One of the most popular features of the Dark Souls franchise has always been the ability to invade other people’s worlds. The expressed intent of this, of course, is to attempt to kill them or, at the very least, provide more than a moderate hindrance to their gaming progress. – Following a report via PCGamesN, however, it would appear that virtual invasions may have had some rather worrying real-world implications. Put simply, a security flaw has been discovered that could’ve potentially allowed your invader to execute remote code on your PC system.
Dark Souls Security Flaw Leads to Temporary PVP Shutdown!
Now, as you might expect, specific details of the flaw have not been revealed. As noted above, however, it is understood and seemingly confirmed that the person invading your world could potentially execute code remotely on your system. This could, therefore, allow the download and installation of malware or even potentially allow for your system to be taken over. – Well… I suppose that would be one way to win your PVP battle.
Thought to primarily exist within Dark Souls 3, given the trilogies overall similar invasion system, Bandai Namco and FromSoftware have both confirmed that, until the issue is resolved (likely through a rather quick patch) the PVP servers will be temporarily shut down.
What Do We Think?
There is, of course, a lot of irony in the fact that a game franchise that has virtual invasions as one of its key mechanics should have a security flaw that could allow for significantly more serious types of unwanted incursions. Of course, all of the Dark Souls games are fairly old now (even the Remaster of the original), and, as such, they now feature a relatively limited player base. – Those who have tended to stick around, however, largely do so for the PVP which, with it now being shut down, will clearly be a bit annoying.
All going well though, the servers should go live again within the next few days. So, with nothing better to do, I suppose you could hit up another NG+ and see how you fare!
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
