PS4 gets hacked and the outcome is Linux!

If homebrew is your thing you’ll be happy to know that after many failed attempts at “cracking the code” that is Sony’s content protection, there has finally been some real progress made. It seems that the homebrew group known as failOverflow used a Webkit bug similar to that of Githubs’ user CTurt. What this exploit does is fool the PS4’s Webkit browser into freeing processes from the core of the OS by utilizing a web page. 

Once inside the system, failOverflow found weak spots in the PS4’s GPU and used that to make their move. With this new found entry point they even went as far as to give a special shout out to the engineers over at Marvell, the creators of the Southbridge chip. Suggesting that they were, “smoking some real good stuff” when they designed the chip.

Now before you get TOO excited, let’s talk about the one downside in this entire process. It relies fully on PS4 firmware 1.76, which as we all know has been superseded by firmware 3.11 in the most recent update by Sony. So, while the exploit has been patched, there’s talk that it could be manipulated to perform the same duties on the newer updates as well. 

Obviously, no one will be running homebrew apps or games anytime in the near future, but just knowing that Sony’s “Fort Knox” can be infiltrated has many hobbyist’s intrigued to say the least.