It has been a wild few days in the nascent world of PlayStation 5 jailbreaking, with two separate hacking groups making major discoveries that could see PS5 jailbreaking arrive sooner than previously thought.

While neither of the hacks can unlock the PlayStation 5 firmware to allow you to run homebrew games, the two discoveries are a boon for the diligent PS5 jailbreaking community, many of whom work tirelessly to reverse engineer the console's hardware.

Hackers Take First Steps Towards a PS5 Jailbreak

Hacking group Fail0verflow first revealed that they had successfully obtained all of the PS5's encryption root keys, extracted from the machine itself.

The tweet appears to show a long list of decrypted firmware files, with the purple highlight indicating a string with the name "Secure Loader." Analysis of the secure loader, which is likely a secure boot module to protect against custom code running on the PS5 platform, could allow someone with enough experience and time to eventually reverse engineer the PS5's firmware, a vital step in jailbreaking any platform.

Related: iPhone Jailbreaking, Explained: The Pros and Cons of Voiding Your Warranty

However, a PS5 jailbreak isn't suddenly on the horizon with this hack: the symmetric keys recovered here and just one-half of the puzzle. The hackers still require separate asymmetric keys to validate custom code to run on the platform, and these are likely much more difficult to extract from the PS5, if they're contained on the hardware at all.

Still, gaining access to the PS5 firmware will provide valuable insight into the console's inner workings. With time, Fail0verflow and other hacking groups will be able to study the code and potentially reveal other hacks, leading to a PS5 jailbreak.

Interestingly, at the same time, a separate hacker posted an image displaying a PlayStation 5 Debug Settings menu, previously only found on PS5 dev kits. Andy Nguyen (@theflow0 on Twitter) shared the image to Twitter using the PS5's integrated share feature, suggesting that he has found another exploit on the console.

Nguyen quickly followed up his revelation with a tweet stating that he has "No plans for disclosure. No ETA," meaning that he won't reveal the exploit that allowed him to access the menu publicly. And while some rushed to discredit Nguyen, others were quick to point out that he is a revered hacker in several different areas (with extensive PS Vita exploits), and a security engineer for Google.

Related: How to Jailbreak a Fire Stick

PS5 Jailbreak? Or Sony Crackdown?

Without a doubt, Sony will have started work on a patch for any exploits instantly. Even if Fail0verflow and Andy Nguyen are well-revered hackers searching for a PS5 exploit to unlock jailbreaking, Sony will not want any exploits becoming a widespread issue that could compromise its console.

Furthermore, Sony has history with Fail0verflow, taking several of the hacking team to court after they successfully breached the PlayStation 3's security in an attempt to restore the option to run Linux on the now-aging console. But if that wasn't enough, Fail0verflow also reverse-engineered the PlayStation 4, an extensive reversing and rebuilding project culminating in the team running Linux on the console. A video of which you can see below.

There is one important thing to note about the PS4 jailbreak, though. The Fail0verflow team purposefully held off on revealing their exploit until Sony had the chance to patch the issue, meaning that other hackers couldn't follow the same path. With that in mind, the Fail0verflow team could potentially work with Sony on this occasion rather than face the sharp end of Sony's legal stick.

Still, even if Fail0verflow and Andy Nguyen's PS5 jailbreak exploits are not viable in the long run, it shows that PS5 exploits are very much there waiting to be found, putting the ball firmly in Sony's court.