Hacking group says it has found encryption keys needed to unlock the Playstation 5 (PS5)

guest · Nov 8, 2021

Hacking group says it has found encryption keys needed to unlock the PS5
Fail0verflow announcement suggests a private exploit to expose system's secure kernel.
November 8, 2021
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021...-are-the-first-step-to-unlocking-the-console/

Hacking group Fail0verflow announced Sunday evening that it had obtained the encryption "root keys" for the PlayStation 5, an important first step in any effort to unlock the system and allow users to run homebrew software.

The tweeted announcement includes an image of what appears to be the PS5's decrypted firmware files, highlighting code that references the system's "secure loader." Analyzing that decrypted firmware could let Fail0verflow (or other hackers) reverse engineer the code and create custom firmware with the ability to load homebrew PS5 software (signed by those same symmetric keys to get the PS5 to recognize them as authentic).
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Separately this weekend, well-known PlayStation hacker theFlow0 tweeted a screenshot showing a "Debug Settings" option amid the usual list of PS5 settings. As console-hacking news site Wololo explains, this debug setting was previously only seen on development hardware, where the GUI looks significantly different. But TheFlow0's tweet appears to come from the built-in sharing function of a retail PS5, suggesting he has also used an exploit to enable the internal flags that unlock the mode on standard consumer hardware.

TheFlow0 adds that he has "no plans for disclosure" of his PS5 exploit at this point.
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Back in 2013, Fail0verflow wrote a blog post suggesting that "we may have reached the point where homebrew on closed game consoles is no longer appealing," thanks in part to "a very real threat of litigation" and the fact that "game pirates would become not just big users of the result of those efforts, but by far the overwhelming majority (not because there are more pirates, but because there are fewer homebrewers)."

It remains to be seen if and when similar exploits for the PS5 will become public and if Sony will be able to temporarily cut them off with firmware updates as it has in the past.
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guest · Nov 10, 2021

Hacking the Sony Playstation 5
November 10, 2021
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/11/hacking-the-sony-playstation-5.html

I just don’t think it’s possible to create a hack-proof computer system, especially when the system is physically in the hands of the hackers. The Sony Playstation 5 is the latest example:

Hackers may have just made some big strides towards possibly jailbreaking the PlayStation 5 over the weekend, with the hacking group Fail0verflow claiming to have managed to obtain PS5 root keys allowing them to decrypt the console’s firmware.
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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.
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In 1999, Adam Shostack and I wrote a paper discussing the security challenges of giving people devices that included embedded secrets that needed to be kept from those people. We were writing about smart cards, but our lessons were general. And they’re no less applicable today.
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Hacking group says it has found encryption keys needed to unlock the Playstation 5 (PS5)

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