video game runs have a more Machiavellian approach to world peace: It’s okay to kill, as long as the killing is a bare-bones necessity to completing the game.

Under this generous interpretation of pacifism, Judge carefully completed his non-violent violent playthrough of one of the most depraved, stupidly bloody games ever made. Now any squeamish GTA V player knows the truth: To make it through to the game’s end, without using any cheats or mods, you need to kill at least 96 people.

That’s still a lot of people. What about those 96 people’s friends and families, you say, who walk like there is a lobster attached to the seat of their pants? Well, they’ll just have to keep walking. Compared to a Reddit user’s 2021 estimation that you have to kill “at least 726 people” (Judge called this Redditor an “idiot” in a 2021 video), 96 murders is holy work.

He was able to accomplish the feat primarily by hoping that NPCs and environmental elements—I’m counting the game’s many flying bullets and tank missiles as environmental—would find the right home. He hid to avoid taking those bullets himself, crawled around to avoid aggravating the wrong characters, and performed painstaking experimentation. At one point, Judge says he waited “eons” finding a way to get a murder-required NPC to drive, repeatedly, into the ocean and take enough damage to die on his own.

“In 15 minutes, I had only managed to get them into the ocean twice, and I had no idea how many times I had to do it,” he said.

While 15 minutes may not exactly be “eons,” it does add up. In the end, Judge says he filmed 1,000 hours of pacifist run footage. While his total of 96 proves you don’t necessarily need to be cold-blooded to play GTA V, those 1,000 hours tell me you’re better off trying to learn how to knit or something.

 

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17-Year-Old Suspected GTA 6 Leaker Has Been Arrested

Image: Rockstar Games

Today, London City Police announced they had arrested a 17-year-old from Oxfordshire Thursday evening. While the police have yet to confirm why, it’s been reported that the teen was arrested in connection with the recent Uber and Grand Theft Auto VI leaks. The suspect remains in City Police custody at this time.

As reported by The Desk and reporter Matthew Keys, the arrest of the suspected 17-year-old GTA hacker by police in the United Kingdom was part of an investigation being conducted by the FBI and the UK’s Cyber Crime Unit. It had previously been reported that the FBI was likely looking into the recent hacks at Uber and Rockstar Games.

A source told The Desk that the teenager is being held on numerous charges, including conspiracy to attack at least two different computer systems.

It’s believed that the teenage hacker arrested Thursday evening in Oxfordshire is connected to the hacker group “Laspus$.” This group of hackers is allegedly also involved with high-profile digital intrusions at other large companies including Uber, Microsoft, Cisco, Samsung, Nvidia, and Okta. The group first showed up in 2021, hacking Brazil’s Ministry of Health. It was thought the group had gone inactive, but earlier this month it allegedly ramped up its activities again and targeted Uber and Rockstar Games.

The Grand Theft Auto VI leak that occurred over the weekend was one of the largest video game leaks in history. 90 video files showcasing early development footage of the next GTA game, which is assumed to be GTA VI, were posted on the GTA Forums and quickly spread across the internet. The footage seemed to confirm previous reports and rumors that GTA VI would be set in Vice City and would star two different characters, a Bonnie-and-Clyde-like criminal couple.

On Monday, September 19, following the leak, Rockstar Games confirmed that someone had “illegally” gained access to its files and shared them online. It also stated that this leak would not slow down production on the game and that it planned to reveal it in a more official way soon.

  



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Saints Row CEO Sounds Disappointed About New Reboot’s Sales

Image: Deep Silver

While digital and physical sales of the Saints Row reboot hit a strong second place in both American and European markets, the open-world crime sim was denied first place by Madden NFL 23 and Grand Theft Auto V, respectively. While second place isn’t bad, the Saints Row reboot has actually been a bit of a flop, at least as far as Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors is concerned.

As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, 7.7 million games sold in tracked European territories during the month of August, and 2013’s Grand Theft Auto V lead the pack. Saints Row came in at second, sandwiched between Rockstar’s god-tier mega hit and FIFA 22. And in the States, Video Game Chronicle has the NPD stats, showing the crime reboot losing out to Madden NFL 23. Quite a duo: Madden NFL 23 had disastrous reviews, and GTA V came out (exhales) nine years ago.

To be fair, Saints Row didn’t launch until August 23, while GTA V was of course available during the entire month. (Madden came out on August 19.) But Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors seems pretty down on its performance, too. Axios’ Stephen Totilo reports that during an investor call today, Wingefors described the crime-sim reboot as “one of the harder ones” for the company to see a return on. He’s hoping to see a “greater reception” on the game and that, while it certainly won over some players, many others haven’t been convinced.

It wasn’t all gloom and doom, however. Wingefors stressed that the company needs to “wait until the quarterly report in November to have more details.” Responding to inquiries about the future of the franchise, Wingefors highlighted his trust in those working on the game and said that any potential decisions are uncertain for now.

2022’s Saints Row, a reboot of the long-running open-world crime series, has been fighting an uphill battle since its somewhat polarizing reveal last year. Though the series has always played second fiddle to the GTA titan, its reappearance hasn’t been terribly well received by critics and fans alike, though Kotaku’s Zack Zwiezen found it a fun-enough time.

It’s one thing to contemplate what a modern Saints Row would need to look like and achieve in order to be as popular with gamers as it once was; it’s another to consider how anything at this point could unseat something that remains as remarkably popular as Grand Theft Auto V. Aside, that is, from its recently-leaked-to-all-hell sequel.



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Huge Grand Theft Auto 6 Leak Shows Woman Lead Driving, Shooting

Image: Rockstar Games

A user on GTAForums, who claims to have also been behind the recent hack of Uber, has just dumped nearly 100 videos online claiming to show development footage of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto VI, which are currently circulating across pretty much every social media platform.

Matching much of what Bloomberg reported earlier this year—including that the game will co-star a woman and be set in Vice City—the videos are very much in-development footage, with unfinished textures and models all over the place, and code playing out in real-time across many of them. The leaker is currently taking requests asking people what else they’d like to see in more videos.

In one, a white male playable character encounters a racist NPC by a poolside, and as the conversation transpires you can see the code required for the interaction playing out alongside the in-game action. In another, the woman character—I’m only specifying it like this because it would be a series first—explores one of the series’ infamous strip clubs.

This appears to be the new woman protagonist for GTA 6, which is technically a series first, and all the more reason why a leak of this caliber for one of the most anticipated games ever is so unprecedented for Rockstar Games.
Screenshot: teapotuberhacker / Rockstar

There’s also a video showing “passenger shooting mechanics”, illustrated with the player taking an AK-47 to some pursuing police cars, and another that showcases the interior modelling of a car.

One of the more complete videos uploaded shows both characters partnering up to rob a diner, holding the patrons at gunpoint before the police arrive. Others are in rougher shape, and feature little more than a featureless placeholder character moving around an empty landscape acting out combat animations like taking cover.

The legitimacy of these videos is obviously in question. There’s certainly a lot of footage, and faking both the action and the code running at the same time would be a lot of work for an internet prank. But it’s still a leak, and unless Rockstar comments (we’ve reached out and will update if we hear back), we won’t know it’s real until we can match what’s shown here with whatever eventually turns up in GTA VI.

If it is real, then holy shit. Given the status of the game and the amount of footage it would be one of the biggest of all time, right up there with Half-Life 2. So far, though, it’s looking legit: not only are reporters like ex-Kotaku behemoth Jason Schreier saying that Rockstar contacts have confirmed the info to them, Rockstar employees appear to be liking tweets related to the apparent hack. But the wildest part?

The hacker is trying to strike a deal with Rockstar right now, though we don’t know what kind. To stop distributing more material? To ensure that the leaker doesn’t get sued? Whatever the case, this is definitely one of the most unprecedented leaks in all of video game history.

Earlier this year, Bloomberg also reported that the next GTA would attempt to be more “culturally sensitive,” a subtler tonal shift that has already become apparent in the re-release of GTA V. The recent game saw Rockstar remove some transphobic content that had previously been criticized by some fans.

While things are moving fast on the hacking front, and rumors are flying regarding potential scams involving the sale of the source code, fans are busy trying to figure out what is visible in the footage that’s already out there. Already, there are theories about who plays the new lead.

Update 1:55 p.m: Added details regarding the leaker’s shout-out to Rockstar, along with new developments in the story.

Update 7:10 p.m.: Added more details about GTA 6.



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Original Mafia Game Free On Steam For Its 20th Anniversary

So anyway, we started blasting.
Image: 2K Games

In celebration of Mafia’s 20th anniversary, 2K Games is selling the original open-world game for the low price of free for a limited time on Steam, starting from September 1 through September 5.

This news comes on the heels of 2K Games announcing that a new Mafia game is in the works back in May. Though the new game is still in early development, what we do know is that it will be made using Unreal Engine 5 instead of the Mafia III engine for the remaster. We also know that its internal codename is Nero and that it is expected to be a prequel to the Mafia trilogy.

In contrast to its wackier antics of 2K Games’ Grand Theft Auto series, Mafia tells a more grounded story that focuses on old-school crime families harkening to classic films like Goodfellas and The Godfather. You play as Tommy Angelo, a lowly cab driver in the1930s, as he is thrown into the criminal underbelly of Illinois and transforms into one of the most feared mobsters in the Salieri family.

Read More: Mafia Definitive Edition Is A Great Remake Of A Clunky Classic

Although the series received the remastered treatment with new dialogue and cutscenes, tighter combat, and updated visuals with 4K and HDR support back with the Mafia Definitive Edition, getting in on the festivities of Mafia’s anniversary by downloading the original game does have a major upside to the alternative of buying the Definitive Edition. Aside from the obvious factor of it being free, downloading the original game means you get to enjoy the original game’s copyrighted music that the Definitive Edition lost, such as Moanin’ For You by The Mills Brothers. Similar to 2K’s recent remake outing with the (deep breath) Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition, Mafia Definitive Edition lost some of its tracks due to expired licensing.

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Microsoft Bug Says Elden Rings, GTA V Available On Game Pass

Image: Elden Ring / GTA V

Earlier this week, some folks checking Microsoft’s Cloud Gaming beta website noticed something weird: listings for games like Elden Ring and Grand Theft Auto V not only said they were part of the company’s Game Pass offering, but would also be playable on the cloud.

Here’s a screengrab of Elden Ring’s page, taken by @klobrille, clearly showing both the “GAME PASS” badge and the fact that it’s playable on the Cloud Gaming beta:

Listings for Grand Theft Auto V (which has already been on the service and left) and, weirdly, Soul Hackers, all declared they were now on the subscription service. Even weirder is the fact that none of those things had ever been announced, which you’d think would be the case given the prominence of both Elden Ring and GTA V.

There’s a reason for that, of course. Microsoft have since told Eurogamer that the listings were a “bug. “We’re aware of a bug that incorrectly displayed some titles as available with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate,” a representative says. “We rolled out a fix and this is now updated.”

Normally this kind of administrative, backend stuff wouldn’t be that exciting, but what got people interested here is that GamesCom is less than two weeks away, with Microsoft due to make a significant appearance (and a live presentation). And in June, Microsoft announced that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate users would be able to play “select” titles they own via Cloud Gaming, even if they weren’t part of the Game Pass catalogue.

Put those two things together and it seemed entirely plausible that Microsoft had simply jumped the gun on a couple of GamesCom announcements. Calling these listings a “bug” certainly seems to put a dampener on that enthusiasm, but GamesCom kicks off on August 22, just in case you want to keep an eye on things anyway.



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GTA Online’s Last New Mission Is Actually Terrifying

Screenshot: Rockstar Games / Kotaku

Earlier this week, Rockstar released a massive free update for Grand Theft Auto Online. For the most part it focused on improving and expanding on what was already in the game. But the update also included a new series of missions involving covert government operations and conspiracies, and this new campaign ends with what is easily GTA Online’s creepiest mission ever, surprising many unsuspecting players.

GTA Online’s latest update, “Criminal Enterprises,” was a biggie, helping make the game feel more modern while also making it easier (and more fun) to earn in-game cash. It’s a solid update, even nerfing the legendarily OP jetbike and adding the ability to run in the casino. While it did add a really shitty semi-auto rifle that nobody likes, that’s a minor blip in an otherwise great patch.

Also added is a new campaign made up of a few missions involving the IAA (GTA’s version of the CIA) fighting to stop a rich family from controlling the planet’s oil prices. Don’t give them too much credit, as they want to take the tech the family is using so they can control prices themselves.

But what I and many others didn’t expect was for this spy-themed thriller full of car chases and shootouts to end with a creepy, horror-game-like mission that’s genuinely scary and unsettling. I don’t want to spoil it for folks who haven’t played yet, so here’s your spoiler warning!

In the final mission, the IAA sends you to a bunker last seen in the “Doomsday Heist” update. It turns out that the super AI developed and housed here wasn’t completely erased by authorities back when you raided the place, and that’s how a rich family was able to control oil prices—using a copy of this AI. (Just nod your head and pretend this makes sense…) Inside the bunker, the power is out, and lurking in hallways and around corners are “sleeping” robots with human faces. These are the juggernauts from Doomsday, and they were left here to hibernate because apparently, the IAA is really bad at cleaning up its messes.

These slumbering hulks seem to breathe, or at least make a noise that sounds like breathing. As you walk around in the dark, relying on a flashlight, these things will occasionally make other noises and even twitch. I even swear one of them moved when I wasn’t looking. Rockstar also made sure to place these scary juggernauts in specific spots where you’ll run into them or will hear them as you explore somewhere else, looking for fuses to get the power back on.

Screenshot: Rockstar Games / Kotaku

I won’t give any awards for guessing what happens once you get the power back on and start hacking into the place: Shocker, all of those creepy robot bastards wake up and start coming for you. But after skulking by them all for 20 minutes or so in the dark, at least you know how many are waiting, and how long of a trek you have to escape out of the bunker. Luckily, I had my giant Gatling laser gun with me and made short work of them all before escaping and completing the mission.

Like myself, other players hopping into this final mission had no idea what to expect and many have shared stories online of how scary it was, with one player suggesting they will have trouble sleeping now. Others shared how tense they felt creeping around in the dark, trying to avoid the robots out of fear that touch would activate the nasty buggers. It should also be noted that one of the fuses you have to find is hidden behind some breakable boxes, which is a very uncommon gameplay mechanic for a GTA Online mission. Many players report spending a long time just creeping around the dark hallways, desperately trying to find the last fuse to escape the nightmare.

I love when Rockstar experiments and gets creative with GTA Online missions. Nearly a decade after its release, it’s a bit boring to drive around and just shoot a few people. Randomly ending things with a Slenderman-like experience is not only fun, but a great way to keep the game feeling fresh after all these years. More of this in the future, Rockstar.

 

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