The Call of Duty team announced that the PC version of Call of Duty: WWII has been taken offline. The popular first-person shooter game was taken offline by the company following what it called “reports of an issue.” That issue appears to be a very serious security problem after reports surfaced about a major vulnerability. This remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in the game was being actively exploited by some of the players. Only days after the 2017 title arrived on Microsoft’s Game Pass, the concerning reports started coming in.
Players were using a remote code execution exploit to take over other players’ PCs during live multiplayer matches.
RCE is the name for a critical security flaw that allows attackers to run malicious code on a machine. This allows them to run code on a victim’s machine without their consent or any direct physical access. Exploiting an RCE could lead to data breaches, taking control of systems, and also installing other malware. Because consoles don’t allow this level of code execution, only Windows PC gamers were affected by this.
The attackers reportedly opened command prompts on the personal computers of the victims they were targeting. They also sent mocking messages to the victims via the Notepad application and forced remote computer shutdowns. In some cases, they even changed desktop wallpapers to display inappropriate and pornographic images on the victim’s screen. The hacking of older Call of Duty titles is an open-air secret among the game’s dedicated player community.
The problem likely lies in the fact that the multiplayer game relies heavily on peer-to-peer networking.
There is a lot of speculation about Activision working to update the game’s anti-cheat systems called “Ricochet.” Whether and how this update will fix the RCE vulnerability is a big unknown to the player base. This story shows how even very well-established video game titles can put your machine at significant risk. Gamers should avoid playing Call of duty: WWII on PC until Activision releases a patch to fix it. This is especially true for the Microsoft Store and Game Pass versions of the popular first-person shooter game.
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