Hacking

Hacking is a mission activity prominently featured in Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online.

Description
Hacking is an activity that consists of breaking security codes to get information or access.

Interactive Hacking Minigames
The player connects their Mobile Phone to whatever device they are attempting to hack. An interface is presented and the player must navigate to their "external device".

There are multiple hacking minigames depending on the device being hacked:

HackConnect.exe
"Compromising global security one slip at a time"

- Slogan Establishes a connection - consists of matching an octet of numbers from a constantly horizontally scrolling 8x10 grid of numbers (presumably intended to represent the IP address of the computer).

BruteForce.exe
"Busting through the backdoor since 1998"

- Slogan A password cracker - consists of 8 vertically scrolling letters with a single highlighted red letter in each column. Stopping each column on its highlighted letter reveals the password of the computer. When using BruteForce, several eight-letter words are used for passwords. Some of them are sexual references made by Rockstar. Examples are:
 * CREAMPIE
 * DEADLOCK
 * MORPHEUS
 * SENTINEL
 * WORMSIGN
 * PASSWORD
 * PETSNAME
 * DYNAMITE
 * BACKDOOR
 * UNLOCKED
 * BLUEBOOK
 * DECIPHER
 * JUNKYARD
 * YETARIAN (Business Battles - Showroom variant)
 * PANTHERS (The Cayo Perico Heist, Prep: Fingerprint Cloner)
 * DADDYATM (High Society Leak, Investigation: The Country Club)
 * MBRSONLY (High Society Leak, Investigation: The Country Club)
 * UPSTARTS (High Society Leak, Investigation: The Country Club)

Down&Out.exe
Runs Down & Out Backup and Erase software. Non interactive, presumably just downloads the information.

Each of the above applications has a time limit to be successfully completed. Failure to complete each step within the allocated time will either result in failure or a return to the beginning of the process.

Traffic Light Control
In the Subtle approach of The Big Score, the player has to hack Los Santos Transport Traffic Control System to switch traffic lights for the Stockade drivers. The player also has to watch out for Merryweather, which also appears in the scene. It depends on the hacker how good the connection is, there is lag varying through none, 2 and 4 seconds.

VLSI Circuit Breaker 2.0
"We DGAF about your PCB"

- Slogan Circuit Breaker 2.0 is a hacking minigame written by Lester Crest and is used in the Fleeca Job Heist. It is a smartphone app which pops up taking most of the screen. The game consists of 2D top-down maze that looks like a circutboard. The player must guide a constantly moving line from a start point to an end point. If it touches anything but the exit it fails and has to be restarted. There are 3 levels with each one increasing the difficulty of the maze. Continued failure slows down the speed of the point but reduces the achievement level. It is recommended to use the D-Pad rather than the analog stick. After successfully hacking the system a pixelated face of Lester appears and bounces around and you can hear a laughing sound. After getting to the bank the player triggers the unlock by activating it with their phone.

Minigame Gallery

 * All Posibile Circuits

Data Crack
"Selling your secrets since 1996"

- Slogan A data cracker in Grand Theft Auto Online, used to hack the garage door at Humane Labs in GTA Online. It consists of 8 white blocks moving vertically over a horizontal red line in the center. To hack it, the player has to align a gap in the blocks when they are placed exactly over the red line. Each block moves progressively faster and any mistake will displace the previous one, and require these to be placed again. This minigame is also featured in certain Freemode events such as Sightseer as of the Executives and Other Criminals update.

Server hack
"You're looking at a network node manager. To circumvent the firewall, I'm going to need you to connect the nodes from our array to theirs."

- Avon Hertz instructing the player

This hack needs to be completed four times during Setup: Server Farm. The player has four attempts and 4:00 minutes to connect 4 nodes on one side, to 4 nodes on the other side using lines. The hack can only be completed by trial and error, as there are no hints as to which nodes should be connected. However after confirming, any correct connections will persist, leaving less possibilities for any remaining connections. There are P(4,2)=12 possible combinations to start with, however after guessing one of the four correctly, this is down to 6, then down to 2 for two remaining connections.

Motherboard hack
This hack is encountered during the the Act 3 finale of the Doomsday Heist. It is an adaptation of a lazer puzzle game. The player has to guide a lazer beam on a motherboard maze using mirrors to burn through blue Packets, while avoiding red Firewalls. The hack has a timer of 5:00 minutes.

The motherboard is engraved with the text TOS PI Model X V1.35, and also bears visual similarity to the Raspberry Pi.

Casino Hacking Minigames
During the finale of The Diamond Casino Heist, the protagonists may need to hack into systems, such as doors and elevators. There are two minigames for these hacks; the first is a memory game where the player must memorize a pattern of six dots along six columns of five dots. The second requires the user to use a large image of a fingerprint to find which of four smaller scans (out of a series of eight) are part of it.

VOLTlab
To hack this software, the player needs to connect the numbers on the left side of the screen to the modifiers on the right so that the number at the top, i.e. Target Voltage, matches with the number on the counter at the bottom, i.e. the Result. Each modifier multiplies the number with a multiplier of one, two, or ten. All multiplication results add up together and give the final result.

Print Cloner VR1.0
While at a fingerprint scanner, the software will show the fragments from the previous scans; the player just has to cycle through each of them to match the target fingerprint.

Once the arranged components match with the target fingerprint, the system automatically processes and bypasses the target lock, and a message stating "Clone match" is seen on the screen.

Heist Hackers
Hackers are also employed as crew members in Story Mode Heists but there is no player controlled interaction of their role until the subtle option of The Big Score, when there is a unique hacking program that makes the player take control of traffic lights.

Notable Hacker Characters

 * Avi Schwartzman
 * Christian Feltz
 * Lester Crest
 * Paige Harris
 * Rickie Lukens
 * Zero

Grand Theft Auto V

 * The Bureau Raid (Roof Entry)
 * The Big Score (Subtle)
 * The Jewel Store Job

Grand Theft Auto Online
Freemode Event
 * Chemical Extraction
 * Chop Chop
 * Hack and Dash
 * Rich Men in Richman
 * Stocks and Scares
 * The Los Santos Connection
 * Business Battles
 * VIP Work
 * Sightseer

Freemode missions


 * Nightclubs/Sell Goods


 * Heists
 * Fleeca Job - Scope Out
 * Humane Raid - Deliver EMP
 * The Fleeca Job
 * The Pacific Standard Job
 * The Doomsday Heist
 * Setup: Server Farm
 * The Doomsday Scenario
 * The Diamond Casino Heist
 * Casino Heist
 * The Cayo Perico Heist
 * Heist Prep: Fingerprint Cloner
 * The Cayo Perico Heist