A hacker that goes by the name of CTurt revealed through Twitter that he has successfully created a fully jailbroken PlayStation 4.
A jailbroken device, which in this case would be the PlayStation 4, will allow applications not approved by the device's manufacturer to be installed and run on the device.
Just broke WebKit process out of a FreeBSD jail (cred->cr_prison = &prison0). Guess you could say the PS4 is now officially "jailbroken" :P
— CTurt (@CTurtE) December 12, 2015
The hacker was able to jailbreak the video game console by utilizing a kernel exploit that he previously made. With a PlayStation 4 jailbreak now in the wild, gamers should expect homebrew apps and custom firmware coming to the console soon.
Can successfully dump RAM from other processes (like SceShellUI) using ptrace! Next step: patching RAM... — CTurt (@CTurtE) December 12, 2015
PS4 kernel exploit finally working! Thanks to everyone involved!
— CTurt (@CTurtE) December 6, 2015
CTurt, however, has indicated that the exploit is only available for the PlayStation 4's version 1.76. However, it seems that the jailbreak can be tweaked to work for more recently released firmware.
While it could take time before CTurt and other hackers are able to develop custom firmware along with the method to load it on the video game console, it should be noted that the exploit can also be taken advantage of to have the console run pirated software.
Understandably, Sony would be unhappy with the news of a PlayStation 4 jailbreak, and the company would surely try to prevent the exploit from becoming widespread by patching up any vulnerabilities that CTurt's methods utilized to create the jailbreak.
Sony could also look to file legal actions against hackers that develop homebrew applications and custom firmware for the PlayStation 4, as such activities are in violations of the terms of use of the console and could create potential issues in security for the gamer community of the PlayStation 4.
