PS5 hackers claim new cracks in Sony's latest firmware, but no public jailbreak yet
Within days of each other, two PlayStation 5 researchers posted evidence of progress against firmware 14.10 and the brand-new 14.20. Neither has released anything, games still cannot be dumped on the newest software, and Sony has not commented.
Sony's push to lock down the PlayStation 5 ahead of next month's big releases is being tested again. On Monday evening, 19 October, the homebrew developer known as Gezine posted a short video captioned "Hello 14.10", showing a console on firmware 14.10 opening the hidden Debug Settings menu. That menu is normally out of reach unless the attacker has kernel-level control of the system, so the clip was widely read as a private kernel exploit for what was then the newest firmware.
Gezine has not published the method. In a follow-up post he said the kernel flaw he had used on 13.xx firmware was closed in version 14.00, that this was a different technique and not the earlier "Relapse" exploit, and that he would "ask disclosure later". Engadget noted that this may point to a report through Sony's bug bounty programme first. Gezine has also said the old way of dumping game executables does not seem to work on 14.xx, and that a separate hypervisor exploit may be needed for that.
Two days later, on 21 October, Sony began rolling out system software 26.07-14.20.00. Its official notes say only that messages and usability have been improved on some screens; unlike 14.10, released on 1 October, they list no security fixes. Within hours, another researcher, kuzibelit, claimed on X to have found a userland entry point on 14.20 and to be running code through a Lua-based loader. Userland is the least privileged layer of the system, where ordinary apps run, so this is an early step, not a jailbreak. Early on 22 October the same researcher reported a repeatable kernel crash on 14.10 that he hopes to turn into memory corruption. None of these claims has been independently reproduced.
The stakes are high. Grand Theft Auto VI is due on 19 November and, according to datamining that neither Sony nor Rockstar has confirmed, requires firmware 14.10. Players also report that 14.10 is now needed to sign in to PlayStation Network. Running unauthorised copies of games is illegal, and for now it is not even technically possible on the latest firmware. Sony has not commented publicly on the reports.