A gaming console is a contained platform with limited prospects necessary for modification along with further tinkering. This is a major aspect in which gaming consoles differ from computers.
Meanwhile, Microsoft and Sony run their platform with exclusivity. The games are released separately for their consoles and it was very recently that backward compatibility was introduced for Xbox One.
This allowed users to play games from the older iterations of Microsoft’s console on the latest hardware and architecture. When compared to computers, they can have varying hardware. They can also be loaded with different softwares as well as operating systems. PCs also enjoy a large multitude of games and they can be built differently from the ground up.
Therefore, when hackers announced earlier in December that it is possible to jailbreak the PlayStation 4, it came out as quite an achievement. This step has been taken further by another group of hackers name failoverflow. They have jailbroken a PS4 and further loaded it with Linux.
Sony Orbis OS is run by the Sony console and it is based on Linux FreeBSD. It was further reported by Engadget that this hack exploits the Webkit bug in order to gain access to the kernel. It also works on Orbis version 1.74. It is also a much older version than the current 3.11 on the PS4. Moreover, the bug has since been patched.
However, it seems like the hacker group’s method can be tailored to further work on future consoles. The first thing done by the group during the jailbreak demonstration was running a Game Boy Advance emulator on the Linux PS4. At the same time, they fired up a copy of Pokemon Emerald.
Sony’s worst nightmare is a hacker jailbreaking the PS4. Sony probably couldn’t have conceived this idea a couple of years back but lately, it has turned out to be real.
Latest reports indicated that Sony’s current generation gaming console can easily jailbreak their platform using the Cobra USB game emulator. A team of hackers named Hc3kC4 announced it saying that it is yet to be properly disclosed but there are people saying that it could be fake.
Furthermore, the Cobra team is currently working on a PS Vita project. If this emulator is real, PS4 users will be allowed to run homebrew applications while playing pirated games on their consoles as well, as revealed by N4BB.
Reports suggested that the USB dongle would be released on 20th February and will come at a price within $70-$100. Sadly, that day has come and gone and the device is yet to come out with any accurate reports whatsoever.
The PS4 jailbreak was first achieved back in December last year by a developer making use of a kernel exploit which can be located in the PlayStation firmware version 1.76/ CTurt developed it and posted on his Twitter account that he has been successful in jailbreaking the PS4 and according to him, older PlayStation games should also work on the PS4.
This situation doesn’t sit well with Sony which is similar to how Apple reacted when iOS users wanted to jailbreak their devices. The Jailbreaking process is unauthorized by the manufacturer which means that users can brick their device if they proceed with jailbreaking on PS4.
It is very likely that Sony will come out with a new firmware in order to patch the exploit made by CTurt and in this way; they can go around the latest jailbreak exploit on the PS4. The concept of jailbreaking a Sony PlayStation console is a direct insult to their technological manufacturing and development of firmware.