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.
| 
Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut Ceaselessly Naughty
“Abusive” Breast-Groping Fundraiser Molested by Petition
Hanayo Koizumi’s Birthday Highly Revered
Toyota Prius CM Goes Full KanColle Mode
Usamimi Anette-san Micro-Bikini Figure
A Full Course Dream 3some “An Otaku Wet-Dream”
Dimension W “Both Cute & Grotesque!”
Monster Monpiece Naked Trailer Shamelessly Shameless
Digimon Adventure Tri PV Full of Promise
Tekken Moves Performed in Real Life
Energetic Lucky Chloe Figure
Otoko No Ko Harem – Will You Admit To Wanting This?
Dagashi Kashi Irresistibly Sweet
Oshiete Gyaruko-chan Pantsu-A-Plenty
Nitroplus Blasterz English Trailer Quite Rousing
Valkyria Chronicles Remaster Trailer Retells The Tale
Sickeningly Sweet Enju Aihara Miko Figure
Top 20 Anime Girls With The Sexiest Ponytails
Lovely Nekomimi Ero-MMD Quite Handy
Koukaku no Pandora “Nonstop Girl-Love!”
Skimpy Sonico Cosplay Barely Contained
Kumiko & Reina Cosplay Hardly Blows At All
Skimpy Elf Bikini Cosplay by Saku Supremely Sexy
Gothic Lolita Hatsune Miku Cosplay Busts Out
Delectable Dizzy Cosplay by Lechat
Dark Elf Cosplay by Non Very Dark Indeed
Titillating Tamako Cosplay Perfectly Pink
Goddess of 2ch: “Full of Lust & Urges (& Also Videos)!”
Raunchy Reisen Inaba Cosplay by Tsuyato
Haruhi Bunny Girl Cosplay Rocks Out
I hope this hack will permit to launch non signed code for homebrew and emulation.
And if it will bring back Linux support, it would be perfect.
You guys are fuciking retard or plain stupid.Do u think sony wont put out a patch and fk counter this when it happened? you guys are fucking dead brain.And FFXIII haters? fuk u all.Play the game urself be4 making some shit judgement because some amateur 2ch rate the game.You guys fail.Go and watch some girl in bynnu costume get fuk asshole.RETARD people jeezzz...
I suggest to look at your grammar before insulting anybody.
Meh, i rather have the games can be installed to HDD just like X360 and played without disc
Hm. So, the ultra-amazing, super-impenetrable, hyper-invincible PS3 has finally been cracked? Nothing stops hackers. What do you have to say about that, Voice?
Mysterious Voice: "It's still better than the Xbox."
Elaborate.
Mysterious Voice: "For one, Micro$oft will actively stop hackers. Sony hasn't. And I don't think we need to go over the RROD."
First of all, that's an old argument. Secondly, that thing's blown widely out of porpor-
*gun fires*
And this Hack lasted only a week, nothing more.
uh? voice?
Pirated Vocie : "Yeeeees and the 360 was pirated the same day in launched and its still prated since and will always beign pirateeeed, the Powerful Ps3 was pirated once, for a week, thats it"
lulz
i just hope it wouldt be like psp with constant firmware update to stop pirating. i will run out ro buya ps3 if it is cracked.
her it cost £49.99 for a new game, thats $79. and minum wage is £5 i think. so for 1 game you need to work 10 hour!!!! thats not entertainment!
You seriously need to stop whining.
Around where I live, it takes 1/3 of your monthly earning to buy one of those games.
All the cheapos like you make those of us who really don't have an alternative look bad.
Ok, NOW is the right time to purchase a PS3.
There is no point in pirating PS3.It's been 3 years and there's about 10 good games for it. I have a PS3 and I have 7 games. I have a 360 and I have 58 games for it! I'm neutral in this console war, but this is how I stand.
That's not an objective statement unless those 58 games are all X-Box exclusives.
Besides that, people may have different tastes than yours. Who are you to assume that the rest of the world won't enjoy the PS3 exclusives more than the X-Box ones?
Neutral, eh? Damn fanboy hypocrite:P
Looks like i picked a good time to get a PS3.
REJOICE
now i can buy PS3 games with a cheap price
i'm just waiting for a codebreaker or something so i can cheat on the couple games i'm stuck on..
its still a luxury either way. blurays are fucking expensive. drives included.
i'm fairly sure tho that its not $60 here. its something around $80 i think. sucks but still cheaper. seeing as the only game i'd be playing is srwps3, i'd just import and play.
i wanna see it hacked tho, i need my codebreaker fix for lulz
The only reason I'll ever buy a PS3 is for new good .hack games.
As far as I see it, it still isn't fully cracked, as he has still not figured out the security system, he just partly bypassed it through some hardware extensions.
As far as I remember Sony already stated in the past that the security is a software hardware combination on all levels.
He bypassed the hardware, so now he has to get his hands on the software, problem Sony will be fast in closing these holes, after all they even anounced a reward for the person able to hack the ps3.
A problem would be that new games will always need the newest firmware and have it on the disk and force you to update your system.
Sony will not be closing anything unless they mass-replace the current gen PS3 consoles, which is more expensive than leaving piracy alone.
And as for software restrictions... well we've all seen how good they work when you have complete access to the hardware. Most software copyright protections take about 1-2 days to crack. The tougher ones can take up to a month.
When you have complete access to the CPUs, the rest is trivial for a person who is comfortable with assembly languages.
But I'm sure you know much more about the PS3 than the person who spent 5 weeks hacking it.
Probably not, but he himself stated that he still hasn't figured anything out, but for you to feel comfartable I can tell you something that this person doesn't seems to know, the CellBE in each PS3 is marked with a certain number if this number is changed or anything happens to it you will never again be able to connect to PSN.
Assuming that this hardware hack modifies the identifier, and assuming the original it cannot be recovered and spoofed.
First Say hi to my packet sniffer.
With r/w access to the CPU, it's pretty easy to make it do pretty much anything we want, such as emulate the software to respond with the original identifier.
And even if it cannot, pirates are getting the product they paid for, so it's really rather natural to deny them online play. This has been the case with PC gaming for a long time now. Is this a nail in the coffin for piracy? It sure wasn't for the X-Box.
It is only a matter of time.
way to go geohot!
keep those keys coming ;)
Why buy the games? Just get a gamefly account and.. order, copy, send back, etc.
When i looked at the picture , it was the first time i was arsed enough to compare Xbox and PS3.
The PS3 is not cracked yet. With this hack they can pass the hypervisor and have direct access to memory.
Which is encrypted by the way.
The encryption keys still remain safe within the hardware and there is no easy way to access them. It's all part of the security scheme of the Cell processor.
Geohot got pretty ahead of himself and claimed to have hacked the PS3 when all he did was having a little fun programming on OtherOS.
Don't expect for modchips or playable pirated games anytime soon.
As for homebrew, there's actually a decent amount of it, including mame compilations.
It likely was Sony's dropping linux support that got geohot to decide to exploit the PS3.
Good news the PS3 slim is now actually worth something to me.
Well, people had arrived before where he is now, there is where the problem begins - then before the problems with ripping and burning BDs that could be read by the PS3 - he must write software to skip the checking procedures of the firmware withouth briking it and risk to have his work trashed by a firmware upgrade (that Sony could just force people to do making it a requeriment to play new games, and make them weekly).
I have my doubts that Sony will let this last after the PSP fiasco, and wont be surprised if he receives a letter/visit from their lawyers in the next weeks.
Even if he makes a ps3 emulator, most people won't even have the computer specs to run it let alone play a game -_-
Sony will blackmail him into murdering a school full of elementary schoolers. He'll be given the death penalty. His life is over.
great. now the numbers of Playstation 3 sold in Indonesia & Philliphine are going skyrocket.
GO PIRATES!
Why don't they just put a defense mechanism (where any system part that gets hacked 3 times will destroy the PS3 and self-destruct it).
i see an explosive rise in ps3 hardware sells if this gets usable for public.
but well, id still buy the games i would buy without the hacks..
Wake me up when a burn is a 5 minute burn on a 20 cent disc, otherwise who cares.
some web shops sold older games very cheap no need t play copies on a PS3. if its really to expensive go buy a good game pc and play there your crappy copie games !!!
itd be nice to see a HDloader for ps3 sheeeit
Wow 20 years after the retardbox got hacked
Sony good job - Probably another year or 2 till normal people can do it on their own and use it for new games.
Won't make any difference if you can eventually play burnt copies,
blank BR discs are expensive + 50gig torrents
may as well just buy the game,
only 20% of PS3 games are above 20gigs and blank br's arn't that expensive
I'm surprised no one said something about pressing the square and circle button on that girl in the picture. Or that iPhone thing in the background.
I lol'd.
...wait.
Why is Xbox all tiny and PS3 so buxom? I'm a PS3 man myself but still...wut?
Because lolis are hotter.
Kuudere loli > middle aged gravity defying tsundere.
It's probably a reference to the respective designs of the consoles. The original PS3 was large and bulged at the middle. The Xbox 360 is smaller and tapers at the middle. Bakunyuu versus pettanko seems to work fine here.
Also, Red Eyes of Death.
Never really cared about hacks or cracks to be honest.
Never really cared about paying for stuff, cause I'm a super rich fag, to be honest.
lols
クソニー
Xbot troll fag spotted.
maybe when he hack the ps3 and the pirated bluray disc is now available, the ps3 is obsolete and the competitor have a new console
Aww, man, you used Mike Inel's work.
I wish blogs would use my art. :P