PlayStation 4 Hack Lets Pirates Run Stolen Games
A set of Brazilian pirates have discovered a new flaw in Sony’s PlayStation 4 gaming console, allowing pirates to hack the console and run stolen copies of any game.
According to UOL Jogos, Brazilian pirates have identified a flaw in the gaming system, allowing hackers to override the default settings and play ripped versions of PlayStation 4 games.
To verify the validity of the PlayStation 4 hack, a UOL Jogos journalists put the hack to the test. To start, the journalist had various games installed on his PlayStation 4 console from an electronic store that sells video games in the Sao Paulo streets. The games the journalist had installed run an average of $60 per game, but the reporter identified that the store selling the games on the street was retailing copied versions of the game.
Stores on the street typically copy 10 games to a PlayStation 4 for around $100 to $150. The price on average for the amount of games that came pre-installed on the system would run around $600. For confirmation, the journalists found they could install any of the ripped versions of games onto their own console, while all games worked fine and were playable.
The hack does not utilize or run on the old “account sharing” technique.
The PlayStation 4 hack allegedly originated from a Russian website, and bases off an old PlayStation 3 exploit, where hackers used a Raspberry Pi for the hack.
Pirates hacked the PS4 console by creating what the stores described as a “dump,” where hackers take a PS4 with games already installed, and begin to transfer them to another console which is already hacked. A “dump” is when the hard drive contents are copied over, but for the PS4 hack to work, the NAND/BIOS of the console is also dumped. Similar to the old PS3 hack, this runs on a Raspberry Pi as well.
The latest PS4 exploit is not a jailbreak, nor can is be considered one due to the circumstances.
According to reporters, Brazilian pirates have been selling these copied video games for well over a month now. Yet Sony has not made any comments regarding the new exploit, but seeing as the news is widespread, Sony could be working on a patch for the PlayStation 4 flaw.
Technically the hack could be considered illegal, which could cause for Sony to roll out a massive mandatory patch among all PlayStation 4 consoles, presumably banning all consoles that have already been hacked.
As the story develops, we will keep you updated.
