PS5 “ROM keys” have been leaked, better not update from 12.00 firmware
Keys labeled as “PS5 ROM Keys” were added to the PS5 Developer Wiki, and screenshots of that page started circulating on social media since yesterday. In plain terms, “ROM keys” are part of the PS5’s startup security. The console runs a small boot program first (BootROM). That code checks and decrypts the next step in the boot process. The leaked key material can help ‘researchers’ understand those early steps.
This still is not a jailbreak. Keys do not give code execution on a retail console by themselves. A jailbreak needs a working entry point to run code, then a chain that reaches higher privileges and survives the PS5’s integrity checks. The keys can make analysis faster, because more of the boot flow stops being a black box, but the exploit chain is still the hard part.
Source: PSdevwiki
Right now, the methods people share still have strict limits. One common starting point relies on specific PS4 games that can be used as an entry door, including Fuyu Kiss, through a save-file trick used by Remote Lua Loader. This game comes up in PS5 hacking discussions because it is one of the PS4 titles built on the Artemis visual novel engine, which uses Lua scripting. Projects like Remote Lua Loader list Fuyu Kiss as a supported game, because a crafted save file can be used to load Lua as a userland entry point. Owning the game does not equal a jailbreak. It is only one possible first step.
Getting past that first step is the hard part, and firmware matters. Notes around recent kernel work say the bug was patched in PS5 firmware 12.02 , so most guides and discussions focus on consoles running 12.00 or older for that path.
The other context is tihmstar’s recent 39C3 talk about attacking the AMD Platform Security Processor , which is part of the same trust chain story. It suggests deeper research is happening below the OS level, but it is separate from a consumer-ready jailbreak.
And no, this does not mean cracked games run on PS5 right now. ROM keys do not bypass license checks, package signatures, or the kernel-level protections that enforce them. The leaked keys mostly just make it easier and faster to ‘study’ how the PS5 boots and protects itself, which can help future hacks. He still cannot use them like a cheat code to unlock ‘free games'”
Source: PSDevWiki via CyberSecGuru
