PS4 owners ran into a major security issue this past week thanks to a crash bug caused by maliciously crafted messages sent over PSN. These messages then crashed the console and restarting or other troubleshooting didn’t appear to solve the issue. Many users reported that full factory resets were able to fix crashes, at the expense of all data stored on the console.
Sony took the time to investigate the issue and managed to fix it pretty quickly. And a sort-of-announcement via Twitter revealed that the bug was actually much easier to deal with than assumed, had you been affected by it.
It turns out that these malicious messages weren’t technically bricking consoles. The actual bug caused a crash loop that made the PS4 console non-functioning, and there is a way to fix it according to Sony. If you fell victim to this issue, you should delete the message on the PS mobile app, go into Safe Mode on your PS4. Once the Safe Mode boots, Option 5 in the list that shows up should be used to reset the console back to a pre-bugged state.
Regardless of whether or not this occurred to you though, maybe it’s just a good idea to set your messaging option on your PS4 to only receive from others on your friend list, as a security measure.
