Someone Finally Jailbroke the PS5—Just After Sony Said Players Don’t Own Their Games

A public PS5 jailbreak named Relapse was published on GitHub under an MIT license and can run on consoles with firmware versions 7.00 through 13.60. The exploit chain, released by Linear Fox founder Nathan Fargo and circulated by console-scene figures including ApolloHB, uses a DNS redirect and a page loaded from the PS5 User Guide to run arbitrary code. The repository states the project is intended for educational and security research purposes.

Relapse chains two vulnerabilities to achieve kernel-level access and exposes an ELF loader so users can run homebrew applications or other unsigned payloads. The implementation is tethered: the jailbreak stops working after a reboot and must be re-run each session. The authors warn that the WebKit stage may require multiple attempts and that the kernel stage can hang or panic the console; the repo also cautions about potential system failures, data loss, or account bans.

The timing of the release intersects with litigation over digital ownership. In a class action filed in June in the Northern District of California, plaintiffs allege PlayStation's "Buy Now" button misleads consumers into believing they own titles they purchase. Sony responded in court on August 21, arguing that reasonable consumers would not expect ownership and pointing to license terms stating software is "licensed to you, not sold." The company is asking to move the dispute into private arbitration; a judge has not yet ruled on that motion.

Observers note the jailbreak and the lawsuit address different parts of a broader control debate: the legal question of what buyers acquire from a digital storefront versus the technical ability to run software on hardware they've purchased. Relapse returns some operational control to users who remain on older firmware, while platforms like Sony retain the ability to close the vulnerability through updates. The exploit does not work on consoles updated to firmware 14.00, released September 16.