880°

iPhone hacker publishes secret Sony PlayStation 3 key

The PlayStation 3's security has been broken by hackers, potentially allowing anyone to run any software - including pirated games - on the console

Pedantic914857d ago (Edited 4857d ago )

Hackers sure are lousy liars.

GWAVE4857d ago

Wii and 360 have already been hacked to play pirated games, but I think we're still a ways off until PS3 pirated ISOs are commonplace. Imagine downloading 15-20 Gigs for a single compressed ISO file.

Matthew944857d ago

so what?? on steam 15GB games are commonplace, i downloaded about 70GB a few days ago

pswi604856d ago (Edited 4856d ago )

I guarantee that within a month, there will be a CFW that will allow games to be ripped/played from the HD.

Maybe even sooner....

I'm not saying I condone/want this, I am just saying that since a CFW has already been released, some youngblood hacker will just take whats already been done and patch it to run games.

rockleex4856d ago (Edited 4856d ago )

Funny how he retired from hacking after failing time after time with the PS3.

But now that someone else has done it, he wants to jump back on and gain recognition for other people's work.

ChristianGamer4856d ago

Imagine renting or borrowing a game, copying on to your hard drive and returning it. Imagine games like LBP that even though they're on Blu Ray are only 6.8gb and imagine there are hundreds of other games like that. Imagine...or make.believe if you prefer

Arup024856d ago

15-20GB isn't too much when you see the games on Steam, so...

dragonelite4856d ago

Lol thinking that 15 to 20 gig is hard to download come on. Bluray burners are kinda cheap now and disk cost what $5 that was like 3 years ago. There are a lot of people that can download or rather buy the game for $8 instead of $60. Heck i can download 30 gig in one night when im sleeping. If not i just ask a friend that puts its on a usb stick and i copy paste that shit.

But yeah i dont pirate games really much anymore except movie and music i still think music artist should earn their money with live shows cd and other media should be commercial for them. If a artist is good then he will have a lot of people visiting him at live concerts.

JhawkFootball064856d ago

Downloading 20 gig is no problem for me having 25mb download, so around 2.8mbps transfer speed. I can download 20 gb in 2 hours.. Yes it sucks for people who have slower connections but they can just instead go rent the game, copy it to hard drive. Then they have the game forever..

bananlol4856d ago

Jep, he did exactly what the germans didnt want, he put the key online. I think we should praise the failowerflow guys for the homebrew and blame geohot for the piracy. After all the reason fof didnt release the keys right away was because they wanted to limit piracy.

I_find_it_funny4855d ago (Edited 4855d ago )

WHY WAS IT UPDATED FROM 18 HOURS OLD TO 3 MINUTES OLD ?

someone's promoting piracy here

ReBurn4855d ago (Edited 4855d ago )

The fallacy that many fall into is that pirates always download games. It may not matter how big games are because there are other ways to get them besides download.

If someone manages to create good utilities to rip PS3 games to and load PS3 games from an external HDD then they can rent or borrow games to get cheaper or free copies.

It's not always about free. Cheaper is enough sometimes. And being able to get a terabyte of external HDD storage for the cost of a single game will be cost justification for some who don't mind pirating.

NewMonday4855d ago

Question to those hear who play pirated games, did you rent before or buy used? Or do you buy new?

killcycle4855d ago

I agree but most ps3 games don't take up that much space.
We've seen from the Playstation store that Infamous, Little big planet, Motorstorm and other exclusives are under 8gb.

I think the Killzone, Metal gear and Uncharted franchise would be a nightmare to download though.

+ Show (9) more repliesLast reply 4855d ago
Abash4857d ago

I know, biggest load of BS ever. He knows full well of the ramifications of what he's doing, but does it anyway. Guilty.

irepbtown4855d ago (Edited 4855d ago )

So he publishes the key,
Now, who has video of any pirated games?

This could all be a lie. And if it isn't, i have a feeling Sony will hit the hackers back hard. Sony will probably be fixing the problem without making new hardware (Dont know how), and taking this guy to court.

This guy is scared. But what he has done is open the doors for piracy. And he still thinks he's innocent?

That's like me taking part in a Robbery, but one of my guys murders someone. I will go to jail for being part of the robbery and the murder.

Sony will most likely get this guy. He screwed himself up.

Chris3994857d ago

But Mr Hotz was more cautious.

"I'm scared of being hit with a lawsuit," he admitted.

Worth noting:

However, according to pytey, it may not be so easy to fix the problem this time.

"The only way to fix this is to issue new hardware," he said. "Sony will have to accept this."

So, the issue can be fixed by Sony issuing new models of PS3s with new master keys in them (properly coded this time, one would think). So it's is a not a forward compatible hack as they will no doubt do this. Expect to see a new SKU really soon, for both PSP and PS3 (probably not even be hardware upgrade, just a new model #).

vagina4856d ago

Not quite... see if they disable the key with new hardware any game released before that time would be unplayable, all content signed with the original key would be unplayable. Sony would be sued to the high heavens themselves if they that.

For instance say someone had a legit PS3 and legit games then thier PS3 gets a YLOD, Sony sends them a replacement new model, New model has the current master key blocked, said person can't play thier games anymore. That = Lawsuit.

gamerz4856d ago

@toxic diarrhea
What they'll do is include an internal list (called a White List) of all the previous games that use the old key and the new SKU can run any games on the white list. That's what they did with the PSP3000, at least that's my understanding anyways.

zag4854d ago

end users wouldn't be able to sue Sony as they own the hardware and can alter it as they see fit.

What your saying is someone rents a place and the owners come in a alter the house while their in it and then saying the renters can sue the owner doesn't work like that in real life.

what can happen though is Sony sueing the hacker group for being an enabler of piracy on the PS3, that's why they are trying to not allow pirated games work on the stuff they do.

where as GoeHot is a complete clutz and has released the key so now if anyone in the world signs a program that allows piracy on the PS3 under that key he can be sued for being an enabler of piracy on the PS3.

That's what the pirate bay got done for, yet they were too stupid to understand what was going on and didn't defend themselves against that.

Another way of doing piracy and this happens all the time is people playing music too loud this is called broadcasting and if you don't have a lic to broadcast that music well your doing piracy.

You can be sued for that, currently only stores have been sued for that stuff but could be applied to anyone really.

xAlmostPro4856d ago (Edited 4856d ago )

meh its still not as bad as its being made out to be.. and to be honest 4+ years is still a damn long time its taken to be "fully hacked"

i give sony alot of credit for making it last this long :]

radzy4856d ago

but now some massive games will be hacked .

uncharted 3

gt5

killzone 3

little big planet 2

etc ............

Silly gameAr4856d ago (Edited 4856d ago )

Yeah man i can't wait to see how little that affects those games. Sh** will be epic.

SLAYMANIO_ULTIMATE_14856d ago

They are, they always say it's for other things but 99.99% of people will use for piracy.

AndrewRyan4854d ago

Yohoho! A pirates life for me!

Don't give geohotz hits guys he doesn't deserve the recognition

RBLAZE19884856d ago (Edited 4856d ago )

In the simplest of terms...This is pretty much what these guys have done. A group of people saw a man leave his house and arm his security with lets say a 4 number combination on a keypad. (In the context of this story they saw he only locked the screen door while leaving the main door closed but unlocked) Now they go and tell everyone they know how they know that they can get into this guys house easily but don't tell how just that they saw it's possible. So another guy goes to this house and finds out the code the exact same way but this time he goes on facebook, twitter, email chain etc and gives out the method to get into this guys house. And he gives away his identity too. Say that one day this guy gets robbed. Wouldn't all these people be accomplices to this robbery and if the actual thief isn't caught shouldn't at least the guy who gave out the method to everyone on the internet be held liable. It's like nationally exposing a covert operative while he is undercover, infiltrating a terrorist group or whatever. You put his life at risk and in the past those people have been held responsible have they not. So Geohot or whatever can go on all day long about how he doesn't condone home invasion robberies (piracy) but the proof is in the pudding.

That's why he's so scared of being hit with a lawsuit, as well as he should be.

joeorc4856d ago

Title I of the US DMCA, the WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act has provisions that prevent persons from "circumvent[ing] a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work". Thus if a software manufacturer has some kind of software, dongle or password access device installed in the software any attempt to bypass such a copy protection scheme may be actionable

In the United States, the Copyright Act defines "derivative work" in 17 U.S.C. § 101:
A “derivative work” is a work based upon one or more pre-existing works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a “derivative work”.

Exemptions were also granted for the circumvention of:

• Video games accessible on personal computers and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully obtained works, when circumvention is accomplished solely for the purpose of good faith testing for, investigating, or correcting security flaws or vulnerabilities, if:

- The information derived from the security testing is used primarily to promote the security of the owner or operator of a computer, computer system, or computer network; and

- The information derived from the security testing is used or maintained in a manner that does not facilitate copyright infringement or a violation of applicable law.

• Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete. A dongle shall be considered obsolete if it is no longer manufactured or if a replacement or repair is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

So releasing the keys to the public would be?

yup you guessed it.

gamerz4856d ago (Edited 4856d ago )

@RBLAZE1988
Good analogy except that it's actually a locked room in your own home that you've paid for, not some other guys house.

RBLAZE19884856d ago

Okay fine it's my locked house that i'm using to store illegaly pirated blu ray games. Using the method that Geohot published online for the world to use for the good of mankind. Yea right cause most people give a crap about someone else but their own gain.

zag4854d ago

Goehot will end up getting sued for being an enabler of piracy on the PS3.

It only takes 1 other person in the world to sign a program that will allow pirated games to work on the PS3.

that's it.

Once that happens then Sony can sue him and in the land of the USA that'd mean busted bigtime.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 4854d ago
Kon_Artist 4856d ago

Thats like if Hitler said he hates discrimination.

FinalSpartan4855d ago

They shouldn't have removed linux even though no one used it. They have some points.

mantisimo4855d ago (Edited 4855d ago )

That is as weak as sh*t saying "Buh Buh we only did it because nasty sony removed linux and other os".

What a crock of doo doo, they were working on this long before the other os removal was even rumoured.

And if they are so bothered about it I bet each and every one of them has 30 other machines to use linux on sheesh.

All this talk about burglary and codes etc I am going to find geohotz address and post that on the internet then we'll see how much he likes it./End Rant.

TradingWarStories4854d ago

All I want to know is if it will let me play GTA: San Andreas on my PS3. SNM

+ Show (6) more repliesLast reply 4854d ago
Shazz4857d ago

hes gonna feel HOTZ under the collar when hes in court

Balt 4857d ago

I don't think he's inherently done anything wrong just yet. All he's done is hack is own system, one in which he bought.

rockleex4856d ago (Edited 4856d ago )

He made Sony's private key public.

RememberThe3574856d ago

Yeah, that might be against the law in some places...

It really is sad though. If it was just for Homebrew I doubt that any of us would really care. But since we've seen entire platforms die and feature get removed because of piracy, no one can really blame us for being a little brittle to pirates.

testerg354856d ago

Is posting a key illegal? I don't know and I'm asking. Like if I post 69696969696 and that's someone's pin#, can they take me to court?

rjdofu4856d ago

@testerg35: ...If you posted it intentionally given the name of whose that pin# is

mantisimo4855d ago

@testerg.

HOW in the HELL did you find out my pin number!

Right I'm suing! lol

bailoutbenny4855d ago

the hackers solved a math problem and posted the answer. that isn't illegal. sony was dumb enough to make one of the variables a constant. posting encryption keys is not illegal.

SoSLy4855d ago

@tester

if u released someone's pin and it cost them money and then yes, they can sue you.

Congentleman4854d ago

@bailoutbenny
Well, posting answers to math problems isn't inherently illegal, but I think you just greatly oversimplified the situation. It straight up was illegal, you're not allowed to bypass security measures at all, let alone post it up for the world to see.

Besides, that's some strange logic you have there- because Sony's product didn't have flawless security, it is their fault that hackers bypassed it? That's insane.

+ Show (4) more repliesLast reply 4854d ago
Zir04857d ago

Bad move BBC, you're giving this hack too much coverage. Now the less hardcore gamers (the ones more likely to hack) will get wind of the easiest hack in the history of gaming.

Matthew944857d ago

yeah a news company isnt going to report the news because someone may read it...

Chris3994857d ago

Of course not. It's actually quite in depth and not some rambled off nonsense on a PS3Hax website. Do note that a new SKU will eliminate the issue; this according to the failoverflow people themselves.

I look forward to all the noobs who will brick their new PS3s in 2 months.

GSpartan7774857d ago (Edited 4857d ago )

fail0verflow said it "disagrees" with Mr Hotz's decision to release the key, saying that it expects them "to make piracy easier without accomplishing intrinsically useful".

Errr is something wrong here? Did Geohot somewhat felt that his rep went down with fail0verflow's work that he needed to publicly release the keys for his rep to go back up and then say that he does not condone piracy?

RememberThe3574856d ago

I think that is exactly what happened. This guy is a complete attention whore. I's actually like to see this guy get slapped with a lawsuit so that he could get the attention he deserves.

Show all comments (114)
80°

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron - Coming Back for a New Generation

Originally launched in 2011, El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is coming to Nintendo Switch, so It's time to look back at the original.

jznrpg4h ago

Still have my ps3 copies. Bought it at launch and another one when I found it cheap and in perfect condition about 10 years ago. I wouldn’t buy it on Switch but if they made a PS5 version I would. I still have one of my PS3 Fats hooked up so good to go either way.

darthv724h ago

Id play it again on the switch. I wished my 360 version was bc but this is still a good way to play.

140°

Fallout 3's Reveal Led To Death Threats And Bethesda's First Security Guard

The artist behind Fallout 4’s Deathclaw reveals just how bad things got back when Bethesda took over the series

anast6h ago

People are stupid I get it. No one should feel unsafe,

But I think they need to talk about why they cut so many corners during the development process and why none of their games ever look current. And why they think all of this is okay while they charge full price.

LucasRuinedChildhood5h ago

As much as Bethesda deserve criticism, that's not really relevant to the reveal of Fallout 3 in 2007.

VenomUK2h ago

The default angle Kotaku always go for is to highlight the worst in gaming.

I would’ve focused on the creative.

gold_drake1h ago

there is no "but". the hell lol
you dont send death threats, period.

60°

Chatting Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered with Suda51

CGM Writes: While we were over at PAX East, we were able to sit down with Goichi Suda (Suda51) and talk about the upcoming remaster of Shadows of the Damned

Read Full Story >>
cgmagonline.com