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A YouTuber with over half a million subscribers, Dammit Jeff, (in partnership with Louis Rossmann's FULU Foundation)has offered a substantial bounty for the release of a significant PS5 exploit. In a video posted to his channel yesterday, he detailed his plan to revolutionise the hacking scene for the console in response to Sony's much maligned decision to go fully digital in 2028. He also gave instructions on how to keep the console on the lowest possible firmware by disabling updates, along with a scathing rebuttal to Sony's talking points regarding the shift.

"This feels like it's only a net benefit for Sony. That's it. The only thing we get out of this is, 'Oh, well... It's a little more convenient.' ... I keep seeing the same statistic everywhere- Yes. 85% of PlayStation game sales were digital last year, that is correct. But- And this is important- Adoption does not equate preference. ... How many people do you think chose the disc version of the PS5 over the digital version of the PS5? 82%. ... Clearly consumers still want at least the choice to decide where and how they buy their games."

Both Dammit Jeff and the FULU Foundation put up $10,000 each, and small dollar donations are coming in steadily. The bounty is totalled at $32,572 at the time of writing, while the largest payout Sony has ever made for the disclosure of an exploit was $20,000 to TheFloW's exploit from 4 years ago. There are significant conditions attached to receive the bounty, however.

The disclosed exploit must:

• Demonstrably allow for the modification or bypassing of the PS5 hypervisor to the extent that an alternate OS can be booted (Stability of the alternate OS is not required)
• Either be a one-off implementation, or an implementation that takes no more than 10 minutes to execute if it needs to be repeated
• Work on firmware version 13.42 or newer (The most recent firmware at the time of writing)
• Be able to access the PS5's primary computation, memory, and graphics hardware on the alternate OS
• Allow the PS5 to continue to be capable of being booted into its original operating system, with the capability to play PS5 games

On top of that, if the modification is a hardware modification, it must also not require hardware that costs a meaningful percentage of the PS5's cost, and be able to be carried out by someone with only basic soldering skills and equipment.

It was reported at the beginning of the month that Sony anticipated the negative backlash toward the decision to cease producing physical games, and while a huge backlash continues to flood their social media pages, the company has remained steadfast in its decision-making. Weaponising crowd funding is just the latest in a long line of schemes to strike back at the company, but this has gotten significantly more traction than any of the previous ones. Links are below if you want to contribute.

Source
Bounty Page
Discord Server
FULU Foundation Website

 

[TheStonedModder]

What PlayStation going fully digital and this have to do? A person could want to hack their console and don't give a fuck about physical games... I'm really confused about the equivalency here.

critical thinking is a lost art and you clearly didn’t watch either of the 2 videos

Either from Jeff or Rossman all of this is explained

 

[NinStar]

critical thinking is a lost art and you clearly didn’t watch either of the 2 videos

Either from Jeff or Rossman all of this is explained

Yes you are right, I didn't watch the videos because there was an expectation on my part that the text of the post would include all of the relevant information to contextualize whatever the fuck is happening... But whatever you say, intelectual of the century.

 

[Exnor]

I suspect they will, the question is whether they will pay out before Sony sues them.

Disclosing exploits its not a crime. Not yet at least.

In fact one can argue that the manufacturer should be the one sued for not properly secured their product.

 

[Ettino]

Just under 35k USD so far. Seems rather small for so many requests, restrictions and then you have to make sure that a layman can do the installation as well. US based only doesn't help either. There're tons of really skilful hackers outside of the US and 35k is a huge amount of money to them and that would give them the drive to do this.

How much is Sony offering? Still 50k? DO the math, I guess. But hey! Something great could come out of this though.

 

[TheStonedModder]

Just under 35k USD so far. Seems rather small for so many requests, restrictions and then you have to make sure that a layman can do the installation as well. US based only doesn't help either. There're tons of really skilful hackers outside of the US and 35k is a huge amount of money to them and that would give them the drive to do this.

How much is Sony offering? Still 50k? DO the math, I guess. But hey! Something great could come out of this though.

Sony isn’t gurenteed the max payout that’s the issue

I could give Sony all that I have now. Burn my methods and they can decide to only give like $5k

Which is still a lot of money but not worth it. That will cover me 2 months of rent

 

[MasterJ360]

My mom wanted to buy a PS5 to play with her GF. It was down right hard help her with that decision. Told her to stay away from bundles b/c they are worth over $1K now. Shes been a Sony fan since PS1, just sucks to explain the current state of gaming to anyone returning. On the flip side the PS5 JB scene is doing pretty good although some AAA games aren't stable to play.

 

[Darth Meteos]

Sony isn’t gurenteed the max payout that’s the issue

I could give Sony all that I have now. Burn my methods and they can decide to only give like $5k

Which is still a lot of money but not worth it. That will cover me 2 months of rent

Violet laugh reacted to this post. Christ, it's such a lark that people need to pay rent. Hardy fuckin' har.

Keep it up, man, I hope they hang onto the exploit to release it right when GTA VI comes out.

 

[Lodad]

Bringus showed off the lower firmware exploit for Linux on ps5 running pc games phenomenally. This would be a godsend.

 

[Finray]

Finally. But would prefer a certain other handheld console to do it with.

 

[ShintaiUS]

Thanks for the link. So we've gone from "virtue signal harder" to "post your donation receipts." Now, do you have a counterargument too, or was the link supposed to do the debating for you?

There is no counteragument, you goof. The link is for you to feed the hungry while I donate to get my console hacked, hope it helps.

What are you babbling about anyway? from that other post, you clearly don't seem to have a clue what this is for.

Post automatically merged: Today at 7:51 AM

What PlayStation going fully digital and this have to do? A person could want to hack their console and don't give a fuck about physical games... I'm really confused about the equivalency here.

I am not sure if this is obvious to you but Sony going completely digital is the motivation for this. The way I see it, Sony is further closing options, or rather all options, for consumers to have any control on what they buy. Your PS6 and soon your PS5 will be a brick when Sony decide it. A potential hack of this magnitude for the console will give you back the control and much more. I am not sure about you, but I don't want to be giving my hard earned money to a multi-million corporation while they have a big fat leash on my stuff.

 

[Inaki]

it’s giving users the opportunity to use their hardware as they paid for it

You can install Linux and turn it into a steam machine, which I agree still digital games…but think about the significance of that and how cheap PS5s are in comparison to PC prices nowadays ?

it gives users the freedom to choose and not be affected by the AI bubble as well. There’s more to life bro than games it’s a bigger picture

Digital games on PC, being the open platform the PC is, even with DRM like denuvo, no longer worries me/us. That's the key, PC or jailbroken platform where WE are in control, THAT'S where digital is no longer an issue.

Side question... does the PS5 run something like an SMM ? System Management Mode ? Which every PC runs... this is what some call ring -2, the most privileged mode... probably the PS5 used as a PC has the advantage of not running this PC motherboard thing or runs a very plain form of it...

 

[NinStar]

I am not sure if this is obvious to you but Sony going completely digital is the motivation for this. The way I see it, Sony is further closing options, or rather all options, for consumers to have any control on what they buy. Your PS6 and soon your PS5 will be a brick when Sony decide it. A potential hack of this magnitude for the console will give you back the control and much more. I am not sure about you, but I don't want to be giving my hard earned money to a multi-million corporation while they have a big fat leash on my stuff.

Dude, this is GBATemp, you don't need to tell me people want to have control over their consoles, that's why most people (including me) are here. What baffles me is that it took Sony to announce they are phasing out discs, which was a totally expected thing to happen (the technology is ancient and barely suitable for modern games after all), for this to come up. Most people just don't give a fuck about discs and a lot of them still want to hack their console.

On a side note, I think most people should have given up on consoles a long time ago and just moved to PC, I know components are expensive nowadays but it still is a much better long time investment.

 

[OldGnashburg]

They should just go all in, 100k bounty for coldboot unpatchable software exploit.

 

[ChibiMofo]

There is no counteragument, you goof. I am not sure about you, but I don't want to be giving my hard earned money to a multi-million corporation while they have a big fat leash on my stuff.

Great to see that you are avoiding Netlfix, Spotify, and both the Apple and Google Android digital-only stores and their huge leashes for your mobile phone. How's that Punkt MP02 phone working out for you?

 

[yomegonightcore]

linux on the ps5 pro would be sick but im good with my 4.03 cachyos machine for now. i just want custom firmware a la switch hekate so i don't have to worry about updates at all anymore

Post automatically merged: Today at 8:21 PM

Great to see that you are avoiding Netlfix, Spotify, and both the Apple and Google Android digital-only stores and their huge leashes for your mobile phone. How's that Punkt MP02 phone working out for you?

you are a subliterate baboon for implying that it's somehow hard to avoid using streaming services which it literally isn't and i do like wtf are you talking about, media server go brr. the smartphone discussion is definitely more complicated though, here's hoping graphene comes to snapdragon via motorola soon.

 

[smf]

Disclosing exploits its not a crime. Not yet at least.

DMCA makes security research illegal, you just have to hope that Sony take pity. Which they do if you disclose to them and keep to their embargo schedule.

https://sites.duke.edu/thefinregblog/2023/04/05/security-researchers-battle-against-the-dmca/

 

[linuxares]

DMCA makes security research illegal, you just have to hope that Sony take pity. Which they do if you disclose to them and keep to their embargo schedule.

https://sites.duke.edu/thefinregblog/2023/04/05/security-researchers-battle-against-the-dmca/

thank god that reverse engineering is legal even if the DMCA try to make it illegal.

Plus its a US law.