Rockstar Responds To The Most Destructive GTA Cheats Yet
"Grand Theft Auto 5" and "Grand Theft Auto Online" have been around for a while — almost a decade, in fact — and naturally, any game that's been around for that long is bound to be broken and exploited by certain players. "GTA Online" has already been victim to several major hacks and creative cheats over the years, some more creative than others, but after the massive "GTA 6" leak, it's clear "GTA Online" isn't the only "Grand Theft Auto" game players have found ways to exploit.
A few years ago, Rockstar completely wiped the accounts of "GTA Online" players who found a way to make millions in minutes — a cheat that only affected the perpetrator themselves. Now, an exploit specifically for the PC version of "GTA Online" has caused a massive stir in the community as it appears to let hackers change other players' stats and corrupt the game so that targets get banned. The issues were publicized by prolific Rockstar Games observer Tez2, who noted that players should avoid connecting to "GTA Online" until the exploit is fixed.
#GTAOnline PC High Alert⚠️
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
— Tez2 (@TezFunz2) January 20, 2023
After days without an official word, Rockstar finally notified players that it was aware of the dangerous exploit and asked those with corrupted accounts to reach out to its support team. A few days after warning "GTA Online" fans about the issue, Tez2 provided a simple workaround that could be just the thing affected players need to get back into Los Santos.
Rockstar is aware of the exploit, but there might be a temporary solution
According to PCGamer, the exploit is similar to the issues that the "Dark Souls" series faced throughout 2022, allowing hackers to corrupt other players' files. It led to servers being taken down for much of the year, and one by one, they came back online in late 2022. That said, according to a pinned post in the "GTA Online" subreddit, the exploit only affects files directly associated with the game. Hopefully, it won't be a temporary death knell to the PC servers. The fix that Rockstar announced on January 23 is set to be included in a future security-oriented update, though the developer didn't reveal precisely when players could expect that update to come out.
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.
If you think you might have experienced any related issues, please reach out to Rockstar Support: https://t.co/Yqqj0SEDwa
— Rockstar Support (@RockstarSupport) January 23, 2023
According to Tez2, a temporary solution for those affected can be found in the game's files. It's a two-step process: Delete the entire "Rockstar Games" folder from My Documents, then restart the game to refresh the user data.
If the replies are anything to go by, it doesn't work for everyone and doesn't prevent the exploit from happening again after fixing the corrupted user files. But until Rockstar releases its upcoming fix, many PC players plan to stay far away from "GTA Online" for fear of being the next target of one of the game's worst cheating incidents.