After two years since launch, with most people still completely unable to find the console available for purchase at any major retailer, the PS5 has been jailbroken.
SpecterDev, a well-known modder, unveiled his jailbreak earlier today. It appears to only work on earlier versions of the firmware (4.03 or earlier), and even still, it works just some of the time.
Jailbreaking is the process of reverse-engineering hardware, often to unlock the ability to use third-party software without the manufacturer’s permission. This became a popular trend in the early 2010s when Apple’s various iDevices started selling across the world.
The hack was shown off in a tweet by Lance McDonald, a fellow modder, who installed Hideo Kojima’s famous P.T. on his PS5.
In laymen’s terms, P.T. stands for playable teaser and was an interactive demo released in 2014 for Silent Hills, an upcoming psychological horror game at the time. It was taken off the PlayStation Store in May 2015.
The jailbreak provides users direct access to the system’s debug menu in addition to the ability to install a backup of the game in the form of a PS4 .pkg file. Although there is a good chance Sony will keep watch on the hack, it’s unlikely to spread to the masses due to the limitations.
While the jailbreak permits read/write access, there is no way to execute programs you install. This event can be seen as the first step for the hacking community, which will likely attempt to build on top of this newly discovered entry point.
Fair warning: despite the fact that the art of jailbreaking is not necessarily against the law, doing so puts your PlayStation network account in jeopardy of banning. Furthermore, it voids all product warranties and may permanently damage your system.