An individual is claiming to have finally cracked the PS3’s formerly invincible copy protection system.
Although he claims to have cracked the hardware, he admits not yet having cracked the software, so a usable application is presumably some way off, if possible at all.
The cracker in question, identified as “geohot” (or George Hotz) and already well known for his previous exploits, explains:
I have read/write access to the entire system memory, and HV level access to the processor. In other words, I have hacked the PS3. The rest is just software. And reversing. I have a lot of reversing ahead of me, as I now have dumps of LV0 and LV1. I’ve also dumped the NAND without removing it or a modchip.
3 years, 2 months, 11 days…thats a pretty secure system
Took 5 weeks, 3 in Boston, 2 here, very simple hardware cleverly applied, and some not so simple software.
As far as the exploit goes, I’m not revealing it yet. The theory isn’t really patchable, but they can make implementations much harder. Also, for obvious reasons I can’t post dumps. I’m hoping to find the decryption keys and post them, but they may be embedded in hardware. Hopefully keys are setup like the iPhone’s KBAG.
The cracker was previously involved in “unlocking” the iPhone’s protection in 2007, so although any actual proof of his accomplishment is entirely lacking, he is at least relatively credible by way of former deeds.
Hopeful pirates (or “backup and homebrew enthusiasts” as the facile euphemism has it) have wasted no time in celebrating the possibility of finally getting free games on the PS3, though whether a usable modchip emerges from the hack remains to be seen, as does Sony’s response.
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Wow, nigh impregnable for 3 years. That must have felt like quite a triumph for him.
rather for sony
If he gets free games, we'll all get free games! It'll be anarchy!!! PS3 will go down the drain!!
Kudos to this guy.
What? I thought PS3 has nogames?
It has no game just for trolls! For actual ps3 users, there are quite a bunch of nice games to play v.v
REJOICE! its now time to buy a PS3!!!
You people just don't get it, your digging yourselves a deeper physical media grave when you do this shit. Soon every damn gaming system will follow in the iPhone/Touch, PSPgo's footsteps. People managed to build up a big anti Go movement with all the anti Go spam across the internet, but what are you going to do when every system follows the same format? What are only a few thousand people going to have game systems?
Just because the PS3 was cracked doesn't mean software will be pirated.
1.) You need a Blu-Ray burner. Nearly twice the cost of a PS3.
2.) 20-50Gig file downloads.
3.) 1 (one) Dual Layer Blu-Ray writable disk will cost you around $20-30, retail.
With all the fees and hassle, you might as well buy the actual games. The only way you're going to recoup your losses is if you burn every $60 new release for the PS3 over the next 2 years and if you're gonna dop that much cash on videogames, you probably don't need to pirate them in the first place.
@anon 11:15 - Not that I advocate piracy, but that's why they said about the DVD. Prices of burners and blank Blurays will drop, whether sooner or later. There's enough people out there that would then use this to start selling pirated copies at markets and such.
So yes, a cracked PS3 means pirated PS3 games, but as the topic goes, it's only the hardware for now...
Dont know about you guys, but when i rent a game and I really liked it, I buy it....
Same for downloading a copy to try it out, if I really liked it, I buy it.
Why would you need to burn a game when you can fit a 1TB HDD to the PS3?
Exactly.
Not to mention they'll probably find out how to strip stuff out of the games to slim them down - things like extra languages and the like. I doubt many games are anywhere near 25gb let alone the full 50gb.
Especially the multiplatform games, which are usually developed in the 360 first, then ported. There could be a large quantity of games that don't go beyond the 10GB.
I'd like to know how accessible the 1TB HDDs are.
twice the cost of a PS3, 1 Dual Layer Blu-Ray writable disk around $20-30 lolwut
I don't know what backwater you live in (oh, right - AMERIKKKA) but around HERE, a USB or SATA Blu-Ray burner is $250 at most, and dual-layer blanks are $5.
Oh wait, I live in Japan. ha ha!
twice the price? newegg has a 1TB drive for $90. Does the ps3 not support normal hard drives?
this brings up an interesting point.
Do you think the multiple install bullshit Kojima pulled may have been a troll's concept of copy protection?
Software is the next hurdle he says. But the biggest one is still BD. If Sony is not going to put empty disc on the consumer market, they are still a step ahead.
Err, what?
BD writers and blank BD media have been available since the introduction of blu-ray, in 25G and 50G sizes, and even both in rewritable flavor. Blank disks have even become quite affordable.
BD is one of the smallest issues there.
Bluray burners are available since a while.
200-300$ for the burner and BD-R are a few bucks a piece.
Doublelayer discs are expensive as hell.
No, paying 60 USD for a new PS3 is expensive as hell, that's why I just rent games now.
Haha, If your prices are hell, i wonder what ours are... ; In Australia RRP of a new PS3 title is 110AUD. (up to 120AUD on some titles)
1 U.S. dollar = 1.1090163 Australian dollars
So it would only cost me approx. 66.6AUD for a game over there as it would cost you approx. 99.2USD here.
what? they sell Batman Arkham Asylum in here for just 123 dollars. Wasn't that game last year? Left 4 Dead 1, GOTY Edition, 78 USD, wasn't that like really late last year?
I live in Mexico, nobody loves us, boo hoo
Stop sending your garbage to the rest of us and maybe we will.
You need to learn to cull them, like Russia and Germany do. >:|
Figuring out how to get isos running is also a possibility since there are already games (PSN and such) that run without needing discs (granted, PS3 disc game isos are generally a lot bigger in size). If they can figure out how to crack authentication, they can figure out how to run isos
Who the hell is going to download a 50GB game? That'll take freakin years unless you get like a billion people seedinng night and day lol. Electricity through the roof.
OMFG
50GB isn't too much. I would manage to download it in a few days or maybe a week (if there are enough seeders), it's not like this is going to take a month or more.
My internet connection is 4096kbps down 768kbps up.
50gb really is nothing, I download at least around 10-15 on a normal day, and that's just anime and some on the side software.
having to wait a few days or even a week isn't a big deal - once the system and software are cracked, it'll be easy coasting from there on
fcuk it. you gays can say that coz you have such a connection.
i got like 100kbps down and 13kbps up. sux to be an internet user in my oh-so-much-developing-country.
@anon 23:45 Is that kilobytes or kilobits?
In case of kilobytes, that still makes downloading ~50GB very downloadable, I got the abovementioned touhou lossless torrent in a few weeks at roughly ~200KB/s.
If it's kilobits... ouch. Still doable, but it'll take a few weeks each. >:
Even if you crack the console, you still have to buy empty blue-ray discs and blue-ray writer, which is another expense, and a large one compare to previous pirate.
But BD is still useful for other things ... like full seasons of 1080p anime :D
You dumb girl
Unless of course they figure a way to access the games on HDD.
lol
lived in a cave, up to now?
You sir, are retarded.
there are 10 packs of 25 GB Blu-ray disks for sale on the internet for around $25.
there are blu-ray burners for as cheap as $150
if you have a uber internet, you can download a 50gb file in 12 hours. (with a 1-2 MBps sustained speed)
actually the crackers just started cracking the PS3 since it's dropped it's open platform approach with the slim...
ha ha ha it was only a matter of time
indeed XD
Only a matter of 3years...
At least Sony kept the market pirate free long enough to profit from the masses.
Yes, they did keep the market pirate free long enough to barely (maybe) make a profit.
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/12/12/ps3-almost-breaking-even/
Dec 12th, PS3 ALMOST breaking even.
is this really a good thing revealing before it was actually done?
he really didn't give them anything to work against so really no harm done
Brilliant. Now I might have an excuse to buy one.
Since "Final Travesty 13" is turning into a joke.
At least this will give me something to look forward to.
Who knows when a working app / crack will be made.
But it's always better when consumers have the power to control their own media.
Turning into a joke just because it's linear? Have you actually played it to determine whether or not it's actually fun or are you going to curl up into a ball and cry just because 2ch didn't like it?
Sheep.
2ch and many others. And are you not just as much of a sheep, taking that stance?
Doods, if we could get .mkv (along with h.264) support, along with better PS2 emulation stuffs... that would win. I'm tired of sony screwing that up.
as for pirated games... well, it being blu-ray is still some time off, although by the end of the console's life it'll be a possibility. Now -PS2- piracy ON the PS3... that's exciting.
Indeed this anon speaks the words of my heart. PS3 emulation/ piracy seems like it'd be expensive (to either hd space or my wallet), I'd much rather some good ol PS2 emulation/piracy.
Just emulate PS2 on your PC... much less trouble.
Couple things that I would like to see for PS3 homebrew:
1. PS2 backward compatibility
2. Third-party OS install
3. Cross chat on PSN
4. Support codec install
5. WORKING(non half-ass) dts codec
6. A2DP for bluetooth stereo headset(or a better bluetooth stack)