Is The PS3 Close To Being Hacked?
The unhackable console - is it still safe from piracy?Published 04/01/2010 at 21:00 by Michael
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A number of videos around the internet over the New Year period appeared to show an ‘exploit’, in various stages of development, that may be the way pirates finally get their hands on some dodgy games. Of course, here on TheSixthAxis we don’t condone piracy at any level, so certainly won’t be linking to any of the so-called ‘tutorials’ in question (and besides, no-one’s actually verified they work anyway) but seeing as the PS3 is the last console standing in the piracy war the news that the hackers might be close is certainly newsworthy.
The method in question involves installing some iffy software on a version of Windows over a Linux partition, so it’s not for the fainthearted (and is against the law anyway) and requires a copy of one of the PS3’s earliest titles as some kind of key. Rumours are that the whole thing is one big lie and that only a ’select few’ have gotten the thing to actually work, but it’s interesting to hear that some individuals are so desperate to get games without paying for them that they’d actually try and copy the steps shown in the videos floating around the web over the weekend.
Our advice? Just buy the games if you want them, the risk of destroying your PS3 should be bad enough, but we’d hope our readers are intelligent enough to know that if you want your big summer blockbusters each year you need to keep handing over your cash.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
hannes_truce | 04/01/2010 21:03
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2919 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
Or just get lovefilm. £10 a month or risk destroying yer ps3? tough call.
mynameisblair | 04/01/2010 21:05
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3876 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
I can get games for the PS3 for free….
With my LoveFilm 2 month trial!
Free… well untill the end of february anyway.
kevmd | 04/01/2010 21:09
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49 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2009
Thats the real kind of free, with no strings attached that everyone loves. Ive got a lovefilm account as well, its pretty awesome, but I can never seem to turnaround games as fast as I’d like…
carlosfilippsen | 04/01/2010 21:25
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1316 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
I will stick with my LoveFilm account aswell
Yung Jones | 04/01/2010 21:43
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Hey Blair do you plan on cancelling your acount after the free trial?
pawski | 05/01/2010 12:02
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beware!! they WILL take money off your card and you WILL spend the next year or so trying to get it back. the bastards.
kevmd | 04/01/2010 21:04
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49 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2009
Im just wondering is it too late in the consoles ‘life’ to be starting up a pirate games racket. I mean people will always try to get some stuff on the cheap, but if its a backdoor, round the side, up the chimney, dig into the living room floor kind of hack, its not gonna hurt the developers much.
Deathbrin | 04/01/2010 21:07
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946 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
Steady flow of cash indeed. That means no second hand or renting, too.
Deathbrin | 04/01/2010 21:14
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So basically those proposing Lovefilm are no better.
hannes_truce | 04/01/2010 21:16
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But lovefilm still need to buy a large amount of the game on release to supply their customers. thats a massive sales boost (and they operate in mainland Europe too. The rental industry has always been there and never had a massive impact on cashflow.
Aitrus | 05/01/2010 08:39
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1488 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
And rental outlets buy games in a completely different way. They don’t just buy a game in a shop and then rent it, that’s illegal. They buy special licences to be allowed to rent the games. If it’s a licence fee payed for esch time the game is rented or a one time fee I don’t know.
Deathbrin | 05/01/2010 09:15
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946 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
OK, Lovefilm does buy games. But by renting from them, you still don’t.
cc_star | 05/01/2010 10:22
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@Deathbrin
To be allowed to rent games you have to have permission of the content owners, in the good old days of VHS rentals I know rental copies of movies cost £80-£100 compared to £10-£15 retail price
I presume something similar happens with games, or they at least have to buy a licence to rent them out – either way the content owner isn’t going to lose out, else they wouldn’t give permission to rent it out
bajere | 05/01/2010 14:10
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1067 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
@Deathbrin- you need a rental license…BUT i think i know where you are coming from = They may have to buy a license/rental copy of a game, but that one game may cost £40 in the local game store. so if love film whore it out to 100 people, unless that rental copy/license cost £4000 then the developers will miss out.
cc_star | 05/01/2010 14:15
Team TSA: Writer
7868 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
But I rent stuff I have no intention of buying, so each rental doesn’t equal a lost sale… so basically if it wasn’t for rentals (and their licensing costs) – the devs/publishers would get far less out of me
VHS/DVD rentals has hardly hurt Hollywood has it – in fact its probably contributed to it.
bajere | 05/01/2010 14:22
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1067 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
@cc-
yea and no really… take MW2 and AC2 for example. i rented both. but if that option wasn’t around, i would of bought both, then took them down and sold them. But buy me renting both, the dev’s have lost out on a retail sale. the rental license must be pricey to balance this out i guess…
3shirts | 04/01/2010 21:10
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2486 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
It’s essential that people constantly attempt to break into any system in order to keep security tight. Whatever their reasons for doing it (and it’s NOT always just to get games without paying) I hope they keep trying and Sony keep a good eye on things and patch as necessary.
Being in security myself, and with two ethical hacking courses under my belt, I know the best way to beat hackers is to become one, or at least embrace them. Microsoft took a long time to realise that with Windows and it cost them millions.
NavahoGL | 05/01/2010 08:30
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Yep, from a security standpoint it is imperative it is getting attacked.
And, what you are saying is partly correct, but it wasn’t just costing Microsoft millions. There are some positive sides to it: letting Windows get pirated, allowing the pirated versions to update — and so, their network bombarded with request (legit requests causing DOS) it gave them a quite hardened network setup that can handle quite some load.
The PSN is down quite often lol
Severn2j | 05/01/2010 08:56
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1553 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
Completely agree with 3shirts on this one.. I’ve worked in security myself and this is exactly how it should be. And, as also said above, hacking isnt just for piracy reasons, its just that pirates use those exploits too. The hackers who find these exploits are generally against piracy as it hurts their credibility and reputations and they do it for the challenge and to open up the hardware so it can be used for other things..
For example, how cool would it be to be able to just browse the windows folders on your home network, rather than have to rely on DLNA-based media servers (which, by comparison, are crap) or be able to support .mkv HD video formats? This is the kind of stuff hackers are aiming at, stuff that is blocked because corporations like Microsoft and Sony have vested interests in not providing them.. It follows the belief that once you buy the hardware, its yours to do with as you wish (as long as you dont use it for nefarious means) and tbh, I agree with that.
grimm | 06/01/2010 13:49
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indeed, this is why a lot of hackers end up getting ridiculous salaries working for the very companies/products they hacked in the first place.
Double D | 04/01/2010 21:11
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I think a lot of these console hacking projects derive from a lust for exploration and experimentation, not cheaping out to get free games.
Of course other people will use the fruits of this labour to not have to pay for stuff but at the heart of it it’s hobby, not malice.
BIGAL-1992 | 04/01/2010 21:22
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1248 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009
Whoever is involved in pirating games and DVDs deserved to be hit with sledgehammers for all I care.
Yung Jones | 04/01/2010 21:51
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Oooooh, controversial!
tantalus_blank | 04/01/2010 22:46
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whoever is responsible for the unskippable “you wouldn’t steal a handbag” clip at the start of a paid for DVD should get the same
discharge | 04/01/2010 23:14
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Damn Straight!
Person678 | 05/01/2010 00:19
BOOM! Headshot!
1793 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009
Technically, this is a blu-ray…
*whistles*
Tuffcub | 05/01/2010 09:23
Team TSA: Writer
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but not just any blu -ray, this.. is an M & S Blu Ray… *orgasm*
ShovellyJoe | 04/01/2010 21:52
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I reckon Mr. T be tryin’ to hack his Mohawk Grenade into every PS3 game…
RocketSOL | 04/01/2010 21:59
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But he ain’t no computer hacker!?!?
Boomshanks | 05/01/2010 18:30
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He’ll make other people do it and instead build them a swing
Amphlett | 06/01/2010 09:58
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Crazy fool!
teflon | 04/01/2010 22:00
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Even if it is true, this is currently way too many steps for it to make even a tiny dent in the PS3 market. Not to mention it’ll need an old PS3 firmware, that particular old game (without any updates it got), and a phat PS3 (i haven’t seen the tutorial, so don’t actually know this, but i can speculate pretty well
) so that you can use linux. Possibly even one of the original BC compatible PS3s with full hardware BC.
It’s nowhere near the simplicity of hacking a 360 or Wii or PSP, so won’t gain any traction. Specially since you won’t have PSN or any game updates.
teflon | 05/01/2010 00:42
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1996 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
Scratch that, I found the videos, and it’s running on a slim. It uses an external USB dongle and some wacky installer disk which makes it look its install a windows XP app, but it’s not. Oh, and the video indicates FW 3.xx
Im still damned sceptical that this is real, though.
TheSabreman | 04/01/2010 22:13
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368 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
If it is hacked then i’d imagine that Sony will do the same as Microsoft and ban all hacked machines from being online, which I’d imagine will lessen the appeal to those that are tempted.
slickhenry | 04/01/2010 23:09
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I’d love to have all my games playable direct from a hdd, so I could just stuff the discs up on the attic with my dvds and cds (which are backed up for instant access on my htpc)
It wouldn’t stop me from buying the games I play.
The problem is most people would only use such an exploit to skip the buying part
discharge | 04/01/2010 23:19
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249 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Im with you on that point, I’d also like to run all my old ps2+ps1 games off the PS3 HDD, also who the hell wants to rip a blu ray game and upload it anyway – some of those newer games are well in excess of 15GB minimum! – just ludicrous
justinjh | 04/01/2010 23:28
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324 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
Me and my PS3 owning friends lend each other games, so we don’t all have to go out and buy all the games, works for us! Who need piracy?!
Hodgi92 | 04/01/2010 23:48
The Thumb
1058 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Not that I would pirate anyway but I have a slim, can’t install Linux.
I wonder is Sony were aware of the vulnerability and that is why Linux can’t be installed on slims. Hmm.
CaptainMurdo | 05/01/2010 01:13
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Change your avatar back. I don’t like change.
retroedward | 05/01/2010 13:39
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What’s wrong with his avatar?
freezebug2 | 05/01/2010 00:43
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I hope the PS3 does not get compromised with piracy. I am of the belief that when talent produces a product that you want then it should be bought if possible or saved up for. Support for games will eventually bring about a version 2/3/4 of the game but piracy will ultimately end in tears and no game.
davidjmclare | 05/01/2010 01:04
always on easy
1094 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
even if i did want to pirate my ps3, which i dont, wouldnt it run the risk of corrupting all the psn games on their? thats a lot of games! and movies and tv shows!
stingraz | 05/01/2010 07:56
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2228 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
i say we hunt down the hackers, one by one. Once we’ve located them, by hacking into their PC’s, we’ll kill them by hitting them with PS3’s!. simple.