When you're playing just about any online multiplayer game, chances are that you'll be in a lobby with someone that's cheating or using exploits. Whether it's aimbots and wallhacks in Modern Warfare 2, opponents walking on air in Fall Guys, or something else entirely, these losers will always find a way to ruin everybody's experience. While these kinds of cheats and hacks are annoying, GTA Online is currently plagued with an exploit that's downright dangerous.It seems that a new type of exploit has found its way into the hands of a few cheaters, and it allows them to remotely mess with stats, corrupt your account, and even get you banned or deleted permanently. This was initially reported by Tez2, who has been monitoring this issue (thanks, PCGamesN)."New extreme exploits have appeared allowing cheaters to remotely add/remove/modify your stats and permanently corrupt your account aka ban/delete," they Tweeted. "Avoid playing without a firewall rule or playing at all!" A follow-up Tweet then said, "The exploit is partial remote code execution. Paid mod menus are racing as speak to abuse this to the further extent. This could transform into something much worse to extend beyond a game and affect your PC."
So, it seems that it's not just your GTA Online account and details that are at risk, but your entire PC. Others in the community have been urging players not to log into the game without an anti-cheat tool. However, it appears that too may not be enough.
Speyedr, who creates such tools has become wary of this "extreme exploit" and has disabled access to the tools in hopes that it will prevent people from logging into GTA Online entirely, as the exploit is too dangerous. "In an attempt to dissuade users from going Online with a method of Guardian that wouldn't protect them, I am temporarily hiding access to builds," they Tweeted. "This exploit is so serious that one wrong setting or action could result in the loss of your account or even your PC files.".
It's unclear how this exploit came about, Rockstar is yet to address it.