A growing number of PS4 users are “stuck” on Firmwares 9.03/9.04 (and soon 9.50), and wondering when we should expect a new Jailbreak. Here’s what we know.
PS4 Jailbreak – The current status
The PS4 scene has been on fire with the recent pOOBs4 Jailbreak release for firmware 9.00. A lot of tools and homebrew games have been updated to the latest exploitable firmware. Icing on the cake, Firmware 9.00 is recent so it’s easy enough to find a PS4 with Firmware 9.00 or lower at a reasonable price.
But there’s a growing number of people stuck on recent firmwares 9.03/9.04/9.50 wondering what’s coming for them.
TL,DR: the best option for you if you’re looking to Jailbreak your PS4, is to buy a PS4 running firmware 9.00 or lower, at this point (eBay is your friend). Now, It is rare enough to be emphasized: this time around you might have better luck buying a used PS4 9.00, than trying to get a new model, as those have been out of stock for some time now. Of course if you find a new PS4 for a reasonable price, go for it, it’s very likely it will be under 9.00 at this point.
For those of you who are stuck with a higher firmware and for some reason cannot buy a 9.00 PS4, there are two important rules you’ll need to follow: 1) patience, and 2) do not update your PS4.
PS4 9.03/9.04/9.50 Jailbreak? Patience
Patience is key if you’re waiting for a PS4 Jailbreak. As I’ve mentioned before, the average time between two jailbreaks is around 9 months. But it has been as low as 4 months, and as high as 2 years. Without any significant news on the exploit front, nobody can really predict how long it’s going to take until the next one. But since the last Jailbreak was only a couple of months ago, people shouldn’t be holding their breath.
The current status of PS4 exploits is as follows:
To “Jailbreak” a PS4, we typically need two exploits:
First, a “usermode” exploit, which is an entry point to run unsigned code through data that you have control of, as a PS4 user. Historically this has often been a webkit vulnerability. The good news on that front is that the webkit vulnerability used for the 9.00 exploit is still apparently open as of firmware 9.04, according to scene veteran Zecoxao:
Firmware 9.50 however allegedly patches the Webkit vulnerability, so we already know that people who choose to update to 9.50 will potentially have a harder time exploiting their console in the future.
The Webkit entry point is only the first step to Jailbreaking a console. The next, and arguably more important step, is a privilege escalation exploit (a.k.a. kernel exploit) , the actual “Jailbreak” that gives us full control of the console. This is what the pOOBs4 exploit did on firmware 9.00. That has been patched in 9.03 (the patch from 9.03 is actually how the exploit was discovered by Chendochap, through a diff), which is why 9.03 and above are not exploitable at the moment.
There is no ongoing discussion on the scene about a “new” kernel exploit. None of the reputable hackers has shared a “hint” of anything that would be kept under wraps at the moment. Which doesn’t mean there isn’t anything happening under the hood, but certainly indicates that people should be patient.
In general, the hackers collectively try to “time” their releases in a way that they do not feel wasteful. This often means they will wait until a specific firmware patches the exploit, before releasing the exploit.
Which lets me segue into the second rule you have to follow:
Waiting for a PS4 9.03/9.04/9.50 Jailbreak? Do not update
Unless a hardware vulnerability is found on the PS4, the PS4 Jailbreak world is going to remain a cat-and-mouse game between Sony and hackers. Kernel exploits will get patched as soon as they are released (and nowadays even before they are released), which means if you keep your PS4 up to date to the latest firmware, you’re pretty much guaranteed you’ll never be able to Jailbreak your console.
Keeping your PS4 on as low a firmware as you can is pretty much a prerequisite if you want a Jailbreak. It has several drawbacks such as the impossibility to access any online services on the device, including playing online. But it’s a choice.
Conclusion – PS4 9.50 Jailbreak ETA Wen?
Firmwares 9.03 and 9.04 are still impacted by the Webkit Vulnerability. Early reports suggest that 9.50 patched it. No kernel exploit is publicly being talked about (let alone discussions of a release) at the time of this writing, so the probability for a PS4 9.03/9.04/9.50 Jailbreak “soon” is extremely low. People on these firmwares should expect to wait multiple months, or buy a second-hand 9.00 PS4.
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