Root keys and patch menu: PlayStation 5 is at least partially hacked

While Google developer and hacker Andy Nguyen was a pseudonym and known under a pseudonym the flow The hacking group gained access to the PlayStation 5 system and was able to activate the console debugging mode Failover According to their private information, the root keys and unencrypted firmware were accessed.

Andy Nguyen is not planning to publish

Andy Nguyen, who posted a screenshot with the debugging menu for the commercially available PlayStation 5 on Twitter, is not a blank canvas in the scene and has already discovered several vulnerabilities in the past and is known for homebrew software such as the PSP Adrenaline emulator. The Google developer has already helped Sony identify vulnerabilities in the past and has now confirmed that it has no plans to publish its exploit. Instead, it can be assumed that he informed Sony of the vulnerability before it was released. So he keeps to himself how he can activate debug mode. The vulnerability could potentially reveal a jailbreaking method that allows unsigned .pkg files to be installed.

#PS5Share pic.twitter.com/xem0A7i3rC

– Andy Nguyen (@theflow0) November 7, 2021

Access to bootloader and root keys

On the other hand, the FailOverflow hack kit contains a hex dump that is supposed to show the PlayStation 5’s bootloader. It has thus succeeded in decrypting the encrypted system files, which is supposed to have been made possible by root keys that I just read via the program. This is possible on any console, you only need”Look closely enoughThis group of hackers does not provide any details either, but experience shows that a kernel exploit is responsible for this access to areas of memory that are physically inaccessible.

Translation: We got all ps5 root keys (symmetric). They can all be obtained from the program – including the root key for each console, if you look hard enough! https://t.co/ulbq4LOWW0

– fail0verflow (@fail0verflow) November 8, 2021

It is not yet clear how much hackers have access to the PlayStation 5 system yet and whether they have read access (like Andy Nguyen) as well as write access. Both the described hack may be based on the same vulnerability, so Sony can soon shut down the FailOverflow method with a firmware update.