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YiddishMcSquidish, do games w PS5 ROM Keys Leaked: Sony’s Unpatchable Security Nightmare (2026) | The CyberSec Guru

I will not post the keys here for legal reasons.

One paragraph later posts a picture of the xit.

degenerate_neutron_matter, do games w PS5 ROM Keys Leaked: Sony’s Unpatchable Security Nightmare (2026) | The CyberSec Guru

Cool, but this article looks like AI slop.

Chozo,
@Chozo@fedia.io avatar

How?

degenerate_neutron_matter,

Didn't see this earlier but another thread gave a good summary: https://piefed.social/comment/9505729

keyhoh, do games w PS5 ROM Keys Leaked: Sony’s Unpatchable Security Nightmare (2026) | The CyberSec Guru
@keyhoh@piefed.social avatar

I’m not much for understanding all of the lingo, so I’m wondering if this is something I could do on my own. I would love to make my ps5 my “smart” tv and no longer have to use Google’s services.

Also, installing RetroArch on it would be super sweet. Will this all be possible for a low level user, or will I need an expert to put Linux on it so I can customize my rig?

My second question that wasn’t quite clear was if I could have my psn account and still play online while changing the os. I still want to play with my friends online while being able to load other apps. I know if it’s detected I changed things I’ll get locked out, but how will they tell?

Gerudo,

Coming from previous console hacks…

It generally does require a halfway decent techie background to hack a console (or anything, like jailbreaking a phone). At the very least, being able to follow guides exactly to the letter or risk bricking a device.

Generally speaking, hacking a console will not let you play online.

You generally don’t want to put a hacked console on the internet at all to keep it from being potentially flagged from the parent service like PSN

Now, this could all be different depending on the actual hack, but it’s what’s been true for previous ones.

keyhoh,
@keyhoh@piefed.social avatar

Thank you. I figured it’d likely be too hard for me to do, but being able to get someone to mod my machine is pretty sweet. I might wait for a bit longer to do it, but I’m liking where this is going. And if I could run steam on it, I might just do it right away so I can play those games instead of my PS ones. Most games are cross platform now anyways.

Lfrith,

Ever since Sony and Nintendo switched to paid online that has no longer been the con it used to be for me. Back for the PS3 I didn’t jailbreak it since online was free, but for the switch and ps4 I didn’t hesitate.

Chozo,
@Chozo@fedia.io avatar

If this is something you want to try for yourself, either buy a second PS5 and use a burner account on it, or be prepared for the possibility of losing your entire PSN account. This goes for pretty much any internet-enabled console modding.

Nintendo deactivated a 10+ year old account of mine when I tried modding a Wii a while back. It wasn't a huge deal at the time, because I still had physical copies of most of my games at that point. But these days, my library is almost entirely digital, so I keep separate fuck-around accounts so that I don't find-out with an account I've spent money on.

fistac0rpse, do games w PS5 ROM Keys Leaked: Sony’s Unpatchable Security Nightmare (2026) | The CyberSec Guru

hypothetically, could they use different keys for each hardware revision? that'd help limit the impact as not every existing console would be affected. you'd think they had a plan for this in place after the PS3 keys leaked and their multiple huge security breaches

KiwiTB, do games w PS5 ROM Keys Leaked: Sony’s Unpatchable Security Nightmare (2026) | The CyberSec Guru

Sony has no competition right now in their market so they will be fine. Besides the PS6 isn’t to far away.

Lojcs, (edited ) do games w PS5 ROM Keys Leaked: Sony’s Unpatchable Security Nightmare (2026) | The CyberSec Guru

Strong ai slop vibes emanating from the article. It’s full of contradictions and listicles. Each section feels divorced from the others, and subsection titles are larger than section titles.

The information density feels way too high for something ai written, but at the very least they must’ve used an ai to fuck it up afterwards

Rhoeri,

Yeah, but the kids eat it up.

Lojcs,

Skeptical that kids would read thecybersecguru.com

Rhoeri,

Check the comments. They’re eating it up.

Kazumara, (edited )

Yeah agreed especially further down when it’s just randomly rehashing old history. It’s also mixing up decryption and verification even in the beginning of the article. First they write:

BootROM (Level 0): The CPU runs code burned into it at the factory. This code is immutable (cannot be changed). It uses the ROM Keys to verify the signature of the next loader.

Then just two paragraphs below:

The ROM Keys change everything. With these keys, hackers can decrypt the Level 1 Bootloader.

So which is it? Usually bootloaders in a chain hash the next stage. That hash is compared with the signed hash the stage presents, and the signature on the signed hash is cryptographically verified against the locally stored trusted keys. No encryption or decryption takes place. Maybe this is different for the PS5 but then that would be noteworthy, not something you just assume readers to know.

4am,

Maybe I am missing something but I think you answers your own question?

ROM is Level 0, it has the burned-in, permanent key. It hashes and verifies the Level 1 bootloader, on disk, signed with the ROM key.

Now that the ROM key is known, anyone can sign a PS5 bootloader; and you can pretty much do whatever you want from there.

It would seem that all existing PS5s just went up in value.

Lojcs,

decryption is when cryptography

Kushan,
@Kushan@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah I checked the twitter profiles of the two people mentioned, one doesnt talk about it at all and the other says it’s not what people think and it won’t enable CFW.

AI nonsense.

Lojcs, do games w PS5 ROM Keys Leaked: Sony’s Unpatchable Security Nightmare (2026) | The CyberSec Guru

Why is it always game consoles that get these leaks and not like, phone firmware or gpu vbios

MoogleMaestro,

I think it’s just the amount of love for game consoles is much higher than phones, where people are a bit complacent.

I do agree it should happen more often.

krooklochurm,

Also there are SO many phones.

There’s only a few ps5s. I’m not sure if they share the same code that’s been leaked here but probably.

Gerudo,

Consoles have extremely limited variations, less variables to mess with. A ps5 is a ps5, but a Samsung Galaxy 25 isn’t the same as a Samsung Galaxy FE25

Lojcs,

But if Samsung’s firmware keys or whatever leaked, wouldn’t that apply to all of them? It’s not like they reinvent all their infrastructure for each phone.

Actually, I take it back. These things do happen in the mobile world, they’re just not released publicly. Celebrite etc just gobble them up

drcobaltjedi,

As someone else pointed out, there’s a shit ton of different phones. In 2012 alone, how many different “Samsung Galaxy …” did samsung release? Wikipedia lists 6

That’s 1 company, with 1 brand name in 1 year. Each with different hardware and as of late those phones have been harder and harder to even open. However, there’s a handful of models of “PS5” standard, slim, pro. They are also very easy to open requiring regular tools your average joe is likely to have, in fact sony encourages this in case you want to upgrade your SSD. It’s a lot harder to keep a system secure if the user can poke and prod the hardware, i mean the Wii’s security was literally beaten by tweezers

SolarPunker, do games w PS5 ROM Keys Leaked: Sony’s Unpatchable Security Nightmare (2026) | The CyberSec Guru

I hope this will lower its price

chocrates,

Probably going in the other direction. Now current gen ones are more valuable then the next gen they make.

If Sony was selling ps5’s at cost or loss, then you could get a gaming pc and run Linux on it for cheaper than building one

73QjabParc34Vebq, do games w PS5 ROM Keys Leaked: Sony’s Unpatchable Security Nightmare (2026) | The CyberSec Guru

If the PS5 could be booted to a decent Linux desktop, I’d buy one to play with it. A good OS with a fun form factor.

Otherwise, don’t buy consoles.

Chozo,
@Chozo@fedia.io avatar

I'm kinda out of touch with hardware pricing these days. Let's say I wanted to buy a second PS5 for the purposes of turning into a desktop like this; would that be better or worse than just buying normal hardware and building a PC of equivalent specs?

bubblybubbles, do games w PS5 ROM Keys Leaked: Sony’s Unpatchable Security Nightmare (2026) | The CyberSec Guru

Seems cool, but what does this mean?

AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor,

In simple: you can tell your ps5 that ANYTHING is legal and ok to be executed on it.

shittydwarf, do games w PS5 ROM Keys Leaked: Sony’s Unpatchable Security Nightmare (2026) | The CyberSec Guru

This is really cool, fuck Sony

Stupendous, do games w PS5 ROM Keys Leaked: Sony’s Unpatchable Security Nightmare (2026) | The CyberSec Guru

I have a PS5 that I rarely turn on. Everything ends up on PC. PC handhelds better than a PS Portal. To phone streaming everything supports. Playing PC games on Android is a thing now. Switch handles party gaming. No replacing Mario party/kart/tennis/strikers/golf. Nintendo IP party games are OP

What I’m interested in are the insights the PS5 will give into PS4 architecture. PS5 is backwards compatible and seeing what the PS5 does to accommodate any problematic games in BC. PS4 emulation over 5 because 4 is well along. PS5 is deep in the no console exclusives era. Early PS4 still had semblance of third party exclusives and Japanese games skipping PC

I unplugged the PS5 Ethernet port just in case I ever want to do something in the future. I doubt it besides possibly future of running Linux on it. It’d make a great gaming PC someday as a gift. People always talk about exclusives as a reason for consoles. I play way more games on PC that aren’t available on consoles. Too old and abandoned. Too indie so it may not show up for years if ever on consoles.

Hopefully the Xbox series X gets jail broken someday too. They’d be great values for gaming PCs

Naho_Zako,

We barely turned our PS5 on until about a year and a half ago, it was the Switch that was getting all our love. Now we have a Switch 2 we barely touch and the PS5 gets attention cause games are on sale (nobody bought it lol)

I do PC game, but I prefer console because there’s WAY less fiddling and tinkering due to hardware issues or shitty game ports. I was excited for the FFVII steam sale until I saw the reviews complaining about stuttering and performance issues. I prefer a painless, boot-it-up-and-play-immediately experience over modding capability.

criticon,

nobody bought the ps5?

Key Figures & Estimates (Late 2025/Early 2026)

PlayStation 5 (PS5): ~84-86 million units (crossing 80M mark by late 2025).

Xbox Series X/S: ~34 million units (estimates vary, but well behind PS5).

Nintendo Switch (Original): ~154 million units (still selling well, nearing DS).

Nintendo Switch 2 (New): Starting sales with ~12.4 million units by late 2025 (estimated).

84 mil seems like a lot. PS games have always been discounted, contrary to Nintendo games

AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor, do games w PS5 ROM Keys Leaked: Sony’s Unpatchable Security Nightmare (2026) | The CyberSec Guru

Not that I particularly care as the few exclusives on ps5 are all arriving on pc.

But this is gonna be hell on earth for anyone interested in competitive multiplayer games.

And the damage to Sony might be epochal if the exploit is easy enough for anyone to do it.

SalamenceFury,
@SalamenceFury@lemmy.world avatar

Competitive multiplayer games are already cooked on Playstation anyways since a lot of console cheaters use Cronus on PS4s that can’t detect it.

Chozo,
@Chozo@fedia.io avatar

Chronus can be detected on consoles, just not super easily. And it kinda depends on each game's developer and their ability to implement such detections. I know that Embark Studios have said that they've found ways to detect such devices in The Finals.

I believe that, while they can't detect the actual hardware plugged into the console, they're able to detect input patterns that would only be possible from M/K (such as 0ms AD-spamming). Of course, I can't imagine that's 100% foolproof on its own, either.

chocrates,

Why? Other than allowing piracy and home brew stuff what does this mean?

AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor,

Cheating online is gonna be extremely easy since you can just run a cheat program as legitimate software.

That could snowball into people not buying any big competitive game on ps5 anymore.

chocrates,

Ah ok. In my mind, sony wanted to sell consoles and a console in can hack is more interesting to me than before.

They are basically just computers now, I wasn’t getting why it was such a big deal.

pory,
@pory@lemmy.world avatar

Eh. Nintendo’s been bumfucked like this for the majority of the Switch lifespan. detecting and banning modded consoles is a cat and mouse game that favors the cat. Piracy favors the mouse, because piracy happens in your home on your hardware. Online play is you trying to play ball in Sony’s court.

Softmodded consoles probably won’t even be able to play online, let alone cheat online.

russjr08, do games w PS5 ROM Keys Leaked: Sony’s Unpatchable Security Nightmare (2026) | The CyberSec Guru
@russjr08@piefed.zip avatar

Well, someone is certainly not having a Happy New Year heh.

Meanwhile others are absolutely over the moon celebrating 🎉

gegil, do games w PS5 ROM Keys Leaked: Sony’s Unpatchable Security Nightmare (2026) | The CyberSec Guru

If ps5 hack will allow running linux on it, i will run linux on it.

poVoq,
@poVoq@slrpnk.net avatar

That is already possible, but the hacks to get it actually to run are quite annoying and limited to a few older versions AFAIK.

Hopefully with this you can just boot Linux normally on a PS5 in the nearish future. Would definitely make for a nice Steam Machine.

P1nkman,

Would definitely make for a nice Steam Machine.

That would be absolutely brilliant!

WhatGodIsMadeOf,

Isn’t there a lot of custom hardware that would require drivers to allow it to work effectively?

poVoq,
@poVoq@slrpnk.net avatar

They have been selling the same SoCs (slightly defective ones) in various forms for crypto-mining etc. and as a result Linux kernel support is supposedly quite good already.

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