The PS5 has rumored been jailbroken

Image Credit: Mymemory

A very little but usable jailbreak for the PlayStation 5 hardware has reportedly been released, potentially allowing players to install unsigned or unofficial software.

Lance McDonald, a modder who made a name for himself by releasing an unofficial patch that allowed Bloodborne to run at 60 frames per second on PS4, broke the news on Twitter.

Despite the fact that McDonald does not appear to have discovered the PS5 jailbreak, he does show footage of it in action. In addition to showing that the jailbreak grants him access to a debug menu, he also proves that it allows him to install a PS4 PKG file (i.e. a backup of a game), illustrating this by installing the now-delisted PT demo.

The jailbreak is reportedly only compatible with PS5 consoles running firmware version 4.03, which was released in October 2021 and replaced by version 4.50 in December 2021, at this time.

The exploit's developer claims that PS5 consoles with firmware versions earlier than 4.03 might be able to use the jailbreak, but later firmware versions won't currently work. The creator of the exploit cautions that even if a player does own a console with the 4.03 firmware, it will still only work about 30% of the time, frequently requiring multiple attempts to execute.

It's... beautiful.

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

— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) October 3, 2022

It is said that even after the player does this, their options will be severely constrained at this point. Despite claims to the contrary, the exploit does not grant execute access, only read/write access. McDonald won't be able to run the PT teaser just yet, despite the fact that he allegedly managed to install it on his PS5.

It is likely that the alleged exploit will only be useful in the short term to other hackers who are curious to learn how it operates and whether they can use it as a jumping off point for something more powerful given its limitations and the fact that it only functions on a specific, year-old firmware version. 

Even if the progress is small, Sony will still be concerned to see efforts to circumvent the security of the PS5.