Dark Souls server-busting exploit published online

Elden Ring
(Image credit: FromSoftware)

The Dark Souls exploit that forced Bandai Namco's hand in pulling PC servers offline in January has been publicly disclosed. 

According to VGC, one of the individuals who discovered the vulnerability has posted details of the exploit online following Bandai Namco's promise to resolve the issue. 

The user told VGC they decided to hold back from sharing the exploit ahead of Elden Ring's debut, as they wanted to finish Elden Ring first instead of "reverse engineering it day one". Interestingly enough, they also told VGC that the issue has been "completely fixed" in Elden Ring.

"To my surprise, they fixed every single one of them in Elden Ring, which is amazing," they said in an interview with VGC. 

The exploit necessitated the PvP versions of PC Dark Souls titles to be taken offline, as its remote code execution (RCE) portion could have let bad actors take control of other users' machines. 

They're still down two months later, even with the public code now available on Github. The vulnerability apparently can be found in Dark Souls Remastered, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls 3. It's said to be "very likely" in Demon's Souls as well, and confirmed in Sekiro, but apparently no real way to get it to happen. 

Still, while there is a fix for Elden Ring, there doesn't appear to be a resolution for the Dark Souls titles affected by the exploit at this time. 

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Brittany Vincent