Two years after release, a modder by the name of SpecterDev has managed to jailbreak the PlayStation 5. The exploit gives users root privileges and read/write access to the console’s system memory. Not even a week later, users are already installing Hideo Kojima’s gone, but not forgotten Silent Hill P.T demo. Because why not?
When the Shawshank was redeemed
If you weren’t aware, ‘jailbreaking’ is the act of exploiting a device’s security flaws, to install software that the manufacturer hasn’t made publicly available for the device. A jailbroken device gives the user complete access to the device’s operating system and the ability to access “hidden” or unavailable settings or features.
In the case of the PlayStation 5, the exploit relies on a WebKit security flaw to gain access. This unfortunately limits the user to the PS5’s 4.03 firmware or earlier. Below, you can see Lance McDonald making use of the jailbreak to get into the system’s debug menu and install the Silent Hill P.T demo.
It’s… beautiful.
The PlayStation 5 has been jailbroken. pic.twitter.com/54fvBGoQGw
— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) October 3, 2022
The problem is he can’t actually play it. And it’s not just P.T. The jailbreak is quite limited in what it can actually do when it comes to usability. The exploit gives users read/write access, but there’s no way to actually open the third-party apps that are installed.
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It’s unlikely that this jailbreak exploit will garner much attention in its current form due to its many limitations. We already mentioned that it can’t execute third-party programmes, which is a big turn-off for most. Then, there’s the lack of any ability to add any additional homebrewed code. Throw in the fact that the exploit only works around 30% of the time and needs year-old firmware to run… yeah. We can’t see this picking up much traction. Yet.
You have to remember that the exploit is only a couple of days old. There will be updates down the line. And other modders will try and build off the work that SpecterDev has done, meaning we’ll probably be seeing plenty more jailbreak mods as time goes on. If you’re still keen to get into the backend of your PlayStation 5, we’re sure there are resources online to help you accomplish that, if you know where to look (google). Doing so could get your account banned and your console bricked. But hey, it’s your console to brick.
Source: Ars Technica