New Delhi, Jan 23: Action role-playing game Elden Ring’s release date is fast approaching and Souls fans have been waiting and preparing for the game’s Co-Op (Cooperation), PVP (Player Vs Player) and PVE (Player Vs Environment).
To this end, many veterans and new players alike have turned to ‘Dark Souls 3′ due to its similarities with Elden Ring’s gameplay. Sometimes while playing Dark Souls 3, players will encounter gamers using hacks, cheats, or exploits. In the majority of cases, these exploits simply buff the opponent with greater stats, high damage, massive health bars or even god mode, high resources etc that can make the fight unfair. However, a new exploit has been discovered in Dark Souls 3 that is reportedly extremely dangerous to players and their computers.
According to Twitter user @SkeleMan, the exploit is an RCE and functions more like a Trojan Horse virus than merely a simple cheat. As such it can attack player computers, data, and personal information. Because of this, @SkeleMan has strongly advised Dark Souls 3 players to stay offline if possible, encouraging players to try Dark Souls 3 mods instead.
“On PC there is a new, very serious exploit plaguing Dark Souls 3 which can cause lasting damage to your computer,” said SkeleMann’s tweet. “This could brick your PC, let your login information be shared, or execute programs in the background.” SkeleMann has strongly advised people who want to play the game online to use the Blue Sentinel mod, which “will protect you from malicious cheats, flag players who use them, and allow you to kick them from your world.”
While it didn’t defend against the exploit at first, it has now been updated to do so. RCE (Remote Code Execution) is a form of cyber attack and is one of the most dangerous vulnerabilities to exist because when manipulated the effects can be devastating. As noted by Kaspersky, an RCE allows hackers to run malicious code on their victim’s computer, causing irreparable damage, and potentially stealing sensitive information while they’re at it.
Blue Sentinel, a community-made anti-cheat mod for Dark Souls 3, has since been patched to protect against the RCE vulnerability. In a post on the r/darksouls3 subreddit, a user explains that (hopefully) only four people know how to execute the RCE hack — two of which are Blue Sentinel developers, and the other two are people “who worked on it,” possibly referring to the individuals who helped uncover the issue.
The discoverer of this exploit has run a demonstration to show how dangerous it could be via a stream. They have also reached out to Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc., a Japanese multinational video game publisher, in hopes of getting the developers to fix the issue before it can do any major damage. However, until the issue has been resolved, players should refrain from playing Dark Souls 3 online. What’s worse about the exploit is that @SkeleMan has reported the same issue may also be present in Elden Ring. Elden Ring is one of the most hyped games of the year and it is safe to say that tons of players will be playing it online upon its release date. If an exploit this dangerous is allowed to exist, players’ safety will be compromised.
According to an update from @SkeleMan, the person who found the exploit was a player who has since kept it a secret, letting FromSoftware know about the issue. User @SkeleMan then posted images displaying a conversation between a user and a FromSoftware employee, confirming FromSoftware has been made aware of the issue and is currently working on a fix for both Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring. While currently only the PC is at risk, soon the gamers’ Steam Deck could be affected as well. SteamDB has been keeping track of all the games that Valve has approved for its handheld device, and Dark Souls 3 is among them. Other big games that have been given the nod as of now are ‘Risk of Rain 2’, ‘Hollow Knight’, and ‘Celeste’, ‘Scarlet Nexus’, ‘Psychonauts 2’, and ‘Death’s Door’. The overall list contains 38 games, which as of now are bound to be updated.
