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PS3 hacked, public release soon?

Published on 26th January 2010 by Joe Martin

George Hotz claims to have hacked the PlayStation 3 and may publish details of how he did it in the near future.

A hacker by the name of George Hotz, who has previously helped crack the iPhone and open it up to accept other networks, has claimed to have finally cracked the PlayStation 3 and opened the platform up to homebrew software and - more worryingly for Sony - pirated games.

Hotz apparently spent five weeks working on the crack according to BBC News and plans to release details of how he did it once he has ironed out the kinks - which will probably be in a few weeks.

"It's supposed to be unhackable - but nothing is unhackable," said Hotz. "I can now do whatever I want with the system. It's like I've got an awesome new power - I'm just not sure how to wield it."

Hotz says that his hack uses the hardware to "inject an insecurity which he can then build on" with software. He admits to not having cracked the entire system, but says he has accessed the root key - potentially paving the way to a crack on the Blu-Ray disc protection too.

"I'm not going to personally have anything to do with that," said Hotz when asked about pirating games. "To tell you the truth, I've never really played a PS3. I have one game, but I've never really played it."

Sony has said that it is investigating the issue and will issue a statement when it has more info. Let us know your thoughts in the forums.

34 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

DragunovHUN 26th January 2010, 11:31

GG Sony, that took a while.

rollo 26th January 2010, 11:35

apple vs hacker part 2

accept this time its sony vs hacker

NethLyn 26th January 2010, 11:57

I blame the marketing prat that declared it unhackable, that was issuing a challenge to every hacker out there. I'm surprised Apple didn't track him down legally, given how they've treated web gossip sources in the past.

Ross1 26th January 2010, 12:00

a better link is: http://geohotps3.blogspot.com/

1ad7 26th January 2010, 12:17

hahaha good job sony, I had no idea it had taken this long. That has to be a world record?
Yeah apple really has a foot in mouth problem and they get what they deserve.

Xir 26th January 2010, 12:24

And this just where the hardware is (supposed) to be financed by the price of the thing.
Once it's hackable I'd buy one!

MacWalka 26th January 2010, 12:24

That really did take a while and I read this on the BBC website today. I think he also said that he hadn't quite perfected it and couldn't hack the full system....yet.

gm_crop 26th January 2010, 12:58

Quote:

I've got an awesome new power - I'm just not sure how to wield it."

Anyone else slightly scared?

rickysio 26th January 2010, 13:05

It will probably only work on the old one and not on the Slim. :S

pizan 26th January 2010, 13:32

It probably needs to be heavily refined if it ever wants to see any use. Not many people are going to rip apart their PS3 to try it out. It also depends on how dangerous this is, 50% console destruction rate?

daniel_owen_uk 26th January 2010, 14:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by rickysio
It will probably only work on the old one and not on the Slim. :S

What makes you think sony decided to change their security system on the Slim? No one had hacked the regular one. If it's not broke...

CharlO 26th January 2010, 14:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by pizan
It probably needs to be heavily refined if it ever wants to see any use. Not many people are going to rip apart their PS3 to try it out. It also depends on how dangerous this is, 50% console destruction rate?

I think that's still better than buying an XBox 360 :)

scawp 26th January 2010, 15:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by CharlO
Quote:
Originally Posted by pizan
It probably needs to be heavily refined if it ever wants to see any use. Not many people are going to rip apart their PS3 to try it out. It also depends on how dangerous this is, 50% console destruction rate?

I think that's still better than buying an XBox 360 :)

Brrrrrap!

somidiot 26th January 2010, 16:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by CharlO
Quote:
Originally Posted by pizan
It probably needs to be heavily refined if it ever wants to see any use. Not many people are going to rip apart their PS3 to try it out. It also depends on how dangerous this is, 50% console destruction rate?

I think that's still better than buying an XBox 360 :)

LOL! funniest thing I've read today! plus it seems sadly true.
ok enough ripping on Microshaft's console.

My take is that I get a console to play games on and that's about it so I probably wouldn't use the hack. I actually buy the games I like to play :-o
*steps off of soap box*

Gonzalo-Gonads 26th January 2010, 16:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by daniel_owen_uk
What makes you think sony decided to change their security system on the Slim? No one had hacked the regular one. If it's not broke...

Different root password? Different controllers? There are hundred things sony couldve changed when they designed the slim. It is after all built with die shrinked chips so things have to have changed (e.g. ability to install other os like linux)

Farfalho 26th January 2010, 16:31

At least Sony gave a tough job to him, not like microshizzel x360 xD

BLC 26th January 2010, 16:34

Well, they took their time, but it was eventually inevitable. As already pointed out, simply calling it "unhackable" was a challenge to hackers. Thought it seems far from being a practical implementation at the moment.

It'll be interesting to see Sony's response to this.

Blademrk 26th January 2010, 17:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Farfalho
At least Sony gave a tough job to him, not like microshizzel x360 xD

says it took him 5 weeks to crack it...

Aracos 26th January 2010, 17:13

Ah perfect timing! Was gonna buy a PS3 for FFXIII (I am not listening to leona lewis) so being able to crack it would be a very nice bonus! :D

I see there being homebrew for emulating all my favourite old consoles again aswell as hopefully the PS2 ;)

perplekks45 26th January 2010, 17:38

That's old news...

Tele1952 26th January 2010, 18:18

what's the point...

Sheiken 26th January 2010, 19:11

Way to go GeoHot! If you would just make a proper jailbreak (NOT tethered) for the late october 3gs!

_-..zKiLLA..-_ 26th January 2010, 22:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by storm20200
I see there being homebrew for emulating all my favourite old consoles again aswell as hopefully the PS2 ;)

I think that should be the first objective, that would make a lot of people very happy ;)

veryevil 27th January 2010, 00:12

Its up He has posted the work he has done. Looking forward to what comes of this.

B3CK 27th January 2010, 02:46

Of all the things the PS3 can do with a media server in the network, the only thing I can think of that I would want more out of it would be emulators to play some of abandonware of yore.

dinjo_jo 27th January 2010, 07:43

I guess his exploit which he has posted does not works on Slim

UncertainGod 27th January 2010, 08:38

It work on all current versions of the PS3, but it's far from perfect.

dinjo_jo 27th January 2010, 09:18

Do you know what the hack is about as he says its for Research

BLC 27th January 2010, 11:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by dinjo_jo
Do you know what the hack is about as he says its for Research

It allows hypervisor-level access to the entire system - the root keys have still not yet been identified, and nor has the filesystem decryption been broken. This means it's an exploit to gain access to parts of the hardware you're not supposed to be able to access - it doesn't mean pirate games or homebrew (yet).

I really hope they don't break the filesystem/bluray encryption - this might allow a scenario where the full power of the system can be used, but still means pirate games are out of the question. Realistically though, once the root keys are found it's game over as far as any security on the PS3 goes.

perplekks45 28th January 2010, 08:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by BLC
Realistically though, once the root keys are found it's game over as far as any security on the PS3 goes.

And given his reputation and the fact he made his exploit public and released it to the masses who will help now, this is only a matter of time.

UncertainGod 28th January 2010, 08:54

Not necessarily, if the keys are embedded inside the Cell and truly never leave then this hack isn't going to help at all.

dinjo_jo 28th January 2010, 09:20

And this only seems to be working on Phat and not on Slim since it requires Linux

perplekks45 28th January 2010, 13:51

... as he said on his blog, yes.

Well, even if it's impossible to get the keys, it's still impressive and I think it just shows that virtually nothing is impossible when it comes to hacking. ;)

BLC 28th January 2010, 15:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by perplekks45
... as he said on his blog, yes.

Well, even if it's impossible to get the keys, it's still impressive and I think it just shows that virtually nothing is impossible when it comes to hacking. ;)

I personally hope it's not possible to gain the root keys or decrypt the filesystem/blu-ray encryption. This exploit already gives full access to the hardware, which is what many people running PS3 Linux have always wanted. Having read the guy's blog, he says it also allows full access to the the GPU memory space - presumably this means that the GPU can be programmed, if someone suitably skilled in writing drivers can be found (jackpot!!!) He even thinks that the GPU may not even be restricted in the first place, just lacking a 3D driver.

I would conjecture that unrestricted access to the GPU and hardware would be the *real* holy grail for modders and homebrewers - people who are genuinely interested in these things generally have no motivation for piracy. Questions around reverse engineering the SDK - and therefore the legality of doing this - are irrelevant if you can control every piece of hardware from a (fairly) standard Linux environment.