Responding to an IGN article based on a Reddit post about a reportedly 'huge hacking vulnerability' in Fallout 76, Bethesda has stated to IGN that: "Many of the claims in the thread are either inaccurate or based on incorrect assumptions."
The Reddit thread, posted by a Reddit account created nine days ago, claims there are 'no server checks to verify models or file integrity' and that players can edit .esm files without the game doing any checks. It also claims using Wireshark, an open source packet analyzer, would allow users to identify other players' IP addresses, locate them in-game, grief them, and even kick them out of the game. Other potential actions hackers could take, the post claims, would be walking through walls and terrain, giving themselves items, and being a 'God', since ' the majority of mechanics are clientside and the server just listens to the client.'
The Reddit poster offers no evidence for the majority of these claims besides pointing to a single mod posted to NexusMods that displays a sweet-spot indicator on-screen while picking locks.
According to Bethesda, it is planning fixes for some issues related to modding. "The community has however called to attention several issues that our teams are already actively tracking and planning to roll out fixes for," Bethesda's statement to IGN reads. "Our goal is always to deliver a great experience for all our players. Cheating or hacking will not be tolerated."
