PS5 Dualsense controller firmware dumped (encrypted)

PlayStation scene veteran bigboss (@psxdev) has apparently dumped the PS5 Dualsense controller’s firmware, thanks to usb sniffing help (probably provided by @hackinside and his loyal Beagle, hacker’s best friend).

It’s maybe not the first time bigboss has done this, as he’s provided a comparison screenshot of a Dualsense firmware from April 2020, to compare it to a more recent one dated April 2021. I, for one, am amazed to live in a world where controllers also receive firmware updates. It makes sense, but it’s still amazing.

Bad news, but not surprising: these firmware dumps are encrypted and therefore, mostly useless at the moment. At a quick glance, all we can learn from them are the dates and build numbers of the firmware. This could at least help the scene track down any updates of the controllers firmwares.

@psxdev provided comparison screenshots for a PS5 Dualsense firmware dated Apr. 29th 2020 and one from Apr 7th 2021

What could a PS5 Dualsense firmware bring to the scene?

If these firmwares were ever decrypted, it could allow for reverse engineering of the Dualsense firmware and logic. This in turn could lead to a controller Custom firmware, or allow third party manufacturers to create alternate controllers for the PS5.

My personal experience with third party controllers on the PS3 or the PS4 tells me it’s not necessarily something I’m looking forward to, but I’m sure there are some valid use cases here.

Third Party PS4 controllers are generally terrible. The image above is an affiliate link to Amazon but I actually *DO NOT* recommend you buy this. Yes, they’re half the price of the official ones, but you’ll want to throw them away after 2 months of use…

Given the copyrighted nature of the files, these have not been shared publicly.

In any case, there’s a long road between dumping an encrypted firmware and actually getting something useful out of it. Stay tuned!