> Does he mean that this is potentially how one could install custom firmware on their console?
Sort of. It's a userland code execution exploit, which is often the first step, but all games run in a locked down VM specifically to protect against things like this, so you still need a kernel/hypervisor exploit to escape the VM and actually mess with the system in any significant way.
Thanks for the explanation. That helps complete the picture another comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42921799) started about “funny machines”. I do believe the measures they’ve taken to protect against malicious payloads are going to be tested rather relentlessly.
Sort of. It's a userland code execution exploit, which is often the first step, but all games run in a locked down VM specifically to protect against things like this, so you still need a kernel/hypervisor exploit to escape the VM and actually mess with the system in any significant way.