IT之家 News on October 27: Recently, there have been quite a few hacking attempts targeting the PS5. Thanks to generative AI, the development of an emulator for running PS5 games on PC has progressed rapidly. Now a hacker has also used AI to discover a PS5 vulnerability, and received a substantial bounty through Sony's security reporting program.
According to an IGN report, after the vulnerability was submitted through Sony's security disclosure channel, Sony paid out the bounty. This PS5 modding enthusiast received a $50,000 reward (IT之家 note: approximately 334,000 RMB at the current exchange rate) for discovering and reporting a high-severity vulnerability; the vulnerability could originally have been used to run the Linux operating system on the PS5.
What makes this case especially remarkable is that the hacker Jordy, who received the $50,000 prize (approximately 334,000 RMB at the current exchange rate), found this vulnerability using AI. Before him, another security engineer had already discovered this vulnerability and had been researching how to deploy Linux on PS5 consoles running firmware versions 13.60 through 14.0.
Many players had originally hoped to dual-boot Linux on their consoles while still being able to normally and legally play Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6), which launches next month. After Sony patches this security vulnerability, that path will no longer be possible.
Jordi said that even if he hadn't reported it, the vulnerability would sooner or later have been discovered by someone else, and he believes anyone could have done it with the help of AI. He chose to claim the bounty because his mother has a terminal illness and urgently needs the money.