fail0verflow release the missing component to boot Linux

Mar 8, 2016 03:10 GMT  ·  By

Famous fail0verflow hacking group has announced the release of the missing piece that would allow PS4 owners to boot a Linux kernel-based operating system on their gaming console.

As reported by us on the last day of 2015, the fail0verflow team managed to hack Sony's PlayStation 4 (PS4) console to run the well-known Gentoo Linux operating system.

A demo has been shown at the 32nd Chaos Communication Congress (32c3) event on December 30, 2015, running Gentoo with Linux kernel 4.4, systemd 228, as well as the lightweight Xfce desktop environment.

However, until a few days ago, it was not possible for the average Joe or Jane to run a GNU/Linux operating system on their PlayStation 4 gaming console. That changes today with the release of a kexec loader and an exploit.

"It's worth noting that with the released kexec loader and kernel (and an exploit) you should be able to replicate our 32c3 demo," said the fail0verflow team in a tweet (attached at the end of the article).

So, in order to boot Linux on your PS4, you need to have firmware version 1.76, the ps4-kexec loader, as well as the ps4-linux kernel forked from Linus Torvalds' branch. Of course, you'll also need the leaked PS4 BadIRET kernel exploit, and kernel compiling experience.