Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2’s newly released PlayStation ports are already being disrupted by hacked multiplayer lobbies. Despite launching just last Thursday, these retro re-releases have fallen victim to a resurrected XP exploit that allows players to reach maximum prestige status in a fraction of the usual time.
The security flaw stems from a save data vulnerability. By transferring PlayStation 4 save files to a PC, editing the default text, and reuploading the modified data, bad actors are creating compromised lobbies. In these matches, players can repeatedly eliminate themselves with grenades to trigger massive, unintended XP payouts, rapidly climbing to the game’s highest ranks.
This exploit has introduced a damaging side effect for legitimate players. Those who enter these lobbies and eliminate players who used the prestige hack are seeing their own XP totals aggressively deducted. In some extreme instances, players have had their progress reset below level one, completely locking them out of the online matchmaking system.
Developer Iron Galaxy, which handled the ports, has partnered with Activision to deploy an initial wave of server-side fixes. The developers have adjusted active playlists to curb the exploit and restored affected accounts with negative XP back to level 20, ensuring they can access multiplayer once again. While further stability updates are planned to address ongoing controller latency and matchmaking issues, the rapid emergence of these exploits highlights the persistent challenge of securing legacy software on modern hardware platforms.
