SAN FRANCISCO: The payers of Rockstar Games' popular multiplayer action-adventure game Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Online have reported losing game progress, stealing of in-game money and ban from game servers due to an alleged vulnerability in the PC version of the game.

According to BleepingComputer, the developer of the 'North' Grand Theft Auto V cheat exploited a new "remote code execution" vulnerability in the PC game client to remotely change player account attributes (such as zero their money balance), corrupt accounts, and even ban players from the game.

Originally released in October 2013, GTA Online is a multiplayer version of Rockstar Games' popular action-adventure game series, with updates added to it for free.

The North GTA Online cheat developer added these new features on January 20, as part of its 2.0.0 release, according to the report. However, on January 21, the developer removed these abusive features, apologising for the mayhem they had caused.

"Removed bad sport/corrupt account for players (bad judgement on my part for adding this public)," read a changelog for the North cheat. "Removed take money from player (bad judgement on my part for adding this public)," it added.

The reversal, however, came too late, as many gamers had already been affected. The Rockstar Games support forum has been inundated with user reports of account issues since the cheat's release, the report mentioned.

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