Hacker Earns $50K from Sony for AI-Discovered PS5 Exploit, Becomes Villain in Homebrew Community

A hacker known as 'Jordy' has ignited a firestorm in the PlayStation 5 homebrew scene after privately reporting a vulnerability to Sony and collecting a $50,000 bounty, rather than keeping it under wraps for the community's benefit.

The exploit, discovered with the help of AI, was submitted through HackerOne, a platform where companies like Sony reward security researchers for finding and responsibly disclosing bugs. Typically, this process is uncontroversial—but this case is different. A well-known security engineer had actually found the same flaw months earlier and intended to hold onto it until after the launch of GTA 6. Then Jordy found it using AI and reported it, setting off a major controversy.

The vulnerability is a 'hypervisor bug' affecting PS5 firmware versions 13.60 through 14.00. Such bugs reside in the console's core software layer, allowing hackers to execute kernel-level code—potentially enabling things like booting Linux on the console.

This incident comes amid a surge of AI-assisted hacking headlines. Security experts have dubbed this month 'Black October' due to a wave of major incidents and vulnerability disclosures fueled by the growing use of artificial intelligence in security research.

Google security engineer Andy Nguyen, known as theflow0, had been working for months on getting Linux running on the PS5. In March, he showcased his progress. But Jordy's AI-powered report put an end to that work. 'I am stepping away from the PS5 scene and stopping all my work on PS5 Linux,' theflow0 said. 'After pouring my heart and months of my life into it, including plans to finish PS5 Pro support and release in 2027, it's all down the sink. The scene used to be a group of highly talented researchers, but now it is just a bunch of noobs using LLMs and writing hacks they don't even understand. Slop kiddies found the only hypervisor bug left, which I had also found a while ago, and decided to report to Sony.'

In an interview with IGN, Jordy confirmed he used generative AI to find the bug that earned him $50,000. He claimed that theflow0 had discovered the same bug in 2025 but kept it secret. When Jordy announced his own discovery, theflow0 reached out to see if it was the same one. The two initially agreed not to report it to HackerOne, but another researcher quickly found the same bug using AI. Facing competition, Jordy decided to report it to secure the bounty. 'I decided I would report it,' Jordy said. 'If I and another person can find it with LLM, so can someone else.'

theflow0 could not be reached for comment.

The controversy isn't just about AI. Many in the community are upset because the bug was reported before the launch of a highly anticipated game in November. Had the exploit remained unpatched, players could have dual-booted Linux on their PS5s and still played GTA 6 through the official Sony OS.

'People wanted to buy and play GTA 6 legally on their normal PS5 OS without losing the ability to dual-boot Linux on the same console,' madwax0r, creator of the PS5 emulator tracker and scam blacklist Kaishaku, told IGN. 'Think of the PS5 Linux project like turning your console into a high-end Steam Machine that runs off an external USB drive. It's a temporary soft-mod, so whenever you reboot the console, it goes right back to being a normal PS5. The catch is that to download and play GTA 6 on November 19, Sony requires you to update to the latest system firmware and sign into PSN. theflow0 wanted researchers to hold off reporting the hypervisor bug until after November 19 so that the launch-day firmware required for GTA 6 would still have the unpatched flaw baked in. That way, players could update their PS5 on launch day, buy GTA 6 legally, and still use the exploit to boot Linux on the same machine.'

Some might have used the exploit for piracy. There's a sentiment online that Sony 'deserved this' due to its plan to end physical discs by 2028. Pirating games—including GTA 6—is a real possibility as the homebrew scene continues to leverage AI to probe the PS5's internals, with Sony scrambling to release new firmware updates to counter each potential jailbreak.

Because Jordy—whose mother is terminally ill—reported the bug early, Sony had time to patch the exploit before GTA 6's launch. This leaves modders who want to run Linux with a tough choice: keep their PS5 offline to run Linux, or update and make the console GTA 6-ready while losing Linux capability.

'What really poured fuel on the fire is the AI angle,' madwax0r said. 'Historically, hypervisor bugs were so rare that a researcher could quietly sit on one for a year. Now, with people running console code through LLMs to hunt for flaws, multiple people are stumbling onto the same bugs at the same time. Theflow wanted to hold the bug for the community, while Jordy—seeing a third hacker also find it with AI tools, and facing heavy personal pressure with his mother's terminal illness—took the guaranteed $50,000 payout before someone else beat him to it.'

Part of the reason Jordy's bounty claim went viral was his tweet announcing the win. 'I can at least buy GTA with this I think,' he said on Twitter, along with a screenshot of the payout. At the time of writing, the tweet had 1.8 million views. IGN asked Jordy if he thought the tweet antagonized the audience. 'Probably but that was the point,' he replied. 'I'm nearly 30 years old. I could care less about people not being able to pirate a game, let alone do I want to enable modding it.'

Some also believe Jordy was coached by theflow0 on how to find the bug, which adds to the anger. Jordy denies this, claiming he found it independently. 'Yes, with AI,' he said. 'A lot of people want to downplay that but nobody else is finding bugs like that.' He added that theflow0 is 'a legend' and a respected figure in the industry.

Since announcing the bounty, Jordy has faced criticism on social media. '50k in bank but 0 friends left. Worth it?' one person asked. 'You're insane to think I lost friends over reporting a bug I found myself, even flow who isn't happy with my choice I can still contact privately,' Jordy replied. 'You guys act like I'm a domestic terrorist or something?'

Some have supported Jordy's decision. '$50k pays the bills, your opinion doesn't,' one person said. 'You also would report bug to get 50k, like that's a life changing amount of money for a lot of people,' another added. 'He got paid 50k$ idiot! What did u think that he was gonna do, turn it down so you could play GTA 6 on a Nintendo DS?' commented another.

Last week, Sony released a new PS5 firmware update that some believe was aimed at countering the homebrew community's jailbreak efforts. It's a game of Whac-A-Mole: the scene works to release a new jailbreak for the latest firmware, then Sony releases an update to bolster security, and the cycle repeats. This raises concerns that if a jailbreak becomes available for the firmware required by GTA 6, which launches in less than a month, the game could be pirated on PS5 and possibly even made available on PC.

Jordy also claims this won't be the last hypervisor bug found on PS5. Cybersecurity researcher Eric Parker agrees. 'I imagine there will probably be another exploit at some point,' he said. If Jordy's claims hold true, hackers may find a way around the 14.00 patch in the future. Linux is already running on pre-patch PS5s.

The question for Sony is whether it can win this Whac-A-Mole game with the homebrew scene. This is an existential crisis for Sony, as publishers and developers rely on the security of its PlayStation platform. But with powerful AI models emerging, the stakes have risen significantly.

For Jordy, the money represents time—time he can spend with family and caring for his sick mother. 'I will continue to research,' he said. 'Just really no time lately.'

Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images.