The First Cracks In Sony's PS5 Firmware (theverge.com) 45
Over the weekend, the hacking group Fail0verflow claimed to have obtained PS5 root keys allow them to decrypt the console's firmware. "Additionally, Andy Nguyen (a security engineer at Google who's better known under his handle, theflow0) managed to access the PS5's debug settings menu on a retail PS5 over the weekend, too," adds The Verge. Is this the first steps towards jailbreaking Sony's latest console? The Verge's Chaim Gartenberg reports: The two exploits are particularly notable due to the level of access they theoretically give to the PS5's software. Decrypted firmware -- which is possible through Fail0verflow's keys -- would potentially allow for hackers to further reverse engineer the PS5 software and potentially develop the sorts of hacks that allowed for things like installing Linux, emulators, or even pirated games on past Sony consoles.
For now, the two exploits won't result in much of a change for PS5 owners -- there's no sudden PS5 jailbreak available today, and neither Nguyen nor Fail0verflow have published the details of their respective hacks -- nor is it even clear if they ever will. Nguyen has already said that he has "no plans for disclosure" of his hack, while Wololo.net notes that Fail0verflow held off on publishing its PS4 hacks last console generation until Sony patched things, meaning that it's possible none of this will lead to concrete changes in the PS5 hacking scene.
For now, the two exploits won't result in much of a change for PS5 owners -- there's no sudden PS5 jailbreak available today, and neither Nguyen nor Fail0verflow have published the details of their respective hacks -- nor is it even clear if they ever will. Nguyen has already said that he has "no plans for disclosure" of his hack, while Wololo.net notes that Fail0verflow held off on publishing its PS4 hacks last console generation until Sony patched things, meaning that it's possible none of this will lead to concrete changes in the PS5 hacking scene.
Renting a game console (Score:5, Insightful)
So, Sony, in their wisdom, decides to rent me a console rather than allowing me to purchase it.
Meh. Not interested.
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install linux on it! (Score:2)
install linux on it!
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Or just buy a PC
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PC sales stabilised in 2018 and then have been in upswing since 2019, Covid certainly has increased it but it was increasing healthly well before anyone had ever heard of covid.
It grew by about 1% [statista.com] from 2018 to 2019.
Even my 80 year old mother asked me to get her a PC after 18 months with an ipad
Yes I absolutely assume older people would be more comfortable with a traditional PC that's been around 3-4 decades than newer computing paradigms.
it just is not convenient for so many tasks that require any sort of typing or input
Keyboard, mouse, stylus, touch...my iPad Pro supports more input options than my PC. But sure, like I said a lot of students have Chromebooks that do just fine for those things.
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You misspelled "rubes who buy in the locked down console gaming market".
Who really cares? Same reason I don't really give a shit about whatever Windows has going on, load up, play game, shut down.
Re: Renting a game console (Score:2)
Doesnt matter if the car only makes right hand turns. You can do whatever you want with it except modify it.
Besides three of them is a left turn. You are not prohibited from doing anything.
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Doesnt matter if the car only makes right hand turns. You can do whatever you want with it except modify it.
So how did this group obtain the PS5 root keys if they couldn't modify it?
Re: Renting a game console (Score:2)
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I suspect you haven't been paying attention to the Right to Repair movement at all because that's exactly what they're doing with hardware these days.
I'm not interested but for a different reason (Score:2)
The last 2 generations of consoles have been evolution, not revolution. The PS3 was a revolution in graphical performance compared to the PS2, the PS4 and 5 were not and in fact the PS4 was slower in pure CPU performance than the PS3. I'm waiting for when I see a new console come out and think "Wow! Getting that!". Haven't done that since the N64.
Irrelevant (Score:2)
in fact the PS4 was slower in pure CPU performance than the PS3.
My PC is slower in pure CPU performance than the Sunway TaihuLight but it still runs games a whole lot better.
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I doubt that machine would even need a GPU to run games with fps exponentially faster than your PC. If someone could be bothered to write any for it.
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I doubt that machine would even need a GPU to run games with fps exponentially faster than your PC.
Actually it would because the latency between nodes would completely kill performance which is why SLI/Crossfire have been abandoned and they had a *far* higher interconnect between the processors. And this is exactly my point, theoretical performance rarely translates to real world performance otherwise we would just compare the performance of systems based on the number of FLOPS they could achieve.
My workstation has dual 12 core CPUs that combine to give that system far higher theoretical performance than
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Not just the console, the games on it too. You can get a PS5 with no optical drive, where the only way to buy games is via the Sony store online. Eventually the service will get shut down, assuming they don't accidentally ban your account before that point anyway.
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But if you can get a PS5 with the optical drive - does this also mean that we just got another device to rip BluRays, and potentially a new set of keys for VLC to use?
Meh... (Score:2)
I get that people will hack anything, just because they can. But when you buy a product like a Playstation, that's intended to stay locked to the manufacturer's "walled garden" of options? All the effort made to break their encryption and hack it winds up pretty pointless, doesn't it? I mean, how many people buy one of these and are then content to not receive any future firmware updates from Sony because they'll undo their custom hacks, and consequently wind up with a device that can't log in to the netw
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Actually, if can be a high impact event because it means the primary form of security is broken.
This means the trusted boot chain is broken and allows for custom firmware.
The people do it to do Linux because they can. But it also means the people who want to pirate games and such, now have the ability to do so because they can modify the OS to not check for the license keys anymore. So you can run unsigned code on your PS5.
And likely once compromised, it also enables people to ... well, cheat. So free games
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I get that a small minority might want to just put Linux on one and not care again about its original intended purpose as a game console.
Just update Linux to *be* a PlayStation game and problem solved. I mean, breaching the gate sounds more fun than logging in... :-)
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I get that a small minority might want to just put Linux on one and not care again about its original intended purpose as a game console. But again -- so many other machines can run Linux already without going to these lengths. I just don't see how it's a big advantage for almost anyone.
It's a big advantage because the hardware is subsidized by future games sales, and right now GPUs are stupid expensive. A SFF PC with a decent GPU is $$$ so if you can put Linux on a PS5 and if you can actually get a PS5 for retail or below then it's a great deal.
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Other consoles have proven to be excellent emulation machines once cracked. In fact the XBOX is pretty good even without a crack since you can run emulators in the browser.
The emulation experience via homebrew is often a lot better than the official one. Nintendo's recent N64 games for Switch are a great example. They look terrible and there is a lot of lag. They are barely worth playing in many cases, the who look and atmosphere of the game is ruined and sometimes so are the game mechanics.
Re: Meh... (Score:1)
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I get that a small minority might want to just put Linux on one and not care again about its original intended purpose as a game console. But again -- so many other machines can run Linux already without going to these lengths. I just don't see how it's a big advantage for almost anyone.
It is, as you say, "because they can" not because it is particularly useful. They are locked down because of the business model, they can be sold at a loss with that loss (and then some profit) being made by amortizing this across game sales. Without that business model it just becomes another gaming PC, and we already have plenty of those. The one gripe I did have was with Sony removing the 'OtherOS' feature on the PS3, it was a boneheaded decision to put it there in the first place given the hardware is a
And (Score:2)
"Linux, emulators, or even pirated games on past Sony consoles."
"mrmrmru, mrmemu, AAA! We must super lock down everything!"
Please, don't get the suits all hyperexcited by mentioning the P word.
A hammer can be used to nail together planks of wood, fix dents in metal, and brutally murder somebody.
Turn your PS4 into a Linux gaming box (Score:2)
It was already possible to turn a PS4 into a gaming box... One that is running Linux at least: https://medium.com/linuxforeve... [medium.com]
And given PS5 is many times more capable hardware, this will allow extending the lifespan, long after Sony stops updating the system, and releasing games on that platform.
NAME:WRECK ? (Score:2)
When I saw at the time, that it affects FreeBSD, I though it was only a matter of time before someone uses it to gain kernel level access in PS5.
A prediction (Score:2)
The first console where someone figures out how to rip out the GPU and make it work in a PC will experience sales in numbers that even the worst scalpers couldn't imagine.