Some hints at a potential PS4 hack form popular group Fail0verflow just came to my attention. This is just at the rumor level at this point and could turn out to be something entirely different, but the evidence is quite compelling.

I was just contacted with a link to the CCC Wiki, indicating that Marcan, one of the main members of Team Fail0verflow (known for having hacked the Wii U, and, before that, the PS3), will be having a talk at the CCC event this year. The talk is entitled: “Console Hacking 2015: Penguins on Aeolia”

So how does this point to a PS4 hack? Well, let’s rewind a bit.

What is the CCC?

Wikipedia tells us: The Chaos Communication Congress is an annual conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club. The congress features a variety of lectures and workshops on technical and political issues related to Security, Cryptography, Privacy and online Freedom of Speech.

Every year a bunch of hackers meet at the CCC and talk about hacking and security. Console hacking, every year, is a big part of the conference. This year, Smealum will be there to talk about his work on the 3DS, and apparently fail0verflow will be here too.

CCC is big, back in the days, Tyranid also explained the PSP Prometheus project at the CCC. The Prometheus project resulted in what is known today as the Pandora batteries for PSP, a way to mod the PSP batteries so that the PSP will enter “maintenance mode” and make it possible to install custom firmwares and downgrades.

Who are Fail0verflow?

Fail0verflow are the group who hacked the PS3. You might remember the screenshot below:

That screenshot is from their presentation at the CCC in 2010, when they explained how they had hacked the PS3.

Defeating the PS3 encryption was definitely not Fail0verflow’s only successful hack. They were also the first ones to run unsigned code on the Wii in 2007, and hacked the Wii U two years ago.

So in general, when these guys have a presentation at the CCC, you know something heavy is going to happen.

Penguins on Aeolia == Linux on PS4?

Aeolia, the Floating Island

Fail0verflow had announced earlier on the CCC wiki that they would be hosting an event to talk about console hacking in general, hinting more at some Wii U follow up and existing hacks than anything else.

This new entry in the Wiki however indicates a full presentation from Marcan. And it strongly hints at a PS4 hack, specifically, installing Linux on the PS4.

Looking at the content of the talk again, we see: Console Hacking 2015: Penguins on Aeolia – To boldly go where no penguin has gone before.

What do we make of this? Well, it’s going to be a presentation about console hacking (duh), and it’s probably going to be about installing linux (penguins). Because the presentation states “where no penguin has gone before”, it is safe to assume we’re talking of one of the new generation consoles (Wii U, XBO, or PS4).

The last, and probably most crucial part of the title, is “Aeolia”.

WTH is Aeolia? Well, digging into the PS4 Dev Wiki (thanks John!), we find lots of references to Aeolia in the PS4 Boot process log. At this point, it is now very likely that Marcan’s talk is going to be about installing Linux on the PS4.

Now, the talk is short (5 minutes), so Fail0verflow will probably only showcase that they have Linux running on the console, without going into details of the hack. That part might, or might not, happen next year.

It’s unclear at this point if this PS4 Jailbreak will be running on the latest firmware, or 1.76 and below just like the most recent announced PS4 Kernel exploit. So, do you think this will be a huge reveal, or just some kind of troll?

Many thanks to John who sent me the wiki link!