Apex Legends pro match ruined by unique live hack

apex-legends-game — Image by Shutterstock.

Hackers have compromised the North American Finals of Apex Legends, an online shooter game, by inserting unsolicited cheats into gameplay and ruining the integrity of the event.

It all happened live, and at least a couple of players, ImperialHal and Genburten were hacked during a match. Someone was literally giving the pros hacks like aimbots and the ability to see through walls as they were playing – even though they, naturally, didn’t even attempt to cheat.

For instance, Genburten suddenly got a user interface on his screen and the ability to see other players through walls. The player was also given an aimbot. Needless to say, he was very unhappy and left the game immediately.

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Genburten’s account automatically messaged the online game lobby, saying, “Apex hacking global series by Destroyer2009 & R4ndom.” This was presumably hackers announcing themselves, and other players were soon hacked as well.

The server was soon shut down, and the Apex Legends Esports account on X announced that they were postponing the North American Finals.

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The extent of the breach is still unclear. Players are worried, though – Anti-Cheat Police Department, an unofficial volunteer effort to detect cheats in online games, has advised all players who participated in the Finals to “take immediate measures” to protect their personal information.

“It is advisable that you change your Discord passwords and ensure that your emails are secure. Also, enable multi-factor authentication for all your accounts if you have not done it yet,” said the account.

“Perform a clean OS reinstall as soon as possible. Do not take any chances with your personal information, your PC may have been exposed to a rootkit or other malicious software that could cause further damage.”

Allegedly, a remote code execution (RCE) exploit was abused to “inject cheats into streamers machines, which means they have the capabilities to do whatever, like installing ransomware software locking up your entire PC.”

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The situation has led to a series of complaints about Apex’s anti-cheat systems, which have clearly failed to protect the integrity of an important esports final. Even Genburten posted a few angry messages on X, demanding that Electronic Arts – the company that published Apex Legends – deal with security problems.