Sony Announces PlayStation Bug Bounty Program, PS4 Jailbreak ETA Never?

It's been just over 2 years since the last Full PS4 Jailbreak was publicly released, and as some PlayStation scene devs shared optimistic Tweets that if more homebrew is made they may work on a new jailbreak while others alluded that one may surface after the PS5 Release this Holiday 2020 with today's PlayStation Bug Bounty Program announcement by Sony offering rewards starting at $50,000.00 for critical PS4 vulnerabilities the proverbial PS4 Jailbreak question ETA WEN? may soon become ETA Never as $ony pays off hackers for disclosing new exploits to be patched.

Following Microsoft's XBox Bounty Program launch, that could mean only those who already own or are still able to Locate a PS4 5.05 / 5.07 Jailbroken Console would be able to enjoy recent advancements in the PS4 homebrew scene including the OpenOrbis DevKit PS4 Library Ports, Mira Project PS4 Homebrew Tools and the OpenOrbis PS4 Toolchain with a reduced chance of seeing a Future PS4 Jailbreak Exploit being publicly released.

Of course not all scene hackers do it for financial reasons (such as monetary gain) so $ony's latest tactic may not sway their motives, there are some who may decide to profit while discreetly releasing their findings anonymously... and as the PlayStation 3 scene taught everyone depending on the severity of the hack it may not be patchable and would require a new hardware revision to fix the exploit.

Here's the official announcement from Sony's Senior Director Software Engineering Geoff Norton, to quote:

At PlayStation, we are committed to providing gamers all over the world with great experiences. I’m happy to announce today that we have started a public PlayStation Bug Bounty program because the security of our products is a fundamental part of creating amazing experiences for our community.

We believe that through working with the security research community we can deliver a safer place to play. We have partnered with HackerOne to help run this program, and we are inviting the security research community, gamers, and anyone else to test the security of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Network. Our bug bounty program has rewards for various issues, including critical issues on PS4. Critical vulnerabilities for PS4 have bounties starting at $50,000.

To date, we have been running our bug bounty program privately with some researchers. We recognize the valuable role that the research community plays in enhancing security, so we’re excited to announce our program for the broader community.

We have carefully considered what issues will be in scope at this time. You can find more information about the exact details of the program at our HackerOne page.

• https://hackerone.com/playstation/hacktivity

At the PlayStation Hacktivity link above you can see which PS4 scene devs cashed in on their findings recently... for example, over the last 6 months theflow0 (Twitter) who noted "don't update past FW 6.20 if you want a kxploit" made $10,000.00 while @Octopus (aka oct0xor on Twitter) who previously shared a PS4 Registry Editor and Viewer and detailed Sony PS4 / PS3 Blu-ray Disc Drive Internals & Security at the 36c3 Talk in his Livestream segment made $75,000.00 from PlayStation in the following transactions:

• $25,000.00
• $40,000.00
• $2,500.00
• $2,500.00
• $2,500.00
• $2,500.00

It appears the PlayStation scene has evolved from unloading Re-DRM dongles on users to selling exploits back to $ony to keep their video game consoles secure.

 

[Eaglehook]

@arifx2 listen listen, i have a ps4 pro and its sounds like a fckin vacuum cleaner, i tried everything, thermal crap, pads helped a little, but what really helped is the fan control plugins method up 84 degree, i cant focus on games with a jet close to my ear so get lost

 

[Gianjonrel]

sad for jb scene huhu

 

[GamerX2]

@Eaglehook Wow, other gamers would do anything to get their system cool down properly LOUD SOUND MEANS YOU'RE SYSTEM IS SAFE i fine! low sound = heat

who cares about the noise, i didn't know that your guns in games are set to silent mode, they're more loud to even hear the noise man. that's a sign of Misophonia you need to be careful, and use headset as well, i'll block the noise

Ps, there's no cure for Misophonia you can only use headsets to avoid the noise

 

[USER42]

99% of the people only want free games, for those idiots that's the scene

 

[invisiblemuppet]

The problem is mostly in that most ppl dont give 2 sh!ts about homebrew of the effort that goes into it. They Just want to play newer games.

That's not a lot of incentive for these devs that invest a lot of their free time into finding these vulnerabilities.

However, when the bugs are reported/sold to Sony they will probably be patched. This makes the release of them more probable.

 

[NuLLiFiER]

I'm hopping whatever private jailbreak that already exists works in the latest fw version available now. Meaning that if it gets patched in the next firmware, all released games so far will be available. And since it's patched, it can be released for us end-users.

Even though it cuts us the possibility of having a jb that works for the entire PS4 generation, I assume it will cut the waiting time for the impatient users that just want it now!

 

[Eaglehook]

@GamerX2 it is not my fault that Sony's ps4 pro is the worst console ever in terms of build quality heat and noise level,even cheap laptops dosent make that noise, so save your psyche analysis to your self.

i play a horror game like resident Evil 7 and sonys jet air lines kills the experience, heck even sony admits that they made a crappy heat job.

 

[invisiblemuppet]

Yes the first generation pro is very loud.
I opened it up and put on Arctic silver 5 thermal paste, that made it a great deal more quiet.

 

[Fle]

Wow, we waited this long just for it to end with people selling out the exploits that would've made all this waiting pay off. Oh well, patience is a virtue sitting on 5.05 isn't bad when you have PC to play the latest games.

Everyone who gave Sony exploits are sellouts, once your money is gone you'll never be viewed the same in the PS4 exploit scene and once the money they got is spent they'll have nothing to cover the pain of being viewed as sellouts. There's people that still try to exploit the Sega and yet these people are selling out LOL sad.

 

[Chaos Kid]

@invisiblemuppet don't use artic silver 5 use artic mx4 you don't want silver on your processor at all