Following the release of SpecterDev‘s slides on PS5 reverse engineering and security, PlayStation scene veteran Zecoxao has been sharing a few cryptic tweets regarding the PS5. Is something big coming soon?

PS5 – The status of hacks and homebrew

The PS5 has been hacked up to firmware 4.51 included in Late 2022 (details here). Unfortunately, despite this, the PS5 has confirmed to be a tough nut to crack. a Kernel exploit is not enough to get full control of the system, with the hypervisor and many other security mitigations (XOM in particular) in place on the system.

Despite the protections, the current Kernel exploit gives us something to play with. Some PS5 hackers have recently pivoted from trying to hack the deeper levels of the PS5, into providing a working (albeit limited) development environment for the scene. ZNullPtr in particular has been working on getting Homebrews running on the console, as he announced in April.

Homebrew for PS5 soon according to Zecoxao

In this context for Homebrew on the PS5, Zecoxao’s tweet yesterday, simply stating “Homebrew on PS5 soon…” is either something huge, or confirmation of what we’ve known for a while, as explained above. Then again, If that was ZNullPtr’s publicly announced work-in-progress, why would we get such cryptic answers from Zecoxao?

can’t say sorry

— Jose Coixao (@notnotzecoxao) June 10, 2023

People are wondering what firmware they should be on if they hope to be running homebrew on the PS5 in the future. The reality, as it’s been for quite some time now, is that folks on Firmwares 3.xx/4.xx (the ones with the Kernel exploit) have had access to much more than others. On firmwares above 4.51, there’s no currently known kernel exploit (Mast1c0re remains an option). On Firmwares 1.xx and 2.xx, it is recommended to stay put, even though the Kernel exploit doesn’t work there. These firmwares have early vulnerabilities that could eventually be leveraged, and as such, folks on very early firmwares potentially have critically interesting firmwares. It’s easy to upgrade one’s firmware, but there’s no going back.

This reflects what Zecoxao has replied when asked:

1.xx-2.xx (wait)
3.xx-4.xx (soon)
5.xx+ (no go)

— Jose Coixao (@notnotzecoxao) June 10, 2023

Without additional context, there’s not much here beyond “this could mean ZNullPtr has made some progress”. I’ve reached out to Zecoxao to see if he’s willing to share more.