Skip to content

Back to the catalog

Someone Finally Jailbroke the PS5—Just After Sony Said Players Don’t Own Their Games
decrypt.coarticle

Someone Finally Jailbroke the PS5—Just After Sony Said Players Don’t Own Their Games

Decrypt reports on Relapse, a newly public tethered PS5 jailbreak covering firmware 7.00–13.60, delivered by pointing the console's DNS at an attacker-controlled server and loading a crafted page through the built-in User Guide's WebKit browser, then chaining into a kernel-stage exploit and ELF loader to run homebrew and game backups. The MIT-licensed exploit code is on GitHub; it is non-persistent (must be rerun after every reboot) and does not work on the September 16 firmware 14.00 update. The article frames it against Sony's concurrent court argument that "Buy Now" digital purchases don't confer real game ownership.

TL;DR A public MIT-licensed PS5 jailbreak (Relapse) uses a DNS redirect into the console's WebKit-based User Guide browser to chain into kernel code execution on firmware 7.00–13.60.
Open original ↗
Document

What it is

Relapse is a tethered PS5 jailbreak (firmware 7.00–13.60) delivered entirely through a DNS redirect and the console's built-in User Guide browser. The summary has the chain; what it omits are the operational specifics an engineer would need to judge risk before running it.

How it works

The published procedure is:

  1. Set the PS5's primary DNS to 45.56.67.85.
  2. Open the User Guide.
  3. Enter the exploit page's address in the User Guide's URL box and wait.

The DNS server serves a crafted WebKit page that chains into the kernel stage and an ELF loader. The exploit was posted on X by Nathan Fargo and circulated by scene figure ApolloHB; code is on GitHub under MIT.

Preconditions / Affected

  • Firmware 7.00 through 13.60. Consoles on 14.00 (released September 16) are not compatible.
  • Requires the ability to change the console's DNS and reach the attacker-controlled host.

Caveats

These are the risks the repo and article state explicitly, which the summary does not carry:

  • Tethered — everything stops after reboot until rerun.
  • WebKit stage "may need several attempts."
  • The kernel stage can hang or panic the console.
  • The project warns use may cause system failures, data loss, or account bans.
  • Repo disclaimer: "educational and security research purposes only," does not endorse piracy — though the r/PS5_Jailbreak community is already cataloging which games run under it.

The Sony ownership-lawsuit framing (class action filed June, N.D. Cal.; Sony's August 21 "licensed to you, not sold" argument; pending arbitration motion) is context, not something to act on, and the summary already conveys it.

Organisations named here

  • ApolloHB
  • Nathan Fargo

Technologies named here

  • WebKit
  • Sony PS5
  • Relapse
  • PlayStation 5

Techniques named here

  • DNS redirection + User Guide browser exploit chain

Related in Hardware & RF