A supposedly playable 113 GB build of GTA VI is doing the rounds. Someone bothered to take it apart and found a 50 KB virus inside. Everything else is padding: a hundred odd gigabytes of zeroes, stuffed in so the file looks like a real game.
What is actually in there
The installer disables your protection first. The decompiled code contains a command that adds the entire system drive to the Windows Defender exclusion list, plus a separate command to force security processes to close. After that the payload can do whatever it likes on the machine, unless a third party antivirus happens to be installed.
- 113 GB on disk, 50 KB of payload. The rest is empty zeroes so the size looks plausible.
- An installer of roughly one gigabyte. Sized precisely to slip past a VirusTotal check.
- Files with the .doi extension taken from an unrelated repack. Used as camouflage, nothing to do with GTA VI.
- Bits from the genuine 2023 leak. Thrown in to finish off the disguise.
Why this surfaced now
On 27 August Rockstar will show Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look, the first substantial presentation since the second trailer. The game itself launches on 19 November. Interest spikes around dates like these, and so does the number of people looking to make money off that interest.
We have already argued that hunting for leaked GTA VI material is a bad idea. That time it was about a video clip and the strikes handed out for spreading it. The risk now is simpler and nastier: you hand your machine to a stranger in exchange for a look at something the archive does not contain anyway.
A simple rule for the coming months: before 19 November a playable GTA VI does not exist in any form. Anything claiming otherwise is offering you a virus.
Sources
TechPowerUp: the breakdown of the build contents, the commands that disable protection, the origin of the camouflage files. Rockstar Games: the date of Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look.
