Hacker claims to have jailbroken PlayStation 4 to play pirated games, and upset Sony

Graham Cluley
Graham Cluley
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A hacker called Reckz0r appears to have raised the ire of the mighty Sony corporation, after he published what appears to be a way to jailbreak the new PlayStation 4 to play pirated games.

Details of PlayStation 4 jailbreak, posted on PasteBin

In a PasteBin post about the alleged jailbreak, Reckz0r referred to the case of George Hotz (aka “GeoHot”), the notorious hacker who managed to crack the PlayStation 3 and ended up on the sharp end of legal action from Sony, resulting in his agreeing never to hack one of the comnpany’s products again.

PlayStation 4Many felt that Sony’s behaviour in that case was heavy-handed, and it wasn’t perhaps that surprising when the entertainment giant suffered from a series of hacks which drove its PlayStation Network offline, its corporate websites defaced, and saw millions of customers have their personal information stolen.

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According to Reckz0r’s post, he says he did not himself find the vulnerability in the PlayStation 4 (which runs Orbis OS, a modified version of FreeBSD) or create the exploit. Instead he credits a Brazilian console-hacking forum.

What Reckz0r does do, however, is provide what he claims is a simple tutorial on how anyone can jailbreak their PlayStation 4.

As you all know, PS4 runs Orbis OS, that is highly based on FreeBSD (which is a opensource operating system), and as the PS4 is closely identical to a PC, I guess you all knew that PS4 and the Xbox One will probably end up getting pwned soon, and now..its time.

Does Reckz0r’s jailbreak guide actually work? I’m afraid I can’t confirm that. The PlayStation 4 is sold out in many stores, and I certainly don’t have one.

As you can probably imagine, such developments (if true) are not likely to go down well at Sony.

Reckz0r posted a screenshot of what appeared to be a conversation he had with the official PlayStation Twitter account, via direct message.

PlayStation 4 abuse

If the screenshot is to be believed, PlayStation appears displeased by his antics and adopts an angry tone:

No? We’re giving you one day, to delete that PasteBin link you have recently posted, alongside with the files if you have uploaded them somewhere.

It won’t take us long to get you arrested if you’re still going to proceed spreading the jailbreak. :) Take the Geohotz sceanario as an example.

Wherever you stand on the debate of whether people should be able to jailbreak their home entertainment devices, one thing is for sure.

Hackers really don’t like Sony.

Article updated to make clear that the veracity of the hacker’s claims have not been confirmed. Until someone confirms that the jailbreak is real, it may be sensible to assume it is a fake.


Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "Smashing Security" podcast. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

31 comments on “Hacker claims to have jailbroken PlayStation 4 to play pirated games, and upset Sony”

  1. ratpack

    F*** you Sony, you f***ing c***suckers. Can you believe them and their way to just feel they can push ppl around. Can’t stand that company.

    1. lolwut · in reply to ratpack

      lol the twitter direct messages are faked, they exceed 140
      characters limit set by twitter, plus the responses made seem a bit
      over zealous even for Sony, as for the hack, highly doubt it works
      and even if it is a hack it doesn't have anything to
      combat the games specific encryption and has no utility to run the
      hack, this kid is nothing more than that… a kid and he's
      trying to either make himself look like a big boy/ bada$$ or
      he's trying to spark some sort of feud. As for the
      messages below claiming they’ve run the hack and it works, stop
      attention whoring and get your facts right on how hacks work before
      you try to claim fame

  2. XPGDark

    i tried this jailbreak on my ps4 8 hours ago, when it was posted newly, i booted up in safe mode and tried the jailbreak, it worked fine but it booted back to my screen so i am guessing it worked? some guys at game-tuts.com and xpgamesaves.com are also claiming that they tried this out and it works

  3. Sven Slootweg

    It's worth noting that Reckz0r is well-known as an "attentionwhore" that makes things up and steals credit for other peoples work, in an attempt to get fame. Anything he claims should be assumed fake, unless undeniably proven true.

  4. Walrus

    The "DM's" he posted are clearly
    fake. They far exceed the 140 character limit.

  5. Darwin was right

    Lol, srzly? Is that Sony's official post or a
    threat from a 11 year old? Sad.

    1. derp · in reply to Darwin was right

      It's a fake threat written by a 11-year-old,
      'Reckz0r'.

  6. OMEGA

    This guy says buy anything but a Sony product, funny Apple,
    Microsoft, and Android products get jail broken everyday.
    It's actually starting to feel like its quite normal for
    electronic items to get hacked and modded

  7. I wish every console hacker would get busted, arrested and
    sentenced to 1000 years in prison and go too hell. I really dislike
    hackers and spammers.

    1. Leignheart · in reply to George White

      wow dude, that doesnt sound a little extreme to you? if you believe in hell and are a christian then it is extremely foolish to wish anyone to hell, no matter how faulty they are. wow dude, just wow.

      1. Mike kain · in reply to Leignheart

        I don't have a problem with hackers in general, if you enjoy doing it, no problem……… That is until they bring me into the mix by hacking online multi. Games. I've never had empathy towards people so the idea of them burning in hell isn't that bad, and I would love to be the one that sends them there….. After a few hour/ months of torture first though. I keep my hobbies to myself, they should do the same.

    2. paul carr · in reply to George White

      Lol first thing first a hacker is the good guy a cracker is
      the bad guy. Without hackers my friend,well ill leave it at that.
      Also you like to share with us that someone you dislike should go
      to hell or jail lol at the time of my post you have 88 people that
      dislike you or your comment, kind of speaks for its self and your
      small mind :) and yes I am a hacker, and very happy that I am.I am
      20 weeks away from my masters in computer security and digital
      forensics. Have fun with your opinion, as im sure its from the
      comfort of your own home you utter words like that. Just remember
      your online = crackers playground.

    3. So you like having to pay 40-60€ for a game that you complete in 1-3 days? I sure as hell don't, and that's why i support jailbreaking/flashing/chipping/hacking/cracking/CallItWhateverYouWant

    4. chris · in reply to George White
  8. natsu

    Aren't hackers supposed to be smart? this guy
    sounds like a fking idiot! i hate that the world's losers
    and basement crawlers are given a stage with which to display the
    depths of their lameness.

  9. king_daddy29

    It worked for me . Currently playing copy of NBA 2k14 . This is great no ps3 games though :( . The hack really work amd pretty easy to do . Just as easy as the one to rank up in call of duty .

  10. Manheim

    Go team Sony. Jail breaking is just another name for
    stealing.

    1. Joshua · in reply to Manheim

      Jailbreaking is just another name for thrifty…
      I know it's illegal but I'm just a student who love to play videogames…

      It's not the right time for me to buy "Legal" or Original Copy…

      So please understand us… :))

    2. Jason · in reply to Manheim

      There are many reasons for jailbreaking. Personally, I could give two fux about pirating games. I don't have time for games and prefer to spend my free time having real adventures in the real world. Hard core gamers really need to get a life, but a $300 pc with ps4 specs would be awesome.

  11. GP

    As the others have pointed out the messages are clearly fake – uses totally the wrong language for a message from the higher echelons of a multi national billion dollar company.

    I fear both M$ and Sony are going to face an uphill struggle this gen, with the new platform as it is imo it will be much easier to hack than in previous gens.

    On the other hand lets look at the questions regarding jailbreaking something………..well first off it isnt stealing, i would advise people who think it is to find out what jailbreaking actually does. Secondly jailbreaking our own stuff shouldnt be a problem, but then according to all the fine print everyone just oks is the PS4 or Xbone actually ours??

  12. Jay Balls

    It's "go to hell", you idiot!

  13. lolwut

    All that needs to be said…
    https://www.soldierx.com/hdb/Reckz0r As someone mentioned
    earlier… attention whoring at its best

  14. Forrest Guyton

    It is immensely insulting to state that taking control of
    your own device is to "pirate" games.
    Jail-breaking allows many honest hard working programmers the
    opportunity to create innovative applications that utilize this new
    hardware. This piece you have wrote is a mindless regurgitation of
    the mainstream media's vile and unprovoked attack against
    the hard work and dedication of adventurous and innovative
    programmers. George White you say you wish console hackers would go
    to jail, Go to jail for what? How is exercising your basic computer
    using rights a crime. It is sad to see how hostile society has
    become to basic consumer rights. Instead assuming anything a hacker
    does is for piracy.

  15. SHAZZMAZZ

    Im a big fan of hacking even that i haven't hacked anything, but as long as hacking something thats owned by the hacker why should it matter after all it your PS4 so after you hand the money over it is yours and really you have right to do what you want with it and for that reason i think SONY cant tell you if you can have a jailbreak on your PS4.

    I do understand why SONY dont like the jailbreak because some peope use it to play free games and to cheat online gaming which is very bad. so if peope dont do bad things i think SONY wouldnt care.

  16. I love his reply to Sony. lol

  17. arad

    even if this works, i dont think there is a site for cracked games downloads

  18. wayne garrett

    I would gladly pay someone to jailbreak my ps4 and I would even pay top dollar for every single pirate game put on it!

  19. ShR33k

    I don't see what the issue is with jailbreaking… to get more features from a console / device you own. I'm constantly jailbreaking phones. Nintendo Wii was very hackable and look how popular that console was. Nintendo even though they originally hated the fact their console was hacked – decided to embrace the hacking community and sales of the consoles soared. True – the off-set of that was it did allow pirated games to be played – which would hurt any company.

    I think Sony should embrace the hacking community, to allow users of it's consoles to gain extra hidden, locked & unthought of features – but on the understanding that it doesn't allow for pirated games to be played. Not only that, Sony could learn from the experience of what people can/would do with the "hacks" and use that in either new software updates making the hack official or possibly in a newer console. I love my PS3 & PS4 (both official), but opening up hardware – even Microsoft did it with their Kinect camera they spent 10 years developing…. just to see what people would do with it. Things are wrong with the world when Microsoft are the "good guys" in all this!!!

    Activision should also embrace the hacking community, instead of sending a "cease & desist" on someone figuring out how their Skylanders figures works back in 2011 – purely for personal knowledge – these guys still around? I think these guys need bring down more than Sony personally.

  20. Hogie155

    Maybe Sony should fix the Online store and Play now. It's down more often then it's working. I hope they find a hack for Backward compatibility for PS2 games. I have hundreds of those.. lol

  21. CSManiac

    Total fake. It's November 28th and yet the messages clearly state they were sent on November 30th. What a noob. True hackers would never own up to this type of behavior. This is the work of some cracker wanting unwarranted fame for himself. Idiot.

    1. Graham CluleyGraham Cluley · in reply to CSManiac

      Umm.. the article is from 2013. :)

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