Hackers fully controlled a PlayStation 4 running a Linux distro

Pierluigi Paganini January 02, 2016

The hacking crew dubbed Fail0verflow has managed to hack PlayStation 4 (PS4) to run a Linux kernel-based operating system.

The PlayStation 4 is considered by the experts a fortress so the hacking community is always interested in any news regarding its hack.

Recently a hacker who calls himself CTurt claimed to develop a fully jailbroken version of the PlayStation 4 with the help of a kernel exploit that he previously created.sony playstation 4

CTurt exploited the hack in PlayStation 4 v1.76 to inject malicious code in the PS4 and gain control of the gaming platform.

But hackers are not only interested in playing with the-the PlayStation 4, they are also interested in using it as a hacking platform and news of the day is that the hacking crew dubbed Fail0verflow has managed to hack PlayStation 4 (PS4) to run a Linux kernel-based operating system.

Fail0verflow announced the hack through its blog, although the hackers haven’t disclosed the details of the hack, experts speculate they exploited a WebKit flaw similar to the one used by CTurt for developing a PS4 jailbroken.

The Fail0verflow group first presented its PlayStation 4 hack at the 32nd Chaos Communication Congress (32c3) conference .

“If you’re here, you’ve probably heard about our lightning talk at the 32nd Chaos Communication Congress demoing Linux on a PS4. This post continues where the talk left off and clarifies a few aspects of what we’re doing, and why.” reads the blog post.

 

The hacking crew claims to have designed the homebrew software that could allow them to gain complete control over the console, they also demonstrated the installation of an emulator for the Game Boy Advance and a version of Pokémon. Below a video PoC of the hack.

The video shows hackers installing a Linux OS on a PlayStation and using some of its functionalities including WiFi and Bluetooth.

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Sony PlayStation 4, hacking)



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