What is PlayStation Jailbreaking?
Jailbreaking has been around for as long as the consoles themselves. It’s not something that targets specifically the PlayStation® 4, but rather every successful console that has ever been sold. While the landscape has changed over the years shifting from hardware mods with modchips, daughterboards, and other janky setups to software-level exploits, jailbreaking is still very much regarded as a way to liberate your console and play whatever you want on it.
The PlayStation® 3 has seen multiple jailbreaks, custom firmware (CFWs), and even homebrew loaders over the years. The software and hardware (particularly on the older “fat” models) are rather vulnerable and well known by now. As such, homebrew loaders like HEN / HAN and custom firmware like Cobra have long been released and represent a staple of the PlayStation® 3 jailbreak community.
But what about PlayStation® 4?
Sony has understood with the PlayStation 3 that the security has to be beefed up if they wanna fight the wave of jailbreakers, so with the release of PlayStation 4 and the subsequent software updates it keeps receiving to this day, Sony has introduced a lot of ways to deter jailbreakers and stop them on their tracks. We’ll discuss those further down.
Is Jailbreaking my PlayStation® 4 or PlayStation® 3 even legal?
The legality of it is still a gray area. Sony has been known to go against jailbreak developers such as George Hotz (geohot) and the fail0verflow team in the past going as far as to sue them. While geohot has settled with Sony outside court, this goes to show Sony doesn’t regard these jailbreaks very well.
The SCEA v. Hotz lawsuit was back in early 2011. Since then, the DMCA landscape has changed a lot thanks to lobbying from various right-to-repair groups prompting a DMCA exemption in 2012 and 2015 making jailbreaking legal for wireless wearable devices such as phones, tablets, etc. However, for consoles, the legality is very much still a gray area.
While jailbreaking itself may or may not be illegal in your area, pirating games must definitely be, so the way you use your jailbroken console is your own business and we do not provide legal advice.
IMPORTANT: Game Tutorial Pro does not condone piracy. Please use the information in this article responsibly. It is provided for educational and reference purposes only.
Disadvantages of jailbreaking your PlayStation® 4
If you wanna jailbreak your PlayStation® 4, you must be on the right firmware. In many cases, these firmware versions are old, outdated, and lack several bug fixes and features added in recent years. Everybody talks about the benefits of jailbreaking the console, such as sideloading games, accessing your game saves, installing Linux on the console, and so on, but it’s not always bright colors.
Here are a few reasons why you may not wanna jailbreak your PlayStation 4:
- There’s a very high risk of having your PSN ID banned by Sony.
- You won’t be able to play online because you cannot sign in to your PSN as it requires you to have the latest firmware version which is usually not jailbreakable.
- Depending on where you live, you are likely doing something illegal either by jailbreaking or by pirating games!
- You may not be able to update your games because you cannot sign in to your PSN.
- You lack any bug fixes or features introduced in firmware versions newer than the one you must stay on.
- Your console will error out and crash a lot more due to the janky-built homebrew software.
- Jailbreaking will void your console’s warranty.
So should you still jailbreak? That is your decision to make, but if you do make it you should be informed about the disadvantages too, not only the benefits.
Current PlayStation 4 Jailbreak Status
As of right now, here are the firmware versions that can be jailbroken and on what devices. As you know, PlayStation 4 also had various revisions including “fat” models, the slim standard model, and PlayStation 4 Pro. Depending on the hardware and software combo you have, you may or may not be able to jailbreak.
| PlayStation® 4 Firmware | Exploit Available? |
|---|---|
| 9.00 OFW | JAILBREAK RELEASED: Jailbreak link: https://nightkinghost.com/ |
| 9.00 OFW | sleirsgoevy released a public webkit exploit for firmware 9.00 |
| 7.50 - 7.55 OFW | sleirsgoevy released a full exploit for firmware 7.50 up to 7.55. |
| 6.72 - 7.02 OFW | sleirsgoevy released a full exploit for 7.02 AND ChendyChap released a full exploit for 7.02. |
| 5.05 - 6.72 OFW | A public WebKit exploit is available up to firmware 6.72. A public kernel exploit was released by TheFlow up to firmware 7.02. |
| 5.05 OFW | SpecterDev released a full exploit for 5.05. |
| 5.01 - 5.50 OFW | A WebKit exploit is available. |
| 4.05 - 4.74 OFW | SpecterDev released a full exploit for 4.05 and 4.55. |
| 3.55 OFW | A WebKit exploit is available to the public. |
| 1.76 OFW | CTurt released a full exploit for 1.76. |
Check out the best PlayStation® 4 Settings and Tweaks to do in 2021 For Battery life and more!
PlayStation® 4, PlayStation® 3, PlayStation® are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment.