Skip to main content

PSA: Don’t play GTA Online on PC right now

Hijacked

You may want to hold off playing GTA Online on PC for now, as a new exploit gives hackers complete control over your account – and there’s not much you can do about it. The news comes from Twitter user and Rockstar news account Tez2, who received a tip from a follower about PC players reporting their accounts were hacked in the online game, altered, and sometimes, completely banned.

The exploit lets hackers alter your character, change and remove stats, and even outright ban or delete your account. 

The hacking issue began in December, though Rockstar has yet to acknowledge it, leading to some less-than-pleased fans after the GTA Online Twitter account posted a log-in promotion event to celebrate Lunar New Year. The first dozen replies express various forms of disbelief and encourage players not to risk it for a comparatively small amount of in-game cash.

There's a good reason not to risk it. Despite a few supposed fixes floating around, no method exists to help you avoid getting targeted by the exploit, and anyone who logs into the game could get hacked. Web developer and Twitter user Speyedr created a custom firewall as a temporary workaround, thinking that the extra protection measure and playing in a locked session could help keep accounts safe.

Tez2 retweeted their original firewall post from December 2022 and recommended using the program they developed. However, in recent weeks, Speyedr said the extra firewall protection doesn’t guarantee safety, removed portions of it from GitHub, and said GTA Online players on PC should just avoid logging into the game, as there’s no way to avoid getting targeted and hacked.