You can't play Dark Souls multiplayer until after Elden Ring launches on PC, here’s why

techradar.com:

Dark Souls 3 developer From Software announced that the PC servers for all Dark Souls games will be offline until after February 25, when Elden Ring launches.

The reason? A huge security exploit, called a Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability, was found in Dark Souls 3’s online servers. Considered one of the most dangerous of vulnerabilities, an RCE allows for a hacker to run any code on the affected device, including ransomware, malware, and anything else they want.

From Software states that «due to the time required to set up proper testing environments,» the servers will remain offline until after Elden Ring releases. However, the company assured fans that servers will be properly patched and players will not need to worry about the exploit.

The RCE was first demonstrated by The__Grim__Sleeper during one of his livestreams, which at the time had at least 70,000 viewers. An unknown hacker used the livestream to forcibly demonstrate the severity of the exploit after being ignored by From Software when they initially contacted the studio.

According to a report from The Verge, the community created their own patch for the title called Blue Sentinel, which protected endpoints against the vulnerability. The Dark Souls publisher Bandai Namco later took to Reddit to thank the community for their efforts.

Via Windows Central