Comment by mattcasmith
4 days ago
I was amazed recently by how locked down the hidden PlayStation 5 browser is.
You can’t access it as an app through the dashboard, but it appears if you click a URL from a message. So people were sending themselves “google[.]com”, clicking, and enjoying web access.
But it seems Sony have even clamped down on that. I sent a message to myself recently, the link wasn’t clickable, and I got a message to say my PlayStation Network account had received a warning and could be suspended if I did it again!
They are used to exploit known vulns to get arbitrary read write, calls. For cheating. Both freebsd kernel exploits and browser exploits.
Also for rooting the console, which makes it way easier to run cracked games. I think I saw a browser being used for getting root access first with PS3 unless I misremember.
Weird to see this is still a thing on the latest console generation. Xbox runs software under HyperV which should make exploitation difficult
The PS5 also runs apps (games/browser) under a hypervisor. There was a hypervisor escape though coupled with webkit as an entrypoint:
* https://ps5dev.github.io/ps5-wiki/hypervisor
* https://github.com/PS5Dev/Byepervisor
* https://github.com/PS5Dev/PS5-UMTX-Jailbreak/blob/main/READM...
> I got a message to say my PlayStation Network account had received a warning and could be suspended if I did it again!
What?!? Really? Did they cite what rule you had violated?
“Sharing malicious URLs, including those that may harm another player.”
The URL was google[.]com.
It's still a wise idea to take it seriously. Many years ago, a then 17 y/o old ( German ) friend of mine did mitm on his own console in order to replace a video stream in ps home, recorded it for youtube/laughs. Not much later he was SWATed by the german police as if he was some kind of terrorist. His parents got a heart attack. Next he received financial death threats from a ultra expensive UK based law firm send by Sony.