In a gift to hackers, the source code for Rockstar Games Inc.’s hit game Grand Theft Auto 5 has reportedly been leaked online.

“Reportedly” is key as various sites say that it has been leaked on a Telegram channel and yet there is surprisingly little evidence other than third-hand accounts of this occurring. SiliconANGLE has tried to authenticate the reports with no success. The closest confirmation of it occurring is reports from vx-underground on X (Twitter), with the account claiming to have spoken to a person who allegedly leaked the code.

Adding to the mystery claims is that aside from allegedly talking to the person who leaked the code, the vx-undergound account also writes that it hasn’t confirmed the leak. The “source” also isn’t sure.

Presuming that the code has been legitimately leaked, it’s not surprising given that it was reported in September that at least one arm of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., the parent company of RockStar Games, had been hacked. At the time, it was claimed that 2K, a sister company to Rockstar, had been compromised via an authorized third party accessing the credentials of a vendor of the help desk platform used by the company.

In the case of the alleged September hack, players of games such as “Borderlands” and “Bioshock” received malicious links via email saying they needed to reset their user passwords. The emails took victims to a malicious site that harvested player credentials.

According to vx-underground, the alleged hacker behind the GTA V source code claims to have leaked the code to “combat scamming in the GTA V modding scene” as “many people were allegedly scammed by people claiming to have the GTA V source code.”

The person who allegedly leaked the code is also said to have paid homage to Arion Kurtaj, a hacker linked to the infamous Lapsus$ hacking group who has previously leaked GTA VI videos. Bleeping Computer reports that the alleged hacker wrote a message on the Telegram channel that called for Kurtaj to be released.

Unlike most parts of this story, Kurtaj is confirmably real and first came to prominence in March 2022. Known online under pseudonyms such as “White” and “breachbase,” Kurtaj was sentenced to a life sentence in a hospital prison on Dec. 22 for his roles in hacking various companies as a member of Lapsus$. Along with companies including Uber Technologies Inc. and Nvidia Corp., Kurtaj was found guilty of hacking Rockstar Games.

Rockstar Games has not commented on the alleged release of the GTA V source code as of the time of writing.

Released in September 2013, GTA V has broken several world records. There’s an entire page dedicated to the game on the Guinness World Records site. According to Statista, Rockstar has sold 190 million copies of GTA V as of November.

Image: Rockstar Games