A new PC exploit in EA and Respawn Entertainment’s free-to-play first-person hero shooter, Apex Legends, has led to hackers injecting cheats into the systems of other players.
Twitter/X user AntiCheatPD has reported that there is currently a Remote Code Execution (RCE) exploit being abused in the PC version of Apex Legends, which has enabled hackers to inject cheats into the systems of harmless players. It is currently unknown whether the vulnerability is in the game itself or the anti-cheat i.e. Epic Games’ Easy Anti-Cheat. A visual example of this occuring is available here.
All those who participated in the ALGS tournament are, therefore, advised to take immediate measures to protect their personal information, including performing a clean OS installation and ensuring that their email and Discord accounts are secure. This is to rule out the possibility of any participant’s PC potentially getting exposed to a rootkit or other malicious software that could lead to further damage.
Meanwhile, Epic Games has claimed it has investigated recent reports of a potential Remote Code Execution issue within its Easy Anti-Cheat, and it is confident that there is no such vulnerability within the software that can be exploited. The anti-cheat service stated that it will continue to work closely with EA for any follow up support that may be needed.
Regardless of whether the vulnerability stems from Easy Anti-Cheat, the fact that it was unable to detect people hacking the game raises a question mark over its effectiveness. This essentially means that the anti-cheat has failed to prevent cheating. To make matters worse, the anti-cheat has kernel-level access over the systems it is installed on. PC is inherently an open platform, and, as such, cheating is inevitable. However, developers and anti-cheat mechanisms need to be actively updated to prevent new exploits from gaining traction among cheaters.
