Sony Faces Unpatchable PS5 Jailbreak Threat After ROM Keys Leak

The PlayStation 5 has essentially been cracked, just in time for 2026, and it would appear that short of releasing a new hardware revision, there's not much Sony can do about it. This is because PlayStation 5 hackers have found the BootROM (Level 0) keys for the PlayStation 5, which enables decryption of the bootloader and, from there, allows hackers to control what software can run on the machine.

In the short-term, this doesn't mean much, but soon enough, custom firmware and unlicensed backups will likely be available for current PlayStation 5 hardware. TheCyberSecGuru anticipates that "we will see more sophisticated game backups and loaders appearing in 2026", and that "this leak significantly shortens the timeline for mass piracy". The route to (legitimate and illegitimate) emulation has also become a lot shorter, since leaked PS5 BootROM keys will make it easier for emulators to replicate booting and decrypting game loaders.


The CyberSecGuru notes that this should lead to a faster timeline on 60 FPS Bloodborne, but this is a somewhat outdated notion, as 60 FPS Bloodborne is already possible on a hacked PS5 or PS4 Pro, and unlocked framerate Bloodborne already feasible on ShadPS4. This leak should jumpstart PlayStation 5 emulation, though.

The long term implications of this move mean permanently jailbroken PlayStation 5 consoles are coming, and while that does bode well for personal backups and homebrew development, it will unquestionably lead to increased piracy and other shenanigans on the PlayStation 5. Sony will likely resort to legal action against leakers of the cracked BootROM keys and hack developers, and ban cracked consoles/accounts from the PlayStation Network. Finally, this makes a new revision of PlayStation 5 hardware in 2026 a strong posibility, and if the PlayStation 5 Pro shares BootROM keys with the base PS5, we may also see a revision of that console as well.

Fortunately, this isn't an apocalyptic scenario for Sony by any means. The PlayStation 5 is still among the most successful consoles of this generation, and legitimate users will always outnumber pirates.