High-level modder Lance McDonald showcased a seemingly successful PS5 jailbreak. The community is ecstatic.
It seems that not a day goes by without hobbyists and tinkerers taking on the challenges of bypassing professional tech barriers. Expert modders have done it again and showcased a seemingly successful jailbreak of the PS5. Even if it’s just partial, it’s another step toward reaching their goal.
How the jailbreak for the PS5 was achieved
Often, things like this are achieved through so-called exploits. That is the utilization of vulnerabilities in systems through which modifications become possible. In this case, a locally hosted WebKit made it possible to gain experimental IPv6 kernel access and thus read and write permissions. However, this only seems to work on firmware 4.03 or lower so far, and even then only in 30% of attempts.
Simply put, this makes it possible to run software on the PlayStation 5 outside of Sony’s intended scope. In this short demonstration, the famous P.T. Game for PS4 is getting installed, which was taken off the PlayStation Store in 2015 and shouldn’t run on the PS5 anyways.
It's… beautiful.
The PlayStation 5 has been jailbroken. pic.twitter.com/54fvBGoQGw
— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) October 3, 2022
Who else was originally involved in the PS5 jailbreak
The kernel exploit was discovered years ago on the PS4 by the well-known hacker Andy “TheFloW” Nguyen. Nevertheless, this bug also found its way to the PS5, and TheFloW even reported it to Sony in January 2022 and collected a $10,000 reward for it. As a result, the vulnerability was closed. Still, it seems to resurface due to a bug in the update of the Linux-based operating system (from FreeBSD9 to FreeBSD11, as reported by Motherboard through an interview with Nguyen).
With the fundamental work of TheFloW, the exploiter SpecterDev had then proceeded, with the help of others, to give the vulnerability a reproducible form with code.
I will reveal more about the PS5 kernel exploit https://t.co/mkNZOSjZEj at Hexacon. https://t.co/z1Zk9BZcgC
— Andy Nguyen (@theflow0) September 21, 2022
What’s coming next
Besides installing external packages, it is not yet possible to play or run them. But as the past showed with almost all other consoles, this is usually only a matter of time until more advanced steps or new ways are found to exploit vulnerabilities and freely run any form of application. If the past repeats itself, the PlayStation 5 will probably not be an exception, even though it would be desirable for Sony.
What do you think about consoles and protections being hacked? Good or bad for the companies and the players? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
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