An exploit in Grand Theft Auto Online is allowing modders to pose a serious threat to other players. With the ability to access player's personal information, Rockstar accounts, and IP addresses, modders now have the ability to make players' lives hell, both in and out of game.

In Grand Theft Auto Online, players can team up to complete missions or fight in the open streets. Even though missions are structured, players can experience quite a bit in the free-roaming aspect of the game. While the open world in Grand Theft Auto Online can be a chaotic battleground, the real threats to players are almost always contained to their in-game characters. However, the existence of this exploit makes it possible for in-game threats to turn into real-world problems.

According to Twitter user thebrickprince, modded menus used to force players out of invite-only or single-player sessions pose a "severe security risk," due to an exploit involving them that allows access to other player information. In addition to this, it allows the offending players to spoof their names and Rockstar IDs, making it impossible to ban them.



Once a modder has access to a player's information, they can see any time that person gets online. If a player is chosen as a target by one of these modders, they can DDoS the victim, making it impossible for them to play the game, or more maliciously, they can even SWAT another user. Obtaining a person's IP address allows them to not only know when they come online but also see where they are in the real world, potentially even giving them a home address.

DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks use multiple compromised computers to attack a specific computer or IP address, kicking them from the internet. SWAT raids in this sense are when a person calls in a threat to a police department, usually telling them the person inside is armed and dangerous, with the hope that their house is raided by a SWAT team. People have been seriously injured and killed in this type of false attacks.

Thebrickprince goes on to ask Rockstar to act, pleading "You’ve sent cease and desists to menus before, please do it again. Please make changes to your game that don’t allow modders to do this. Please do something."

GTA Online has experienced plenty of exploits during its lifetime, though most of them were rather harmless in terms of physical danger to players. As of yet, Rockstar has not responded to this news or released plans to patch out this exploit. Hopefully, it will soon be removed and GTA Online players can go back to their heists without worry.

GTA Online is available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.



Posted: Dec 25, 2020 6:34 pm
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://gamerant.com/gta-online-exploit-mod-ddos-personal-information/