The PS5 is broken by hackers, paving the way for the console jailbreak

Hackers have found a way to access critical parts of Sony’s PlayStation 5 console, suggesting that the console’s jailbreak isn’t far away.

You may still have failed to get your hands on a Playstation 5, but the members of the Fail0verflow collective do. And the least we can say is that their primary concern is not really playing video games with the Sony console: it is rather the software and hardware hacking that interests them, evidenced by the message. which they left on Twitter on November 8.

In their tweet, Fail0verflow shows a screenshot where we see an extract of a binary file with, on the left of the screen, a series of hexadecimal characters and, on the right, an intelligible translation of what they mean. The members of Fail0verflow highlight a passage mentioning the “secure loader”, which a priori refers to the secure launch of the PS5 when it works.

Translation: We got all (symmetric) ps5 root keys. They can all be obtained from software – including per-console root key, if you look hard enough! https://t.co/ulbq4LOWW0

– fail0verflow (@ fail0verflow) November 8, 2021

The team adds in its message to have ” got all the ‘root’ keys from the PS5 (symmetrical). They can all be obtained from the software – including the root key unique to each console, if you look up! “. Behind this very jargon tweet, Fail0verflow refers to symmetric cryptography, which is an encryption method found in some secure launches.

Broadly speaking, a secure boot refers to a process of verifying the integrity of system firmware by verifying that the digital signature still corresponds to the one initially entered. This mechanism based on digital signatures is based precisely on encryption techniques, to sign and validate correspondence.

The tweet also shows that the hack found by Fail0verflow affects the PlayStation 5 firmware 4.03, which turns out to be, as of November 8, the most recent (this version has been available since October 10, according to an official page provided by Sony. The firmware has the full name 21.02-04.03.00). This system update improves system performance, the company says.

The PlayStation 5 console soon to be jailbroken by hackers?

This discovery in the software bowels of the PlayStation 5 is a sign that the measures taken by the Japanese consumer electronics giant to protect the technical integrity of its console are starting to crack. This hacking could indeed then lead to reverse engineering operations to study the console code, detect a weakness and develop a hack deceiving the PS5.

The technique used by Fail0verflow being software, we guess that a later patch could plug the breach and prevent individuals from having unintended uses with the console. Indeed, the work of Fail0verflow is likely to lead to the jailbreak of the PlayStation 5, that is to say the possibility of playing games engraved and pirated or which have not been ported to the PS5.

One could also imagine that this would make it possible to “dezone” the console in order to be able to make the disc player accept Blu-ray or DVD discs from other regions of the world. This regional division does not arise for games (they are not zoned), corn there is for audiovisual, such as movies, series or cartoons (there are exceptions, however, such as 4K Blu-ray discs).

More generally, the jailbreak can divert the PS5 from the uses desired by Sony, by giving the possibility to hackers around the world the possibility of forcing the activation of certain functionalities or of developing them if necessary. These tools are then likely to be distributed on the net for individuals to seize them, like the jailbreak of the iPhone.

It remains to be seen how far the Fail0verflow collective intends to go: will it design a complete jailbreak or communicate in more detail on its method, knowing that Sony will undoubtedly watch very closely for any information on this subject to plug the breach. A judicial component could also be opened: in the past, Sony attacked Fail0verflow in court for the jailbreak of the… PlayStation 3.

Fail0verflow had indeed drawn the intention on him in 2010 with a technique can jailbreak the PS3. At the time, the technique was based on the discovery of the private signing key which makes it possible to distinguish legal games from the rest. A few days later, a first modified firmware appeared online triggering soon after a complaint from Sony in the United States.

Considering the liabilities between Sony and Fail0verflow, it is not certain that the second wants to again attract the wrath of the first – however, that did not prevent this team from continuing its hacks. In 2018, for example, we remember that the team distinguished itself by deploying a functional Linux distribution on Nintendo Switch. And it was not his only exploit on this console.