# PS4 users claim that dangerous messages are causing systems to lock up and crash



## Itzumi (Oct 14, 2018)

Yikes! Sony better be on fixing this!


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## Sonic Angel Knight (Oct 14, 2018)

Already did. I been getting spam bots long time ago.


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## Itzumi (Oct 14, 2018)

Sonic Angel Knight said:


> Already did. I been getting spam bots long time ago.


Wait, there's spambots and stuff on ps4?


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## Sonic Angel Knight (Oct 14, 2018)

Itzumi said:


> Wait, there's spambots and stuff on ps4?


I guess so, I get random messages and when I respond, it's never based on what i say, is always like some pre recorded phone message from customer service. 

It's skype all over again with those things.


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## Deleted member 397813 (Oct 14, 2018)

so, its the new

effective.

Power 
لُلُصّبُلُلصّبُررً ॣ ॣh ॣ ॣ 
冗


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## BlueFox gui (Oct 14, 2018)

haxor: ur pee ass fo is DED


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## Itzumi (Oct 14, 2018)

Sonic Angel Knight said:


> I guess so, I get random messages and when I respond, it's never based on what i say, is always like some pre recorded phone message from customer service.
> 
> It's skype all over again with those things.


Eww god, prerecorded messages.


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## Deleted member 397813 (Oct 14, 2018)

BlueFox gui said:


> haxor: ur pee ass fo is DED


HAXOR no do gud thing. y, no1 knos


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## Rabbid4240 (Oct 14, 2018)

Remember when this glitch happened in Tony Hawk's Underground 2 and it pretty much killed the entire fanbase.


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## kuwanger (Oct 14, 2018)

So, how long until spam bots unlock everyone's console?


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## Itzumi (Oct 14, 2018)

SexySpai said:


> Remember when this glitch happened in Tony Hawk's Underground 2 and it pretty much killed the entire fanbase.


I heard about that. That's horrible


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## Deleted User (Oct 14, 2018)

Sounds fake.Untill i see evidence of this bricking someones console i dont think this is really happening,atleast not to a majority of people.


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## Vieela (Oct 14, 2018)

Ominous66521 said:


> Sounds fake.Untill i see evidence of this bricking someones console i dont think this is really happening,atleast not to a majority of people.



There has been quite a lot of people saying it has been happening to them. It happens by chance, someone has to send them the message. It doesn't "brick" the system per se, but leaves it pretty much unoperational, since it always will load the messag and crash over and over. It's not fake.


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## Deleted User (Oct 14, 2018)

But on boxing day, when Sony told me an unauthorized charge originated from my console's serial number, they said that it's impossible for PS4s to be hacked.


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## johnbus (Oct 14, 2018)

This sort of thing has to stop. Companies need to be more mindful of the dangers of Unicode or go back to ASCII. There have already been attacks against iPhone users and such, but for whatever reason, companies don't seem to account for the handful of users that will spam Unicode until they find something to wreak havoc on the devices of others.

This is rapidly becoming the phreaking of it's time. Although, instead of needing a complex series of beeps to get free long distance, any script kiddie can copy and paste symbols or strings to deny or damage the devices of others.


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## Rabbid4240 (Oct 14, 2018)

Itzumi said:


> I heard about that. That's horrible


Now all we need is to add a messaging system to undertale.


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## Vieela (Oct 14, 2018)

It's crazy how common and easy to pull off attacks using unicode stuff to be fairly honest. Every single year there's at the very least 3 or so of these kind of attacks and they just get progressively worst. Android, iOS, Whatsapp, everything is extremely vulnerable to something that it's of extremely easy access and exploitation. It still gets me by surprise how such big bussinesses like Sony let such exploit pass through them, seeing it's something that is quite easy to pull off ("easy"). Hope this gets patched out soon and doesn't get to other plataforms.


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## AbyssalMonkey (Oct 14, 2018)

johnbus said:


> This sort of thing has to stop. Companies need to be more mindful of the dangers of Unicode or go back to ASCII. There have already been attacks against iPhone users and such, but for whatever reason, companies don't seem to account for the handful of users that will spam Unicode until they find something to wreak havoc on the devices of others.
> 
> This is rapidly becoming the phreaking of it's time. Although, instead of needing a complex series of beeps to get free long distance, any script kiddie can copy and paste symbols or strings to deny or damage the devices of others.


I mean, or, and this is a big OR, they could just sanitize their services.  This is like databasing 101.  Never perform operations on text without proper sanitization and this would never become an issue in the first place.


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## guily6669 (Oct 14, 2018)

Yeah, it's so stupid that this kind of things still happen with just random messages...


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## kuwanger (Oct 14, 2018)

johnbus said:


> Companies need to be more mindful of the dangers of Unicode or go back to ASCII.



Companies have screwed up ASCII (the whole \0 in certs to misrepresent a domain).  As much as I agree companies should be mindful, Unicode is really hard to do right.  Long ago companies should have realized that certain standards are particularly difficult to do right and created BSD (or similar) licensed libraries to greatly reduce the risks involved.  Of course, that'd require the sort of vision that I don't think most companies* or government seems to have.

* For a while Google seemed to be going that way.  Then they decided to just go full evil.  *shrug*  That's companies for you.


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## Foxi4 (Oct 14, 2018)

This is what happens when we adopt a ridiculous font standard with a bunch of nonsense emoticons to appease the normies who want to send stupid pictures to eachother all day long. Here's a thought, if the message contains a character outside of the expected codespace, just display a square like everybody else - job done.


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## Vieela (Oct 14, 2018)

Foxi4 said:


> This is what happens when we adopt a ridiculous font standard with a bunch of nonsense emoticons to appease the normies who want to send stupid pictures to eachother all day long. Here's a thought, if the message contains a character outside of the expected codespace, just display a square like everybody else - job done.



This makes me remember of a very old thing (3 years ago or so) of a guy that set his computer's passwords with emojis and were unable to unlock his computer afterwards. But really, as much expressive as emojis or really anything out of the normal characters are, they are literally very dumb and barely goes used for something of value. It baffles me people use them as often as they do, but that's just my opinion. I like to stick with the basic (: ): or maybe some particular emojis i find funny.


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## Rabbid4240 (Oct 14, 2018)

These kinds of bugs happen like every week. And I've seen much worse. Eve Online released an update that deleted the boot.ini file in your PC, there was a glitched doll in the Sims that acted like a virus, we all know about the PlayStation Underground incident, the Steam Client on Linux could accidentally wipe out your entire fucking hard drive because of a typo.


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## Viri (Oct 14, 2018)

God damn evil *FONT *killing PS4s and iPhones!


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## Itzumi (Oct 14, 2018)

SexySpai said:


> the Steam Client on Linux could accidentally wipe out your entire fucking hard drive because of a typo.


what the fuck? When was that? I never heard about that.


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## Vieela (Oct 14, 2018)

SexySpai said:


> These kinds of bugs happen like every week. And I've seen much worse. Eve Online released an update that deleted the boot.ini file in your PC, there was a glitched doll in the Sims that acted like a virus, we all know about the PlayStation Underground incident, the Steam Client on Linux could accidentally wipe out your entire fucking hard drive because of a typo.



I absolutely remember the The Sims haunted doll one LOL
It apparently was an accident when the creator was trying to make a custom content doll and if you put it on any lot it will spread to all your saves and every single other lot you touch, if you share it using the online tool to upload it to EA's website, it will attach itself to it and if anyone download they will get the doll too. It was crazy. 

But though, this kind of glitch was years ago. We are in very recent years, Sony should've not let this happen at all. And it's a big problem to see that it affects the console so much at the point of leaving it basically unusable.


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## LoganK93 (Oct 14, 2018)

Itzumi said:


> Wait, there's spambots and stuff on ps4?


Dude, my husband gets all of those "I'm a hot gamer girl, go to this link and see my nudes! Itll ask for credit but it's completely free!"... Hes a gay man.


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## Itzumi (Oct 14, 2018)

LoganK93 said:


> Dude, my husband gets all of those "I'm a hot gamer girl, go to this link and see my nudes! Itll ask for credit but it's completely free!"... Hes a gay man.


Lol. Those spambots. God those are awful.


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## Rabbid4240 (Oct 14, 2018)

Vieela said:


> But though, this kind of glitch was years ago. We are in very recent years, Sony should've not let this happen at all. And it's a big problem to see that it affects the console so much at the point of leaving it basically unusable.


Neither should Apple xddddd

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Itzumi said:


> what the fuck? When was that? I never heard about that.


i dont think it was a typo, it was probably a programming glitch


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## SkittleDash (Oct 14, 2018)

*Evil laugh while stroking his Xbox One.
*
Seriously though, this is pretty shitty. Hope people have followed the warning and set their message privacy settings.


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## MasterJ360 (Oct 14, 2018)

There have been spam bot messages since ps3 and the vita.


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## Song of storms (Oct 14, 2018)

SexySpai said:


> These kinds of bugs happen like every week. And I've seen much worse. Eve Online released an update that deleted the boot.ini file in your PC, there was a glitched doll in the Sims that acted like a virus, we all know about the PlayStation Underground incident, the Steam Client on Linux could accidentally wipe out your entire fucking hard drive because of a typo.


Sounds like you're remembering suicide Linux wrong.


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## Rabbid4240 (Oct 14, 2018)

Song of storms said:


> Sounds like you're remembering suicide Linux wrong.


yeah probably


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## chartube12 (Oct 14, 2018)

Sign in to psn with the ps messaging app. Delete messages from anyone you don’t know. Also leave any groups people added you to without asking with the psn app.Than go into privacy settings through the messaging app. Sign on to psn and change messaging to friends only. I just did this. Easy away to avoid glitch messages if you already received them.


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## chrisrlink (Oct 14, 2018)

yahoo IM had the same thing i think it's the messenger protocol across the board


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## haxan (Oct 14, 2018)

Itzumi said:


> Wait, there's spambots and stuff on ps4?


I remember getting bunch from "single girls that are looking for fun" that would never respond to anything related to what I'm saying. honestly how can you look for fun if you're already on a gaming system ??? And why if someone is really looking for "fun" would look for it on a God damn ps4 LOL

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guily6669 said:


> Yeah, it's so stupid that this kind of things still happen with just random messages...


Yeah. Been happening frequently (like with WhatsApp and iPhone's messaging app) no idea what's the science behind it.


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## GrimReaperX (Oct 14, 2018)

MasterJ360 said:


> There have been spam bot messages since ps3 and the vita.



Yea there also on the Xbox


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## Itzumi (Oct 14, 2018)

GrimReaperX said:


> Yea there also on the Xbox


Why a gaming console of all things?


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## Rabbid4240 (Oct 14, 2018)

This is why the switch dosent have a messaging system. You send any letter with an accent and your switch catches on fire.


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## Song of storms (Oct 14, 2018)

Itzumi said:


> Why a gaming console of all things?


Consoles are mostly marketed to teenagers. A lot of teenagers think with their dicks. Puberty is a bitch.


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## Rabbid4240 (Oct 14, 2018)

Song of storms said:


> Consoles are mostly marketed to teenagers. A lot of teenagers think with their dicks. Puberty is a bitch.


Some teens would pay $90 for a game with just a red square. Why? Because its 1080p.


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## Itzumi (Oct 14, 2018)

Song of storms said:


> Consoles are mostly marketed to teenagers. A lot of teenagers think with their dicks. Puberty is a bitch.


Point made.


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## face235 (Oct 14, 2018)

Alright, done! No glitch messages for me!

EDIT: I set it to receive messages from 'No One', not even friends.


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## Deleted User (Oct 14, 2018)

Chary said:


> View attachment 146431​
> It appears that PlayStation 4 users might need to quickly go tweak their system settings, due to a newly uncovered "hack" in the form of corrupted private messages. Hundreds of users have reported that upon receiving a weird message in their PS4's message inbox, their consoles would freeze up, and not do anything, requiring a full factory reset in order to function again. This glitch can happen to anyone that allows messages from "everybody", so it's highly recommended that for now, you should set messages to friends only. Those unlucky enough to experience the problem find that upon getting the message, their system won't connect to their controller, and if they try to force the system to go back to the menu, it'll still crash when signing into their account. Sony hasn't said anything in regards to the matter at this time.
> 
> 
> ...


Holy shit. This is kind of like a virus. I hope Sony learns from this. Having to factory reset and possibly lose saves or data because of an issue like this is unacceptable in my opinion. What do you guys think?


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## BiggieCheese (Oct 14, 2018)

Wonder if the PS3 and PSVita could be vulnerable as well, that would suck.


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## leonmagnus99 (Oct 14, 2018)

thx for the headsup i will defintely need to check if i have this option ticked on my ps4 later when i get home.


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## WhiteMaze (Oct 14, 2018)

Hear that?

That is the collective sound of the communications department at Sony Headquarters getting fired!


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## Trash_Bandatcoot (Oct 14, 2018)

OOF,
would've been nice if we could load a payload with this


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## mrissaoussama (Oct 14, 2018)

New ps4 exploit incoming ?


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## lincruste (Oct 14, 2018)

johnbus said:


> This sort of thing has to stop. Companies need to be more mindful of the dangers of Unicode or go back to ASCII. There have already been attacks against iPhone users and such, but for whatever reason, companies don't seem to account for the handful of users that will spam Unicode until they find something to wreak havoc on the devices of others.
> 
> This is rapidly becoming the phreaking of it's time. Although, instead of needing a complex series of beeps to get free long distance, any script kiddie can copy and paste symbols or strings to deny or damage the devices of others.


But we don't know if this hack is unicode related. It might as well be based on metadatas or rendering, or anything else.


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## AtsuNii (Oct 14, 2018)

Sony better respond to this quickly because it could ruin online gameplay for alot of people.


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## DinohScene (Oct 14, 2018)

HTML in the messages?
Stupid zalgo?

This is exactly why we can't have nice things.
Life (and PS4) is great stop ruining it!


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## MeAndHax (Oct 14, 2018)

Does anyone actually know how the message looks like? just curious


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## Zeldaplayer67 (Oct 14, 2018)

Sony better pull out a stability update quick.


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## Arras (Oct 14, 2018)

WintendoZone said:


> Holy shit. This is kind of like a virus. I hope Sony learns from this. Having to factory reset and possibly lose saves or data because of an issue like this is unacceptable in my opinion. What do you guys think?


Supposedly you can fix this without factory resetting the entire console by going into Recovery Mode and rebuilding the system database.


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## SushiKing (Oct 14, 2018)

This is easily fixed if you only allow messages from 'Friends only' settings.


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## YOUCANTSTOPME (Oct 14, 2018)

You know when updates come out that fixes "stability issues" and all of you like to laugh?  Yeah, this is the kind of crap they fix.

I hope an update comes out this week.


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## Jonna (Oct 14, 2018)

Ominous66521 said:


> Sounds fake.Untill i see evidence of this bricking someones console i dont think this is really happening,atleast not to a majority of people.


To be fair, this isn't something you could try to record. It's random, so unless you want to set up a camera on a tripod running 24/7 for a very long time and have the PS4 running that same amount of time, you won't be able to catch it. 

And if we could replicate some one doing it, we could be fixing it properly and we wouldn't be worrying about it any more anyways.


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## NutymcNuty (Oct 14, 2018)

SexySpai said:


> Remember when this glitch happened in Tony Hawk's Underground 2 and it pretty much killed the entire fanbase.


Couldn't Neversoft fix the problem server sided, when the message has over a certain amount of characters it wouldn't send?


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## kuwanger (Oct 14, 2018)

Song of storms said:


> Consoles are mostly marketed to teenagers. A lot of teenagers think with their dicks. Puberty is a bitch.



Yes, that explains why sex spam malware is a totally new thing targeted at a mostly teen demographic.



WhiteMaze said:


> That is the collective sound of the communications department at Sony Headquarters getting fired!



Just like at Apple.



SushiKing said:


> This is easily fixed if you only allow messages from 'Friends only' settings.



Unless your friend decides to "prank" you because there is apparently a work around (log in on other device, delete message, rebuild database).  Not having a PS4 at all, can you play with non-friends in games and at all send messages in games to non-friends?  If so and depending on exactly where the bug is, you could still crash various games even if it doesn't result in a crash loop.


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## slaphappygamer (Oct 14, 2018)

remembering aol messenger

"a rose for you @}~~" 
                  -anybot



wonder if now is a good time to snag a "bricked" ps4


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## Rabbid4240 (Oct 14, 2018)

NutymcNuty said:


> Couldn't Neversoft fix the problem server sided, when the message has over a certain amount of characters it wouldn't send?


Idk the games servers were already dead when people spammed the message


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## bluhacks (Oct 14, 2018)

The PS4s are not stable enough it seems. 


Seriously though, that's kind of crazy that your PS4 can mess up from some message if you don't change the message settings.


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## leonmagnus99 (Oct 14, 2018)

i actually received a message from a stranger no picture on icon.
and i just pressed Option then selected "leave" 

thankfully nothing happened to my ps4, as i did not even open the message.
i made sure to change from anyone to friends only for messages.


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## dAVID_ (Oct 14, 2018)

The joy of Unicode ﷽௵


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## Joom (Oct 14, 2018)

Itzumi said:


> Why a gaming console of all things?


Because gamers are the loneliest of people. Also, this reminds me of the DCC exploit from the old days of IRC and shitty routers. Unicode is indeed fun.


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## YOUCANTSTOPME (Oct 14, 2018)

Joom said:


> Because gamers are the loneliest of people.


Speak for yourself 

Just playin'.


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## nWo (Oct 14, 2018)

Well that sucks.


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## Yepi69 (Oct 14, 2018)

What's funny is that I kept reporting these spam bots as they messaged me and Playstation would just shit on my reports with the ''that's not really important'' excuse.


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## Arras (Oct 14, 2018)

leonmagnus99 said:


> i actually received a message from a stranger no picture on icon.
> and i just pressed Option then selected "leave"
> 
> thankfully nothing happened to my ps4, as i did not even open the message.
> i made sure to change from anyone to friends only for messages.


The "bad" message breaks the ps4 without having to open it, so whatever you got, it was something else.


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## Wrathcaster (Oct 14, 2018)

Now the real test, setting messaging to friends only and see how nice your friends really are.  Lots of people have that one asshole friend who would send the message for amusement lol. For now mine is being set to no-one. Taking no chances.


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## orangy57 (Oct 14, 2018)

effective. Power

*arabic words*


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## Captain_N (Oct 14, 2018)

id say its pretty bad when and message from another user can cause your system to crash and need a factory reset. How is there even code for that to happen? that's like pressing the home button during a online game and it makes your opponents brick. Seriously what code is in a ps4 messaging system that allows for code execution


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## Deleted User (Oct 14, 2018)

Jonna said:


> To be fair, this isn't something you could try to record. It's random, so unless you want to set up a camera on a tripod running 24/7 for a very long time and have the PS4 running that same amount of time, you won't be able to catch it.
> 
> And if we could replicate some one doing it, we could be fixing it properly and we wouldn't be worrying about it any more anyways.


Thats the point,its not somthing that can be done on the first try.Its not somthing thats worth fear mongering over either.


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## Jonna (Oct 15, 2018)

Ominous66521 said:


> Thats the point,its not somthing that can be done on the first try.


How do you know?


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## HEADBOY (Oct 15, 2018)

I just wanted to clarify, does the system crash as soon as we receive the message or when we open it? I want to make sure before I try to attempt setting to private on my brothers PS4.


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## sonicvssilver22 (Oct 15, 2018)

awesomehero said:


> I just wanted to clarify, does the system crash as soon as we receive the message or when we open it? I want to make sure before I try to attempt setting to private on my brothers PS4.


From the sounds of it, the symptoms start as soon as you receive the message with your PS4 turned on. You don’t even have to open the message. But it’s safe to look at your inbox from somewhere else that’s not your console, like the PS App.


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## Xzi (Oct 15, 2018)

Good thing I use my PS4 exclusively for single-player stuff.  Changed my settings anyway just to be safe, thanks for the heads up.


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## IwearHelmet4Bed (Oct 15, 2018)

This is the message apparently


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## wiiando (Oct 15, 2018)

bluhacks said:


> The PS4s are not stable enough it seems.
> 
> 
> Seriously though, that's kind of crazy that your PS4 can mess up from some message if you don't change the message settings.



It's not that crazy, someone found a memory bug no doubt and a way to exploit it, with HEN it's not much different just this is malicious


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## the_randomizer (Oct 15, 2018)

Yepi69 said:


> What's funny is that I kept reporting these spam bots as they messaged me and Playstation would just shit on my reports with the ''that's not really important'' excuse.



They sound just as reliable as those dumbasses on Facebook who tell you something you reported "wasn't in violation of standards".


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## Reaga (Oct 15, 2018)

Anyone else see those spam bots and just start messing with them? Just try and see how they respond to specific stimuli? Like, you know they're a bot, so you start pressuring them by pointing out their lack of ability to respond to your actual text?

I know it's pointless but oddly entertaining.


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## Sterophonick (Oct 16, 2018)

Reaga said:


> Anyone else see those spam bots and just start messing with them? Just try and see how they respond to specific stimuli? Like, you know they're a bot, so you start pressuring them by pointing out their lack of ability to respond to your actual text?
> 
> I know it's pointless but oddly entertaining.



I can agree with that.


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## marazzmatika (Oct 16, 2018)

Someone could probably make exploit for HEN using this vuln.


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## Yepi69 (Oct 19, 2018)

I think 6.02 fixed that.


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## Song of storms (Oct 19, 2018)

Reaga said:


> Anyone else see those spam bots and just start messing with them? Just try and see how they respond to specific stimuli? Like, you know they're a bot, so you start pressuring them by pointing out their lack of ability to respond to your actual text?
> 
> I know it's pointless but oddly entertaining.


The best thing to do is when you have a phone number or email address and you just spam them, wasting their time.


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