PS3 withstands hack challenge

There was only one winner of an international challenge that offered a PlayStation 3 to any hacker able to attack it: Sony. Over the two-month-long competition, the PlayStation 3 was able to withstand numerous attempts by hackers worldwide, proving to the competition organiser its potential use as a server.

The challenge was first issued in November 2007 by Japanese Web host Shimpinomori to test the security of the PlayStation 3 Open Platform and the viability of using it as a heavy-duty server platform. Results came as a pleasant surprise to Shimpinomori founder, Augustin Vidovic.

"I was half expecting that someone would find a crack in the Linux setup, and it did not happen," he said. "Nobody could hack into the PS3."

And it wasn't for lack of trying. Standard hack attempts have left Vidovic with more than one gigabyte of logs full of what he calls 'unimaginative' attempts on the HTTP. Other hackers attempted brute force attacks on the SSH port.

[Armyless]

Would that reflect better of the Linux OS than the PS3 per se? Just sayin'.

[Bleyd]

There's also the Hypervisor that is integrated into the Cell processor which enables further security on the OS and whatever else programmers want to secure. One of the main methods for hacking a computer is to get a program to run as though it were authorized to run. The Cell processor's security to prevent unauthorized software from running or modifying other programs is fairly strong from what I know of it.

[Bebedora]

I see it is both the PS3's hw locking mechanism as well as the OS it runs.

Of course if it had been windows, you couldnt even started it without a BSOD happening before being hacked. <sarcasm to posters in here>

[calderra]

Nevermind the fact that you can install Linux on it and run almost anything you want out of the box. Nevermind that copy-protection has been broken on both BluRay and HD-DVD, rendering both formats almost totally broken in terms of hacked-ness. Nevermind that you can swap out its BluRay and hard drives with a PC with basically zero effort.

PS3 isn't hacked yet in two specific areas- playing backups and accessing RSX- and that makes it 100% unhackable.

....rrrright....
And this isn't holding any other console above PS3. All the consoles are almost completely matched in terms of hacking, with Wii perhaps being the most hacked, but it's just that saying PS3 "isn't hacked" is a bit untrue.

[Loopy]

They are talking about web attack on ps3 acting as a server.
They are not talking about hacking brd into ps3 or playing backups, as this is completely irrelevant to the news.

[kewlkat007]

in due time..I'm sure it will be. New tech takes a lil time.
Plus we all know when there are prizes involved with contest, it disrupts the creative process.
This think will be hacked by some nerdy programmer on his own time, providing that this is just a hobby, not a race.

[OldSchoolGamer]

This is the first I have heard of the competition, as I'm sure it is the first others have heard of it. As for the quality of hackers, the best the saw was a denial of service attack? Wow, like he said unimaginative. I'm sure it will be as hackable as any other server given time and some dedicated, imaginative people.

[Lord Anubis]

Right, like programmers don't read press releases from IBM. its silly to downplay the security in the system.

[Odion]

its even sillyer care, your a gamer for god sakes, why the hell would u care about how the security of the PS3 holds up as a server, it has nothing to do with why u purchased the system

[Lord Anubis]

its not silly at all, it means application wont run at the kernel level. Which in turns means something else.

Its a good thing the PS3 supports Linux :)