A Game of Hacks: Whether driven by spite or a genuine passion for reverse-engineering feats, Sony now has to contend with a surge in hacking attempts targeting the PS5. This generation's leading game console is being targeted for both non-native code recompilation and firmware exploitation, and developers aren't pulling any punches in either area.
Just a few weeks after the massive "Relapse" exploit incident, someone has apparently already broken Sony's latest PlayStation 5 firmware update. A developer based in South Korea claims to have defeated the security protections in PS5 firmware version 14.10, which Sony recently released to close the Relapse exploit.
Developer "Gezine" posted a brief video clip on X, demonstrating what is allegedly a powerful exploit affecting firmware 14.10. The clip shows Gezine browsing the PS5's "secret" debug menu, which can only be accessed with kernel-level privileges in the console's operating system.
Firmware 14.10 patched the vulnerability exploited by Relapse, which was reportedly capable of compromising every PS5 firmware version released up to that point. Hackers quickly put Relapse to work, decrypting and running the latest PS5 games on jailbroken consoles. Sony eventually patched the flaw, but consoles running older firmware versions should continue to work fine for the foreseeable future.
As Gezine explained, having a working kernel exploit does not necessarily mean the piracy scene can continue unabated on consoles running firmware 14.10 or later. The "old way" of dumping game data no longer appears to work, the hacker said. Gezine suggests that a new hypervisor-based exploit will be needed to jailbreak a fully updated console.
Either way, a successful exploit affecting firmware 14.10 would give Sony executives yet another massive headache. The firmware is reportedly required to run Grand Theft Auto VI, Rockstar's upcoming blockbuster, which the industry hopes will revitalize the video game business. Pre-order numbers are reportedly at an all-time high, and the game is not expected to arrive on PC for at least a few more months.
GTA VI is reportedly launching without a physical release, which could force hackers to go the extra mile to produce a working cracked copy. Sony is certainly trying to mitigate the risks, with the company releasing yet another firmware update (version 14.20) just days after Gezine's alleged kernel-level exploit compromised the protections in firmware 14.10.