PS5 Linux Loader Goes Public — TheFlow's HV-Exploit Toolchain Boots Ubuntu 24.04 on Phat Consoles (April 30, 2026)

Security engineer Andy Nguyen, known online as TheFlow, on April 30, 2026 publicly released ps5-linux-loader on GitHub — a complete, reproducible toolchain that exploits a patched PlayStation 5 hypervisor vulnerability to boot a full Ubuntu 24.04 desktop on PS5 "Phat" consoles. The project ships a Linux payload, a custom bootloader, an M.2 SSD installer and a fan/CPU/GPU boost utility — with documented HDMI output up to 4K at 60 Hz and benchmarks showing GTA V Enhanced Edition running at 60 FPS at 1440p with ray tracing enabled.

What Happened

Nguyen, a Google security engineer who previously published the PS4 jailbreak and the PS5 IPV6 kernel exploit, teased the work in March 2026 with a proof-of-concept video showing GTA V Enhanced Edition running on a Phat PS5 under Linux. On April 30, 2026 he published the source code and build scripts under the GitHub organisation ps5-linux at github.com/ps5-linux/ps5-linux-loader, turning the demo into a documented, reproducible process anyone with compatible hardware can follow.

The exploit chain is a soft mod, not a permanent installation — the hypervisor exploit must be re-run on every boot, and Sony's official PS5 OS remains untouched on the internal SSD. Once Linux is loaded, the console runs as a standard x86 desktop with full access to the PS5's 8 Zen 2 CPU cores at 3.5 GHz, the RDNA 2 GPU at 2.23 GHz and HDMI audio/video output at up to 4K60.

Key Details

• Hardware: Only PlayStation 5 "Phat" (CFI-1xxx and CFI-2xxx) consoles are supported. The newer PS5 Slim and PS5 Pro are not vulnerable to this exploit chain.
• Firmware: Compatible firmware versions are 3.00, 3.10, 3.20, 3.21, 4.00, 4.02, 4.03, 4.50 and 4.51. Anything 5.00 or newer is patched. Nguyen has said 1.xx and 2.xx support "may come later" but is not a priority.
• Stack: The repo builds a bootable Ubuntu 24.04 image, a hypervisor-exploit Linux payload, a custom bootloader, an M.2 SSD installer and a fan/CPU/GPU boost control utility for Linux.
• Output: HDMI video and audio at 1080p, 1440p or 4K, all at 60 Hz.
• Gaming: Nguyen's reference benchmark is GTA V Enhanced Edition at 60 FPS / 1440p with ray tracing, running through Steam/Proton on Linux. Steam, RetroArch and standard Linux emulators all run.
• License: The loader code is published openly on GitHub. Sony has not commented publicly as of May 6, 2026.

What Developers and Users Are Saying

The release lit up the homebrew and security communities. The Hacker News thread (item 47952658) climbed to over 800 points within hours, with the top comments crediting Nguyen for shipping a clean, reproducible exploit and for releasing the loader publicly rather than selling it to a paid jailbreak service. ResetEra and r/PS5Homebrew threads reacted with similar enthusiasm, alongside the realistic caveat that the firmware window is narrow — anyone who took an automatic update past 4.51 is locked out.

Tom's Hardware framed it as "a little late but a real breakthrough" — late because Phat consoles have largely been replaced by the Slim and Pro at retail, but a breakthrough because it is the first reproducible, public path to a desktop Linux experience on PS5. Adafruit and Hackaday focused on the technical novelty: this is the first PS5 exploit chain that boots an unmodified Ubuntu image and delivers practical desktop performance, not just a kernel-mode demo.

What This Means for Developers

For homebrew developers, the loader is a working harness for running native Linux software on PS5-class hardware — emulators, Steam games via Proton, distributed-compute clients, even local LLM inference. Because the exploit only persists for the current boot, the security risk to the platform is limited: there is no permanent firmware modification, and Sony's official OS is unaffected. For security researchers, the public release is a detailed reference for how the patched hypervisor vulnerability is reached and chained — useful primary material for vulnerability research and game-console-security courses.

For owners of compatible Phat consoles, the practical action is simple: do not update past firmware 4.51. Sony has already shipped multiple PS5 OS releases in the 5.xx and 6.xx range that close this exploit chain, and there is no public downgrade path.

What's Next

Nguyen indicated on his GitHub readme and on social media that future work will focus on broadening firmware coverage downward (the 1.xx and 2.xx series), improving the M.2 SSD installer experience and stabilising peripheral support — controllers, audio over Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. The community is already producing third-party guides, image builds and YouTube walkthroughs, and a separate set of contributors are porting common Linux gaming launchers (Steam, Heroic, Bottles) into preconfigured PS5-Linux images.

Sony has historically responded to public PS5 exploit chains with firmware patches and has not commented on this release. Given the narrow firmware window already required, the most likely outcome is no further patch — the affected firmware is multiple major releases behind current.

Sources

• ps5-linux/ps5-linux-loader on GitHub — primary source: the public release.
• Tom's Hardware: PS5 Linux loader goes public — technical writeup of the April 30 release.
• Hackaday: Running Linux on the PS5 with a Hypervisor Exploit — deeper technical detail on the exploit chain.
• Adafruit: Load Linux on your "phat" PS5 console — same-day release coverage with hardware notes.
• Hacker News thread (item 47952658) — community reaction and follow-up technical Q&A.
• TechSpot: Security researcher turns PS5 into Linux PC — cross-reference on gaming benchmarks.