All Dark Souls PvP servers are offline after security threat is discovered
The Trojan Horse is a notorious boss
As if Dark Souls wasn't dangerous enough already, Bandai Namco have temporarily taken every Dark Souls PC server offline following the discovery of a Dark Souls 3 security vulnerability that could harm anyone playing in online mode. A malevolent string of code threatens the many kingdoms of ash, so to speak.
Over the weekend a Dark Souls 3 RCE security exploit was discovered that, to put it lightly, could Zweihander anyone playing online into submission. It's a bit like Trojan Horse malware, that would let another player control your PC, download viruses, brick it, and other unpleasant things. This rang true for every other Dark Souls game on PC, as well. Console players were free from this curse, luckily.
Yesterday, Bandai Namco announced on Twitter that they'd temporarily taken down PvP servers for Dark Souls 3, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls: Remastered, and Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition offline to "allow the team to investigate recent reports of an issue with online services". It's unclear how long this downtime will last for.
It's also worth noting that the exploit hadn't leaked into the dark beyond before the servers were taken offline. Apparently, the player who discovered the exploit streamed its ill effects to help raise awareness and get Bandai Namco's attention.
Dark Souls 3 PC players often install the Blue Sentinel mod to protect against security threats, and thankfully it's been updated to protect against this one. Best get this one downloading folks, if you haven't already.
Some players fear the RCE security vulnerability could threaten FromSoftware's upcoming Elden Ring too. Of course, nothing has been confirmed on this front and it could very well not be the case.
Here's to red phantoms and chucking stones on floors that says "Hey!", not like, phantoms in Trojan Horses that steal your credit card data.