The PS5 (and the PS4) hacked via… their PS2 emulator


Robin Lamorlette

September 16, 2022 at 3:01 p.m.

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ps5

©️Sony Interactive Entertainment

As part of a study and a program of bug bountya hacker published a provided article explaining how to hack PS4 and PS5 through the PS2 emulator.

According to Mast1c0re, the author of this study, it would indeed be possible to play pirated PS2 to PS4 games, and even to access certain online services on the last two consoles from Sony Interactive Entertainment.

An exploitable flaw in the PS2 emulator

Mast1c0re is obviously not at his first attempt when it comes to discovering exploitable flaws on the PS4 and PS5 consoles. Motivated by a program of bug bounty launched by Sony, it has set itself the task of hacking these two consoles using the PS2 emulator developed for the PS4.

The main reason behind this choice is that the emulator is one of the last remnants of privileged JIT code, used by both PS4 and PS5. This makes it possible to bypass the use of the kernel of the consoles in order to run pirated PS2 games up to PS4, and even to potentially compromise the cloud gaming part of the PlayStation Plus.


Mast1c0re also specifies that Sony had worked hard to erase any form of JIT code. Any shape? With the obvious exception of the PS2 emulator. The hacker has integrated the above YouTube video into his article to illustrate his findings.

A privilege issue

Another benefit of this flaw: access to an exploitable game is very difficult to revoke by PlayStation. It appears impossible for the Japanese giant to patch this vulnerability, patches being applied only to the operating system, and not to old games.

Gone are the days when a game only needed a CD to run, without going through an additional installation on the console’s hard drive. Mast1c0re says old games in digital format can also bypass PS4 and PS5 protection via PSN traffic downgrade.

This is because PlayStation does not intend to be held responsible for security issues related to third-party games. The security established by Sony focuses instead around the kernel of the console and, in the case of the PS5, the hypervisor.

Here is why the PS2 emulator is currently a practically unstoppable way to hack PS4 and PS5. To know in detail how Mast1c0re discovered this flaw, go to his article published on Github, cited in source below.

An extremely comprehensive and technical article which is in fact only the first part of a very long-term study, the flaw having been discovered in September 2021.

Source : Github

Sony PlayStation 5

Game consoles

release date: 20-11-2019

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