There is no publicly available Jailbreak for the PS5 as of January 2022. However, the PS4/PS5 hacking scene has given us good news at the end of 2021, which could open up the doors to homebrew on Sony’s new console in 2022.

PS5: No Jailbreak publicly available at the moment

Released in November 2020, the PS5 has been on the market for more than a year now, and it seemed the console was quite resilient against hackers. That was before Hacker TheFloW, and hacker collective Fail0verflow almost simultaneously announced they had fully hacked the console, a few months ago.

First, TheFloW (famous for multiple hacks and tools for the PSP, PS Vita, and PS4) showed he had access to the Debug Settings of the PS5, indicating he has a kernel exploit for the console.

On the same day, Fail0verflow (known in particular for their work on the Wii and the PS3*) disclosed they had full kernel access to the PS5 and its decryption keys. They emphasized that their findings can be reproduced through software means (per opposition to hardware hacks).

Neither of the two groups has plans for a release of their work.

Which means that the PS5 Homebrew scene was left with only a bit of hope that “hacking the PS5 is indeed very possible”, but no idea as to when a release could or would happen.

PS5 Jailbreak in 2022? PS4 Hack compatible with the new generation

Hope sparked again when a new PS4 Jailbreak was released in December 2020. ZnullPtr, one of the developers working on the hack, stated that “the [PS4] Kernel exploit affects PS5 as well“, while precising that work on the PS5 was nowhere near ready. Chendochap, the main person behind the PS4 Jailbreak, does not have a PS5 (or at least, didn’t at the time of release of the PS4 hack).

This Kernel exploit, coupled with a Webkit exploit which impacts both the PS4 and PS5, could lead to a PS5 Jailbreak sooner than later, as all necessary ingredients are now publicly available.

It’s actually surprising that no more information has surfaced on this in the past month, given that everything needed is available, theoretically. It’s possible that the lack of availability of PS5s on the market has been slowing down hackers to some extent.

PS5 Jailbreak, what’s next?

If you own a PS5 and are hoping for a Jailbreak, there is one golden rule you have to follow: Do. Not. Update. The Webkit exploit and Kernel exploit have most likely been fixed in one of the recent firmwares. If you stay on a firmware that predates the release of these exploits, you’re most likely fine (21.02-04.02.00 sounds like it’s safe?). Beyond that (21.02-04.03.00 and beyond), all bets are off. In any case, stay on as low a firmware as you possibly can. The ideal situation being of course if you have a PS5 you can afford to not update at all.

Will 2022 bring us a PS5 Jailbreak? Nobody can predict the future of course, but it looks like all the stars are aligned to make it happen.

* Fail0verflow have also found significant vulnerabilities on the PS4 and Nintendo Switch, but have recently refrained from publicly releasing information until after the consoles were broken open by other groups.