Over the weekend, PlayStation 4 owners reported receiving a message that would cause harm to their PS4’s. This as known as the “Messaging Exploit”. Since then, Sony announced they were aware of the issue and as of today, they stated the issue was corrected.
According to the @AskPS_UK Twitter account, this exploit wasn’t actually bricking consoles but sending them into a crash loop – which by definition is a soft brick. However, they did state that it was a 5-minute fix to correct the issue if you were affected. Which is pretty irresponsible to say on their behalf, as they didn’t actually reach out to anyone regarding this. Instead, the community got involved and offered suggestions on how to fix the issue.
We've since fixed the issue, and it wasn't bricking consoles, just sending them into a crash loop that can be quickly fixed in under 5 minutes. Delete the message on the PS mobile app, go into Safe Mode, use Option 5, console back to normal. ^DB
— Ask PlayStation UK (@AskPS_UK) October 15, 2018
So that’s been sorted, or has it? Earlier, Sony had replied to IGN’s request for more information regarding this exploit. Who stated they would release a firmware update to address this. As far as I’m aware, there has been no firmware update – or at least my PS4’s haven’t received one. Since we haven’t seen one, I’m going to assume that this as all corrected on the backend of the PlayStation Network. Perhaps they’re filtering out the actual headers of the message? Still, it is a bit odd that Sony hasn’t come out and officially announced they addressed this. So until they do, I’d recommend leaving the message settings to private or friends only.
As for those who sent out those messages, @ASKPS_UK states they aren’t part of the moderator team, so they don’t know the offenders are.
