Microsoft Pulls Call of Duty: WWII from Store After Hacks

Microsoft belatedly added Call of Duty: WWII to Game Pass and the Microsoft Store in June, but it had to pull the PC version from the Store just days later after multiple reports of hackers exploiting a flaw and taking over gamers’ PCs.

“Call of Duty: WWII on PC Microsoft Store was brought offline while we investigate reports of an issue,” the Call of Duty Updates account tweeted on July 4.

Since then, we’ve learned that the “issue” was a Remote Code Execution (RCE) exploit that allowed hackers to install malware and remotely control gamers’ PCs. Embarrassingly, the flaw that hackers were exploiting had been fixed years ago. But the version of the game that Microsoft made available to PC gamers was an older, unpatched version.

There are multiple reports from gamers who saw their PCs get taken over in real time as they were playing the game.

“I JUST GOT HACKED PLAYING WW2!,” one gamer tweeted along with a video showing the hack as it occurred. “EVERYONE DO NOT PLAY WW2 ON GAMEPASS!”

I’m not sure what to say about this since I can still see Call of Duty: WWII in the Microsoft Store, and I can install the title from there and in the Xbox app via Game Pass. It’s possible that the Store and Xbox app offer different versions of the game based on whether you have Game Pass. (It’s also possible that I’m about to be hacked, I guess.)