Strange notifications hit Microsoft Teams users; now fixed
In the last couple of days, several users of Microsoft Teams reported receiving a flurry of mysterious notifications. They just appeared out of nowhere, leading many to think that their accounts had been compromised. But, that was not the case; it was an annoying bug that Microsoft has now managed to fix. Here is all you need to know about it.
Notifications from FCM Messages
Going by several complaints on Reddit and Microsoft Community, users of the Teams mobile app received a series of notifications - around 2-10 in a matter of minutes - saying "FCM Messages Test Notificationsss!!!!". All the messages reported from different parts of the world read the same, creating widespread confusion over what was going on.
Microsoft confirms it has fixed the issue
As users raised alarms and questions over the annoying unexpected notifications, Microsoft earlier sent out a service alert to Teams' users saying it was investigating the issue. Subsequently, the tech giant confirmed that they have applied a mitigation. To recall, just a few days back, the folks at Android Police reported that several Hangouts users had also faced a similar issue around the world.
Here is Microsoft's response
Problem ties to a common vulnerability
While the details around the root cause of this bug are scarce, Android Police suggests it is linked to a recently-disclosed vulnerability in Google's push notification service Firebase Cloud Messaging. Now, there are two possibilities: either the flaw was exploited by hackers to bombard unsuspecting users with notifications, or the notifications went out as part of a fix from Google.
Either way, your account and device are safe
Having said that, there is no need to worry about the safety of your Microsoft Teams account, Hangouts account, or phone. The issue is solely related to the push notification service which means you were not hacked or compromised in any way. Still, considering this is pretty annoying and confusing, we expect Google will also fix the problem from its end.
