Image : PlayStation PlayStation 4 users are claiming that they are receiving messages that are preventing them from using their consoles. Advertisement In several threads on the r/PS4 Reddit board, users are reporting that they are receiving messages through the console’s messaging application that are hard locking their consoles. The stories all follow a similar pattern: users receive a message, their controllers and sound outputs fail, and resetting the console results in continual error loops. While the exact cause is unclear, many users in the Reddit thread have likened the exploit to previous messaging exploits such as this one from 2015 in which a unique string of characters could crash an iPhone. In describing the PS4 message, one player wrote that it was merely a question mark in a box, suggesting that the malicious messages cannot even be displayed by the PS4. Some users have claimed that doing a factory reset will delete the message and fix the problem, while others have claimed that the only way to fix the error is to delete the message using the Playstation mobile app or by logging into the account from a browser and deleting the message that way. It does seem that the exploit is purely text-based, so changing your PlayStation messenger privacy settings should prevent it from happening. You can do that by going to Account Management in your console Settings, heading to the Privacy Settings submenu, and changing Messaging settings to “Friends Only” or “No One,” meaning that only your pre-selected friends or no one at all can message you. Kotaku has reached out to Sony for comment but they did not respond in time for publication. We will update this story in the event that they do. Update 10/16/18 9:33am— Via Eurogamer, PlayStation UK support has acknowledged the problem is a “crash loop” that can be fixed if users “Delete the message on the PS mobile app, go into Safe Mode, [and] use O ption 5” to get their “console back to normal.”<doc-sep>Numerous PS4 owners on Reddit and across social media are warning of a message containing a string of characters that can reportedly cause Sony’s console to seize up and crash. In some cases, the console gets so mixed up from this glitch that users are performing a factory reset on the hardware to get it working normally again. We’ve seen bugs just like this on mobile platforms, where a certain message or strange character can wreak havoc and cause unstable behavior. If the reports are true, Sony will likely act quickly to roll out new system firmware that eliminates the issue. After all, this company loves issuing updates that improve system performance and stability. To avoid any headaches until this gets sorted out, below are some steps you can take to protect your console against receiving the message at question from your multiplayer opponents and other strangers. If you receive the message, delete it from Sony’s PlayStation Messages app for Android or iOS instead of opening it on your console. There are reports that deleting the suspect message with Sony’s smartphone app before powering on your console and signing into PlayStation Network is enough to avoid problems. Sony’s PS4 messaging app is a free download and available on both Android and iOS. How to restrict messages on your PlayStation 4 to friends only: A) From a web browser, you can visit this URL. Sign in with your PS4 account credentials. Choose “Personal Info | Messages” and then select the edit button near Messages. From here, you can choose anyone, friends only, or no one. Until Sony fixes this bug, you should choose one of the latter two options. B) From the PS4 console, go to Settings —> Account Management —> Privacy Settings. Choose “Personal Info | Messages” and then select Messages. From here, you can choose anyone, friends only, or no one. Until Sony fixes this bug, you should choose one of the latter two options. How to rebuild the PS4 system database: If you’re affected and find your PS4 acting funky even after getting rid of the message, you might want to boot the console in safe mode and rebuild the database. This process shouldn’t impact any of your saved data. Here’s what Sony says it does: Scans the drive and creates a new database of all content on the system. This operation may take a long time depending on the type and number of data items. This option is useful for cleaning up the data on your PS4 as it reorganises everything on the hard drive. Select this option if you are experiencing issues such as game freezes or frame rate drops. Doing this definitely sounds like a good step to get everything straightened back out if some jerk hits you with the bad message.<doc-sep>
We've seen single malicious messages able to crash smartphones, but now there's one for Sony's PlayStation 4 console to look out for – users on social media and Reddit are reporting receiving a certain specially coded message that's enough to put their hardware out of action. As The Verge reports, the message includes unreadable characters that are enough to cause glitches on the PS4 when opened on Android or iOS. Once the message is read, the problems start, even if it's then deleted. Some users are having to report they've gone to the lengths of a factory reset on their PlayStation 4 consoles in order to clean up the mess – this looks like a particularly nasty bug. In some cases it seems to be being used by online opponents looking to disrupt the gaming of their rivals. Can we fix this? With the bug only just coming to light, Sony has yet to officially confirm or respond to the problems, but presumably a software update is going to be enough to plug the security hole and protect against similar problems in the future. For now, you can set your PlayStation 4 and its mobile apps to only accept messages from friends you've already confirmed, or block messages completely: the options are under Account Management then Privacy Settings in the console settings. If you are hit with problems, one fix appears to be rebooting in Safe Mode and then rebuilding the database which shouldn't affect your data. As we've said, this isn't the first time that dodgy program code inside a message has been enough to cause a device to fall over, but it's the first time we've seen it happening on a console. If we hear more about the bug and how to fix it, we'll update you here.