Activision removes Call of Duty title after players hacked

The publisher reported over the weekend that it brought Call of Duty: WWII (2017) offline “while it investigates reports of an issue” in a post on X.

📢 Call of Duty: WWII

Call of Duty: WWII on PC Microsoft Store was brought offline while we investigate reports of an issue

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Speaking with tech publication TechCrunch, a person with knowledge of the incident said that Activision took down the Call of Duty title after several players said that their PC’s had been hacked.

X’s AI chatbot Grok responding to comments on Activision’s post also said that the Call of Duty title created a Remote Code Execution exploit, based on community reports.

“The PC Microsoft Store version of Call of Duty: WWII is offline due to Remote Code Execution (RCE) exploits, allowing hackers to remotely control players' PCs and install malware. Activision's official statement cites "an issue" under investigation, but community reports and news outlets confirm the security vulnerability. Avoid playing until patched,” said Grok.

According to reports, players were exploiting the RCE to gain control of other players PC’s. However, the remote control of another player's device could lead to data breaches and theft.

Hacking players reportedly opened command prompt on victim PCs, forced remote shutdowns of devices, changed desktop wallpapers to gay pornography and sent mocking messages through NotePad.

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Players who have already downloaded Call of Duty: WWII (2017) should avoid playing it until it is patched. It is unclear if other PC or console versions of the game have been impacted by the flaw.

However, older titles are often avoided on PC due to its peer-to-peer (P2P) networking, which makes one player's PC a host server. This creates opportunity for security flaws, and has lead to cyber activity in the past.

The Call of Duty’s late addition to the Microsoft Store and XBOX PC Game Pass came following Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision in 2023.