Since the initial leaks of major story and gameplay clips from the upcoming The Last of Us Part II, Sony had launched an investigation into the leaks’ source. The company was able to determine that the leaks came from unaffiliated hackers. Since then, more information regarding the hacking process used has surfaced.
Hacking Info
According to a tweet by former Kotaku journalist Jason Schreier, a patch from a previous Naughty Dog game accidentally allowed access to the developer’s servers. Hackers then exploited this to obtain footage of the dev’s working test builds of The Last of Us Part II.
OK: After talking to two people with direct knowledge of how TLOU2 leaked as well as some Naughty Dog employees, I have a good idea of what happened. Short version: hackers found a security vulnerability in a patch for an older ND game and used it to get access to ND’s servers.
May 3, 2020
This seemingly confirms a previous tweet thread from an anonymous developer under the name Pixelbutts, who claims to know the hackers who discovered the patch. He details the exact method used to gain access and states that these hackers had no part in the leaks. It appears that a group of currently-unknown individuals learned this process and entered Naughty Dog’s servers to leak the footage.
While speaking with Kotaku, Pixelbutts mentioned that the patch used for the exploit has since been fixed as of April 30th, and, therefore can no longer be replicated. Neither Sony nor Naughty Dog have commented on this new information as of yet.
What do you think about the method used to leak The Last of Us Part II? Let us know in the comments! For more things PlayStation, check out our tease for a PS5 games reveal by PlayStation Magazine. Otherwise, please keep it on Culture of Gaming for all things gaming!
