Modders have finally been able to jailbreak the PlayStation 5

The PlayStation 5 has been on the market for nearly two years, and the console has finally been jailbroken. Skilled modders have revealed the jailbreak online alongside its many limitations.

A modder that goes by the name SpecterDev publicly disclosed the jailbreak on GitHub, revealing that it’s an experimental IPV6 kernel exploit that also utilizes a WebKit vulnerability.

However, SpectreDev does note that there are some limitations. Preventing many from replicating this jailbreak, the PlayStation 5 must be running firmware version 4.03 or earlier. This version of the console’s firmware dates back to last October and was replaced by 4.50 in December. Because of this, most PS5s currently out there won’t be able to run this exploit.

Modders who are able to successfully jailbreak the PlayStation 5 are able to access the console’s debug menu. In addition, modders are able to install games from outside the PlayStation Store. However, sideloaded software isn’t able run.

It’s… beautiful.

The PlayStation 5 has been jailbroken. pic.twitter.com/54fvBGoQGw

— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) October 3, 2022

Another modder known as Lance McDonald was also able to jailbreak the PlayStation 5. Afterwards, McDonald successfully installed the now delisted P.T. demo. However, the demo for Hideo Kojima’s cancelled Silent Hills wasn’t able to start. The jailbreak exploit enables read/write access but isn’t able to execute sideloaded files. This limitation means that the dream of playing P.T. on contemporary hardware is once again dead.

Seeing relatively new hardware being jailbroken is always an impressive feat. However, given the number of restrictions and limitations, it’s unlikely many people will want to go through the multistep process to get it up and running.

The modders also throw out a word of caution, emphasizing that the exploit works only roughly 30 percent of the time and requires multiple attempts.

The last major advancement in PlayStation 5 modding came last year after a modding group gained access to the PS5’s root key, allowing the console’s firmware to be decrypted.

As with any story regarding modding, it’s important to note that there is always a risk of the exploit bricking the console. Additionally, Sony could track down and ban the account of modders as well.

Source: @SpecterDev, @manfightdragon Via: Engadget