The PlayStation 5 is seeing more hacking activity. Some developers are recompiling non-native code to run on it, while others are working on firmware exploits. Their motives are unclear, but both efforts are active.
A developer in South Korea, known as Gezine, says he has bypassed the security protections in PS5 firmware 14.10. Sony released that update to patch the Relapse exploit, which became a major issue only a few weeks ago.
Gezine shared a short video on X that appears to show an exploit running on firmware 14.10. It shows him moving through the PS5’s hidden debug menu, which requires kernel-level privileges to open.
Firmware 14.10 patched the vulnerability that Relapse exploited. It was reportedly able to compromise every PS5 firmware version released up to that point. Hackers used it quickly to decrypt and run the latest PS5 games on jailbroken consoles. Consoles on older firmware should keep working for the foreseeable future, even though Sony has now patched the flaw.
Gezine says having a kernel exploit doesn’t necessarily mean piracy can continue freely on firmware 14.10 or later. According to him, the old method of dumping game data no longer seems to work. He believes a new hypervisor-based exploit would be needed to jailbreak a fully updated console.
If an exploit affecting firmware 14.10 works, it would be another problem for Sony executives. The firmware is reportedly needed to run Grand Theft Auto VI, Rockstar’s upcoming game, which the industry hopes will give the video game business a boost. Pre-orders are reportedly the highest they’ve ever been, and a PC release is at least a few months away.
GTA VI is reportedly launching without a physical edition, which could make it harder for hackers to produce a working cracked copy. Sony appears to be taking the threat seriously. It released firmware 14.20 only days after Gezine’s alleged kernel-level exploit undermined the protections in 14.10.
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