The Dark Souls servers are shut down following the discovery of an RCE (Remote Code Execution) Exploit that would allow hackers to completely take control of another player’s PC.
A dangerous exploit that could control another player’s PC on the game’s online server has been found in Dark Souls 3. This flaw only affects PC players who play online, but it could also affect Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, and even the studio’s newest game, Elden Ring. The servers of several Souls Games have therefore been shut down in response to this discovery.
Noticed by the studio thanks to an interrupted stream
The exploit could be seen in action on Twitch during The_Grim_Sleeper’s stream while playing Dark Souls 3 with friends online. At the end of the stream, the game crashes and a robotic voice (belonging to Microsoft text-to-speech) begins to criticize the way it plays. The confused streamer then reports that he was hacked and someone took control of his PC before quickly ending the stream.
However, contrary to what one might imagine, the hacker in this situation might have had pure intentions. According to a post posted on the Discord SpeedSouls, the “hacker” would have been aware of the vulnerability and would have tried to contact FromSoftware several times about it. After being ignored by the studio, he reportedly decided to do a publicity stunt to demonstrate the dangers of this flaw and get the studio’s attention. Mission accomplished !
A major flaw
But if other hackers were to discover this flaw, it could have disastrous consequences. RCE is a very dangerous vulnerability since it does not only affect a game, but the entire PC of the one who is attacked. This could lead to PC breakage, and even the theft of personal and confidential information.
PvP servers for Dark Souls 3, Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls: Remastered have been temporarily deactivated to allow the team to investigate recent reports of an issue with online services.
Servers for Dark Souls: PtDE will join them shortly.We apologize for this inconvenience.
— Dark Souls (@DarkSoulsGame) January 23, 2022
Fortunately, FromSoftware and Bandai Namco are currently addressing the issue. On Sunday morning, a post on the Dark Souls Twitter announced that the servers would be closed until the problem was fixed. Xbox and PlayStation players still have access to online servers, as the exploit does not affect them. It is still unknown when the PC servers for the affected games will be available again.