Developer Vultra has published the source code for a Linux port to PS4 Firmware 5.01. Before everyone gets too excited, let’s dive into what that actually means.

The actual changes in the source of this Linux port, compared to what exists so far for 4.05 or 4.55, are minimal, and mention a few offsets. Additionally, the hacker states that he still needs to update 4 offset values in the source code for it to actually work. So, even if you had a 5.01 PS4 kexploit (which 99.99% of us don’t), this would not work “as is”.

Therefore I would usually treat this release as a “non event”. However what Vultra has posted seems to indicate that he’s got access to a PS4 kernel exploit for firmware 5.01. Running Linux on any PS4 firmware requires full access to the console, therefore the developer needs to have access to a full stack jailbreak on 5.01 in order to work on a Linux port.

PS4 5.01 Linux WIP – Why it matters

The fact that there are kexploits on firmwares 5.xx is not news: we’ve known for a while that Qwertyoruiop has had a PS4 kernel exploit for firmware 5.05. What’s new is that multiple hackers seem to have one such exploit. What’s unclear is if this is the same exploit being circulated among devs, or a different one that Vultra is using.

Important update: multiple people have pointed to me that it is more likely that Vultra has only access to a recently leaked decrypted kernel dump of firmware 5.01 (thanks in particular to LightningMods). The fact that such a leak exists still indicates that multiple hackers have access to a kexploit up to at least 5.01.

He’s not using any exploit he’s just using the leaked 5.01 decrypted kernel that was circulating around Discord servers a while ago

— LightningMods (@LightningMods_) May 7, 2018

Update 2: Vultra has stated he indeed has access to a kernel exploit

Just to quote, 5.00 Kernel dump was leaked. Not 5.01 Kernel Dumped. and the only way to get the kernel dump from 5.01 is to dump it your self

so anything you hear from @LightningMods_ is just stupid.@frwololo @PS3NewsDOTcom

— Vultra (@C0rpVultra) May 8, 2018

Last but not least, there’s of course no word on a release. The Linux port in itself is useless to hack the PS4. What matters to the “end user” is the actual exploit. We’ve seen in the past that hackers have showcased Linux running on a hacked PS4 almost a year before the actual exploit was made public.

Download Linux PS4 5.01 WIP

Remember that this is 1) a non functional work in progress and 2) completely useless without an actual kexploit, which has not been released for 5.0x publicly yet. If you’re not a hacker, this is most likely useless to you.

You can download the source code on Vultra’s github here.

Source: Vultra