Dark Souls Exploit Lets Hackers Control Your PC

With Elden Ring around the corner, players are returning to where it all began - Dark Souls - in their droves.

It's no surprise that fans keep coming back to the series, as it has become an iconic part of the video game conversation - practically inventing its own brutal genre and leading debates on social media with its mere presence. Whether you like the gameplay or not, Dark Souls is a powerful force that simply can't be ignored, and Elden Ring could make FromSoftware's reach even wider.

But, players in Dark Souls are in serious trouble, and FromSoftware has had to shut down the game's servers due to a hugely malicious exploit.

Why Have The Dark Souls Servers Been Closed?

Bandai Namco has flipped the switch on servers for Dark Souls Remastered, 2 and 3 after "an issue with online services" - but it's actually a little more malicious than that. As it turns out, the bug discovered by hackers allows other players to invade your game and access its code to take control of your PC. Yikes.

It's a pretty big deal that this has been discovered, as it allows hackers the opportunity to root around in your PC for sensitive information. In theory, they could entirely dismantle your PC from the inside and essentially brick it remotely.

The hack was first seen by a streamer, and the effects that the hack leaves on his stream are incredibly freaky.

Streamer Gets Attacked With Dark Souls PC Control Exploit

Streamer The__Grim__Sleeper suffered from a brutal attack by an unknown assailant, who leaves them a text-to-speech message with a bizarre screen.

The video is certainly bizarre, and the glitch is incredibly dangerous to be left in the game, so it's good news that Bandai Namco has tanked the servers for the series until the problem is resolved. After all, getting players' PCs bricked and doing nothing to stop their personal information from being stolen isn't a good look, especially less than a month from their new games' release.

We knew Dark Souls was challenging, but we didn't quite expect to have to push back against hackers fishing around in our documents. Although we'll have to wait and see whether this exploit also infects Elden Ring, we assume the devs are hard at work banishing this one.