The 'Final' Sony PS3 Hack
from the our-hardware-our-rules dept
Sony's awesome freakout over folks "hacking" their PS3 product to return the functionality they originally advertised, but then retroactively took away, has been a long and often times hilarious saga. That said, all that freaking out occurred when the PS3 was still in its prime. Now that the console, while still the latest generation of Sony gaming console on the market, is clearly in its twilight years, it will be interesting to see how they react to what Sophos is reporting -- the Playstation 3 being "hacked for good".The PS3 has been hacked before, but Sony was able to inhibit the hack with an update to its own firmware. This is much like the history of jailbreaking on Apple's iOS, where hackers typically uncover a security vulnerability and exploit it, whereupon Apple patches the hole and suppresses the jailbreak.
But the latest PS3 break is being dubbed unpatchable and the final hack. That's because this hack isn't giving you an exploit to use against a programming hole. It's giving you Sony's so-called LV0 (level zero) cryptographic keys.If true, the war is over and Sony lost. Hacker collective, the Three Musketeers, reportedly figured this all out some time ago, but now the LV0 keys have been leaked and it's open season on jailbreaking your PS3 (assuming you're technical enough to implement it). And, while it would be very easy to sit back and comment gleefully on the wonderful spirit of curiosity that propels this kind of work, and to likewise point out the futility of stopping people from tinkering with the products they legally bought, I find a different point more compelling.
Quite simply, this war that Sony lost did not need to be fought. They advertised a feature and it was only the subsequent and unilateral removal of that feature, which many customers very much wanted, that created all of this controversy. Without that removal, how much litigation money does Sony save? Without being anti-consumer, how much ill-will do they avoid? And all of that to fight a battle that, not only did they lose, but that they had to know they were overwhelmingly likely to lose over the long haul. Sophos touches on this point in hoping for a different approach in the future.
Let's hope, when the PS4 comes out, that Sony will give up on trying to lock out jailbreakers permanently, and instead provide a way for those who want to run alternative software to do so in official safety.
When King Cnut famously ordered the tide back and failed, he wasn't an arrogant absolute ruler trying to show off. He knew he would fail, and thereby demonstrated that to hold back the tide was impossible - and, in any case, unnecessary - even for a king.Once I got done snickering at the name King Cnut, I found the analogy perfectly fitting. Hopefully Sony will avoid this war entirely the next go around, though with their track record, I won't be holding my breath.
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What is with the "And" at the beginning of your sentences?
Also, when you run a company, what occurs is you think your every move is correct, even when it is not. That is what happened.
,,,, ;)
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"I don't care how much evidence you show me. I'm right and I'll never stop trying to prove it!"
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That's an additive, like "this and that".
"But":
That's sort of the opposite,
"Not this but that".
And then there's "or":
O-R, when you have a choice like
"This or that".
"And", "but", and "or",
Get you pretty far.
Wooo hoooo, its Friday!!!!!!!
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Sunofabitch
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Much like the fervor that was generated the 21 times ( http://attrition.org/security/rant/sony_aka_sownage.html )they were hacked. People screamed for the hackers blood and threatened harm because a gaming site was down, that they had to change their amazon and fb passwords and it was hard. There was very little anger at Sony for running a system that was EASILY infiltrated with known bugs time after time after time... etc. Even after the major hacks of their sites, they did NOTHING to audit their networks.
The other OS feature was an attempt at bypassing a tax, that failed. Some people used it to "cheat" in an online game, rather than find the those cheaters and kick them, the opted to just remove the feature for everyone. Rather than allow people to keep the feature, they basically made it mandatory because newer games demanded newer firmwares be loaded to be played. So it was waste money on a game that was now an unreturnable coaster, no warning on the box, or give up the feature.
People still fail to comprehend that while the hackers did take down the network and get account details, it is very possible they were not the first to do so. The details of the very wide security holes had been posted for Sony to see and it was cheaper to ignore than to fix.
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Oh, it was worse than that. They fired their administrators six months before the hacks started, since they felt they were paying them too much, bringing in replacements who didn't have a clue as to what they were doing, and then wondered why the hacks were successful when their replacement admins hadn't patched the systems in 6 months. A friend of mine was an administrator at Sony, who was let go. Then, after they were hacked, Sony called pleading with him and the others they had fired to come back and fix the problem. As far as he knew, nobody came back (he didn't, because he was already 5 months into a new, much better job.)
And Sony still hasn't learned apparently, since no sooner did they have their systems back up when a security researcher informed them that their passwords were able to be hacked. The company is all about short term greed at the expense of all other things, including their customers, which is why I'll never buy anything from them ever again.
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Obvious Outcome
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Re: Obvious Outcome
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Well...
Apparently they like their hardware platform more than they care about their customer's data, lol.
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Re: Well...
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So hats off to the team who designed the system in the first place.
As for the keys themselves what I find fascinating is this information from Eurogamer.net Disclaimer: I am have been running otherOS on two PS3's for years (and yes they are classified as hacked now) as part of my business and am quite intrigued at this development.
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We have seen this time and time again, a group finds a hack and sits on it slowly exploring and tinkering. Someone else gets hold of it and thinks about how to make money and the original or another group then releases it into the wild to stop anyone profiting.
It is about the exploration and tinkering, not making piles of cash. They fastest way to get many people to do something is to tell them not to.
Imagine how much better the system could have been had they worked WITH the hackers rather than against them.
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Reverse engineering (cracking) something and tinkering with it till you know it better than what the original manufacturer does and then seeing what it's true potential is nirvana to any good engineer!
Nearly every innovation with the exception of the true 'new inventions' (eg: teflon, penicillin, dynamite, velcro (have been because people saw something... wanted to know how it worked.. reverse engineered it and then improved upon it.
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The take home point is that allowing homebrew is the best way to keep pirates off your system, because the pirates almost always depend on the real hackers to do the heavy lifting, and the real hackers don't like enabling piracy.
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And yes Homebrew and allowing your system to be used for legal purposes in whatever method is the only way to go (Microsoft figured that out with Kinect and look at it now compared to PSMove).
The XBOX though not hacked within 18 months was problematic nearly instantly due to CD duplication being very very easy. The same with the Wii. though Sony did have an ace up it's sleeve with copying due to it's usage of BlueRay and the rarity of blueray duplicators "in the wild' at the time.
To me I use the OtherOS PS3's as *nix boxes with some proprietary software on one for analysis purposes and was the prime reason for purchasing them at the time (they were the fastest and most cost effective solution).
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There are very few devices out there that some group of tinkerers somewhere isn't toying with.
After OtherOS they became more vocal and open in their exploration, the stated goal time and time again was to bring back OtherOS and Sony stuck their fingers in their ears going LALALALALALALA Burned Copy Pirates & Game Cheaters!!!!
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All i am looking for is a safe way to hack my xbox 360 cos my discs are getting damaged from use and i think i should have the ability to back them up.And that for once is a real reason i want a hack, not to cheat or pirate, just to stop having to buy the kids new discs for games i have already bought for them.
And if there is a hack i hope it is something simple that cannot be detected by MS something that will allow online gameplay and all the extras that go with it. The fact that MS charges for online play is seriously fubor.
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Its never a sale its a license, until it might cost them a dollar. They avoided talking about some Xbox's eating discs left and right, trying to avoid any responsibility that might mean having to make sure their customers can do anything other than buy another copy.
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They have added in one use codes in games, so they can sell a new code.
I have an even better idea...
How about they lower the price of the game, sell more, and stop whining about the used market.
They just see other people making money, decide they deserve it more, and try to screw everyone to "win".
See Google vs Short sighted newspapers.
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Not bloody likely. This is the same company who distributed rootkits on music CDs. They'll chalk this down as a success and make a point of renting out thousands of PS4s to the stupid schmucks still throwing money their way.
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1: thought that cheaters would become more prevalent, so they were upset.
2: etwor
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Serious gamers only care that they can get online and compete, and that they aren't being cheated.
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My sentiment exactly. I'm no longer a "serious" gamer, more like an "oldschool" gamer. I was gaming before the jocks were doing it.
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And then he'll go on to say how everyone deserves to be rootkited because piracy kills puppies or something...
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Not a Surprise
Same with the used game issues. Why don't they just form a contract with used game sellers so that they make a profit for every used game sold? There. Problem solved. Of course, they could always just make the games $20 cheaper. $50 is expensive for a new console game, and I'm barely willing to pay $40 for a handheld game. The prices are kind of insane. Especially since there are so many $50 or $40 games that are complete trash.
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Much too much sense
Keeping pricing over $50 ensures people buy fewer games, pirate more of them. Or wait until the price has dropped so abysmally low there's no profit to be made from them at all.
How do they even run a business with this kind of losing business practice?
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Re: Much too much sense
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Re: Much too much sense
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Bwahahahaha! Er... sorry. Yes. Let's hope. Excuse me I have to wipe the tears out of my eyes.
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Sony PS3
Sony PS3 is export-controlled under Japanese law. Perhaps Sony was concerned about alternative millitary uses of product and export restrictions. Sony PS3 Game Consoles are manufactured in China.
Are Sony PS3 Game Consoles in use by Chinese military?
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$ony is a money losing corporation...
Who runs that company anyways? Its days are numbered, that is for sure. Another "Research In Motion" company in the news...
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who hacked the ps3 lolz
it was the leak of the factory mode dongle that started the whole thing not Geohot and not anyone else its funny how noobs give geohot the credit when in fact it was some chinese guy working in a sony factory
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Hello
MechWarrior Hack
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Motherfuker stfu
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'UI'PK:
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