While it’s thankfully getting much easier to buy a PlayStation 5, the nearly two-year-old console has had enough time with modders to be slowly (very slowly) being taken apart. Now hackers have demonstrated how a recent IPV6 Kernel Exploitation Using a Webkit Vulnerability can give users access to a Debug settings menu in the PS5 dashboard. This menu allows a user to poke around settings usually reserved for developers, including a package installer that can install PKG files for PS4 and PS5 games.
While this may sound like the trappings of a bustling homebrew scene and fertile ground for pirates, the use cases are still quite limited at this point. Besides the usual risks of having your PSN account banned, voiding your PS5 warranty, and risking a bricked console, the jailbreak will only work on a system with the now one-year-old firmware version 4.03 or earlier. And while a game backup can be installed, it’s not really playable in its current state. Still, the modding community is likely to continue its march towards bigger, more robust hacks that open up more opportunities — and come frighteningly closer to attracting the attention of a potentially controversial Sony.
Even if this mod scene is still growing from childhood, it’s always fascinating to watch cunning people bend the rules and do things they shouldn’t. For example, Mud Lance McDonald spared no time to show off installing the PS4 horror game demo PT on their PS5, which is a scarce digital asset thanks to its removal from the PlayStation Network in 2015. While the file cannot be executed, it remains a move primarily reserved for earning internet points. Hopefully this means we’ll get closer to seeing more cool stuff like this in the world of PS5 mods – you know, for science – before inevitable shutdown orders rear their ugly heads.
