Hacking group claims to have hit a major PS5 milestone

A hacking group claims to have made the first breakthrough in the process needed to jailbreak the PS5 in the future.

The fail0verflow group, which first gained notoriety for being the first to bypass the PS3‘s security measures in 2010, posted a tweet on Monday claiming “another one bites the dust”, accompanied by a screenshot that appeared to show PS5 root keys.

This was confirmed in a follow-up tweet which read: “Translation – we got all (symmetric) PS5 root keys. They can all be obtained from software – including per-console root key, if you look hard enough.”

Finding the root keys can be one of the first steps in ‘jailbreaking’ a console, but fail0verflow’s discovery doesn’t mean the PS5 has been fully compromised yet.

Symmetric root keys enable hackers to decrypt files, including firmware, meaning hackers can try to reverse-engineer it and look for exploits which can be used to run unsigned code on the the console.

The group also claims that it may not be particularly easy for Sony to reverse this with a system update. When another Twitter user asked if the root keys could be ‘rotated’ easily, the group simply replied: “No.”

In a separate incident, Sony hacker Andy Nguyen posted a tweet yesterday which appeared to show that he had been able to activate debug settings on a retail PS5.

However, he quickly shot down any hope that he would be sharing the process by tweeting: “No plans for disclosure. No ETA”.

Last week it was claimed that PlayStation 5 consoles reportedly no longer lose game playing functionality when their internal CMOS battery dies.

That’s according to a new analysis by Hikikomori Media, which appears to confirm that a PS5 with a missing or expired CMOS battery can now run physical and digital PS4 and PS5 games.

The only exception are games claimed via a PlayStation Plus subscription, which will no longer work with an expired or removed CMOS.

Previously, tests suggested that PlayStation 5 consoles would retain some game playing functionality after their CMOS batteries died, but most physical PS5 discs and all digital games would no longer boot.