Hey guys I've been working on a personal reverse-engineering project called PS5 Universal Controller, and I'm looking for some advice, fresh perspectives, or potentially people interested in collaborating. The goal Ideally, the solution would: Work without a permanently connected genuine DualSense. Require no licensed authentication dongle. Avoid Remote Play, jailbreaking, or console modifications. Be inexpensive and reproducible. My intention is to make the entire project open source on GitHub if I manage to develop a working solution. I want other people to be able to build it, improve it, and use their existing controllers on PS5 without buying expensive adapters or replacement controllers. This is a personal, non-commercial project motivated by curiosity, interoperability, and learning. What I've investigated so far I've accumulated around 97 research reports/iterations, primarily involving static analysis, public USB captures, protocol reconstruction, and reproducible tests. Some of the important findings: DualSense authentication: I've investigated the F0/F1/F2 HID authentication exchange, challenge/response structure, and authentication state transitions. Cryptographic integrity: Existing research indicates that native PS5 input reports involve session-dependent cryptographic integrity checks. Simply emulating USB HID descriptors isn't sufficient. Pre-authentication behavior: In a public capture I reanalyzed, there were 1,640 host-acknowledged input reports, including 749 before the first observed F0. However, USB acknowledgment does not prove that the PS5 actually accepted those reports as gameplay input. Sony PSVR2 research: I've investigated publicly documented cryptographic interfaces, including AES-CMAC-related operations, but haven't established a transferable DualSense authentication implementation. USB/Bluetooth proxies: I've studied existing relay projects, including unsuccessful USB authentication attempts and a working Bluetooth relay that still depends on a genuine DualSense. Third-party controllers: I'm investigating whether officially compatible third-party controllers might use different authentication architectures. The main obstacle remains generating valid, fresh authentication responses and authenticated input reports independently of Sony hardware. I haven't solved that problem yet. Relevant existing research GIMX #672 — DualSense emulation research 0xThreadz — DualSense PS5 USB research eddeeh — DualSense PS5 Bluetooth MITM Alex Taradov — USB protocol sniffer I've already investigated these projects, so I'm particularly interested in overlooked evidence, alternative implementations, or new experiments. What I'm planning next I have access to a real PS5 and genuine DualSense for testing. I'm considering purchasing a low-cost USB 2.0 High Speed packet sniffer (approximately €29) to capture real PS5–DualSense communication. My next steps are to compare multiple authentication sessions, correlate USB traffic with actual gameplay, and potentially investigate inexpensive third-party PS5 controllers. I'm working with a Windows PC and a limited budget, so I'd like to prioritize experiments that genuinely improve our understanding. Where I could use help Has anyone investigated the authentication implementation inside officially compatible third-party PS5 controllers, particularly HORI, Subsonic, ASRVA, or similar devices? Is there newer research on DualSense authentication, especially regarding the per-report integrity mechanism or independently implemented authentication? Are there unexplored hardware, firmware, or protocol research directions that might be worth investigating? What would you prioritize experimentally? More genuine-controller captures, third-party controller comparisons, or an active USB proxy to investigate authentication state transitions? Does anyone have relevant technical documentation, captures, or experience with PS5 controller authentication that they'd be willing to discuss? I'm aware that passive captures alone won't reveal protected cryptographic secrets, and I'm not claiming to have discovered an authentication bypass. I'm looking for reproducible evidence and practical experiments rather than unsupported speculation. Open-source plans If this project succeeds, I plan to release the implementation, source code, documentation, and reproducible build instructions publicly on GitHub. My goal isn't to create another proprietary adapter. I'd like to contribute something useful to the controller modding and reverse-engineering communities. I'd also be happy to collaborate with other developers, hardware enthusiasts, or security researchers who are interested in the technical challenges. Thanks for reading! Any advice, corrections, research leads, or collaboration would be greatly appreciated.   submitted by   /u/nick_gurz_- [link]   [comments]