According to tweets from FromSoftware Player Support and the official Dark Souls Twitter account, the PC servers for Dark Souls 3 have been restored after being taken offline since early January. The servers were initially disabled by FromSoftware to prevent a malicious remote code execution (RCE) exploit that allowed hackers to take control of players’ computers. FromSoftware has been working to patch its servers and restore service ever since, and it seems that for one game, the time has finally arrived.
FromSoftware took action soon after the exploit popped up during a Twitch stream that went viral, drawing attention to the bug. The developer disabled PVP servers for Dark Souls 3, Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls Remastered beginning on January 23rd, in addition to patching the community-made anti-cheat mod Blue Sentinel to protect against this vulnerability.
Online features for the PC version of Dark Souls III have been reactivated.
We are working to restore these features for all other #DarkSouls titles and will inform you when they are back in service.
Thank you once more for your patience and support. pic.twitter.com/XHiCZDEANC
— Dark Souls (@DarkSoulsGame) August 25, 2022
The latest FromSoftware release, Elden Ring, was also investigated for the same exploit and has been patched.
While the servers for Dark Souls 3 are being brought back online, there’s still no timeline for when service will be restored for Dark Souls Remastered or Dark Souls 2. According to a disclosure made public on GitHub, which details the code and documentation for the RCE exploit, the same vulnerable code is present in other FromSoftware titles as well. While there is no way to trigger the exploit, the same code was found in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. It hasn’t been confirmed to exist in Demon’s Souls but is “very likely” to be present there as well.