The source code for Grand Theft Auto 5 was reportedly leaked on Christmas Eve, probably causing panic at Rockstar, which had protected its game as best it could for more than a decade .
Rockstar probably did not celebrate Christmas in the best conditions, since hackers leaked GTA 5 source code through various channelsincluding Discord, a dark web site and Telegram channel previously used by hackers to distribute stolen Rockstar data.
This incident comes a little over a year after the famous Lapsus$ hackers infiltrated Rockstar Games, plundering the company’s data in the process. Phil, the owner of the GTA channel on Telegram, posted links to the stolen source code, accompanied by a screenshot showing one of the folders.
Files were stolen in 2022 Rockstar hack
The group’s admin took advantage of this leak to pay tribute to Arion Kurtaj, a member of the Lapsus$ hacker group who operated under the pseudonym “teapotuberhacker”. As a reminder, this 18-year-old hacker made himself known by leaking stolen videos of GTA 6 development last year. Recently, a British judge sentenced him to an indefinite hospital stay for his involvement in the Rockstar and Uber hacks.
During Lapsus$’s intrusion into Rockstar Games in 2022, the hacker group infiltrated the company’s internal Slack server and the Confluence wiki. During this incident, hackers claimed to have managed to obtain the source code of GTA 5 and GTA 6, as well as related items.
Since its publication on the Web a few days ago, several people have been able to analyze the files that were revealed, and realized that they contained secret information that Rockstar has never publicly revealed.
GTA 5 source code reveals all the secrets of the game
As detailed for example by Anis Ayari on a huge 9 GB file, but the hackers actually managed to get their hands on no less than 200 GB of data. So it’s likely we’ll learn more in the coming weeks.
Among the files already available, we would find in particular the almost complete source code of GTA 5, but it would not be possible to launch the game, because certain files would be missing. The leak tells us in particular the existence of no less than 8 GTA 5 DLCs which never saw the light of day, Rockstar ultimately preferring to concentrate on the development of GTA Online:
- SP Assassination Pack
- SP Manhunt Pack
- SP Norman Pack
- Agent Trevor
- Relationship Pack
- Enterprise Pack
- Prologue DLC
- LibertyV DLC
These DLCs were probably dedicated to Michael, Franklin and Trevor, the protagonists of GTA 5, and would have aimed to give more depth to the characters. The last DLC, LibertyV, should also have taken us back to Liberty City.
The file would also contain references to a GTA 3 V2 (TOKYO) on PS2, an old GTA 5 card, a file dedicated to GTA 6 but also references to Rockstar games which never saw the light of day. Among them, Midnight Club 5, a game called “Jimmy” and Bully 2, the direct sequel to Bully 1.
Finally, to make matters worse, the stolen file would also contain personal information of no less than 1,158 Rockstar Games employees, including their email addresses. Insomniac Games therefore does not seem to be the only one to have to face a massive leak during this end-of-year period. It now remains to be seen what impact the disclosure of GTA 5 source code will have on Online mode.
Source: DFintelligence