Unlike PCs, hijacking games on the latest consoles such as PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch are quite impossible because of the complexity of protection owned by the console. To be able to play games illegally, the firmware of the console needs to be hacked first and it becomes the most complicated stage for hackers. 4 years after the release of this eighth generation console from Sony, it seems that it has been successfully done with the birth of "PS4HEN".
Once announced at the end of December 2017 yesterday, the perentas team is now releasing the PS4HEN program in general through websites like Github. PS4HEN is a program that can activate homebrew applications and run game backup files. In order for Homebrew to run game backup files, a program called PKG Kitchen is also released along with PS4HEN. PKG Kitchen is enabled to create backup files from PS4 games as well as modify the game. The existence of this PKG Kitchen makes big games like Grand Theft Auto V, Uncharted 4, World of Final Fantasy, and others have been widespread on the Internet in recent days.
In addition to playing some PS4 games, hackers behind this program also find if there is a PS2 emulator hidden behind this firmware. As a result, all claimed PS2 games can be played with the help of the tool program they also created. Games like Klonoa 2 and Shinobi have been tested by hackers and proven to run smoothly through emulation programs injected inside the PS4.
For now the program is only able to work on PS4 with firmware version 4.05. The latest version now released by Sony is 5.05 firmware version, which means the program is limited to only be able to play games in 2016 down and unable to access the online features. But the hacker creator of this program opens the possibility of breaking into the latest firmware version that has been released by Sony.
Sony has not issued comment on this issue, although only able to run the old version of the firmware, the existence of PS4HEN remains a major threat to Sony and will likely soon overcome them. Will this homebrew and backup tool program succeed in getting to the latest firmware? We will see later.