Custom Firmware Breaks PS3?

Dan Lee 44 Comments

Earlier on it was reported that hackers had released the first custom PS3 firmware.

Tools from ‘KaKaRoTo’ allowed users to create their own firmware using Linux and some coding knowledge, but it didn’t appear to be that useful, with KaKaRoTo saying “this custom firmware is really meant for future homebrew installation”, and “will not allow piracy.”

The custom firmware does seem to have a side effect or two, though, with a post over on NeoGAF claiming that the user’s Trophies have gone and would not reappear, the save data has gone, along with the data utilities – “Pretty much everything under the ‘Game’ category”.

Ouch.

Source: NeoGAF

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44 Comments

  1. lol, what a bell end.

  2. I know it’s been said before, but these hackers are obviously very skilled at what they do, I’m sure there is something more constructive that they can be doing with their skills than hacking a games console.

  3. “side effect or two”
    good stuff, hackers are a virus

  4. Mind you that this is old news now, this was a temporary glitch in the XMBML file that the PS3 uses.

    Also, SONY has got themselves to blame if this gets out of hand.

    Oh the irony.

    If SONY didn’t strip OtherOS from the Slim, GeoHot wouldn’t have gotten curious.

    And if GeoHot wouldn’t have gotten curious — and if SONY knew something about crypto so that fail0verflow couldn’t mathematically recover the private keys… well, their platform would still actually be safe.

    The security is now wide open. More open than Nintendo or XBox. That’s a pity, and SONY has only to blame themselves.

    Talking about shooting yourself in the foot and stuff exploding beyond proportions.

    SONY security has been fragged.

    • I may be wrong, as I haven’t been following these stories very closely as to be honest, apart from the negative effect it will have on the developers I couldn’t care less.
      But, didn’t Sony remove OtherOS to stop piracy in the first place, therefore meaning that it would have been compromised much sooner if they didn’t remove it?
      Maybe I’m wrong.

      • Yes you are wrong ;-)

        That’s basically one of many todays problems: nobody really listens “to all the stories”; multitude seems to only hear what they want to hear, like “there is a custom firmware, but it breaks the hackerz PS3 lolz”.

        The initial release was only a proof-of-concept and a fix was out within 12h. In that respect, the community is faster to react than SONY [boot / drm problems anyone due to buggy RTC?]. Expect interesting patches soon!

        SONY removed the hook to OtherOS due to a hardware design error. It could be exploited, and as OtherOS allows unsigned code, memory could be read.

        This failure that has recently also been exploited without the use of OtherOS — on a SLIM that never had it.

        If OtherOS wasn’t there, these holes would’ve been found in 2004, the PS3 would be fair game since day one.

        OtherOS was great: people like me were happy to play with architecture.

        For SONY, things were relatively safe because people didn’t even try — assuming that SONY had its crypto stuff in check.

        fail0verflow proved that they disgracefully do not. That is a mistake no customer of SONY should accept.

        When out for lots of money from their loyal followers^W customers companies usually make those types of mistakes…. [Again, boot / drm problems because of buggy RTC anyone? They never fixed this, that hardware is still broken.] So people that talk about “how hackers and piracy would ruin the platform” — these people should talk to SONY’s department and ask them why they made shortcuts on hardware design, and why they messed up at head-quarters….

        They screw everybody over and everybody hates the people for it. Divide and conquer, eh? :-)

  5. From what I gather, pretty much every single gaming platform has been hacked, so these doomsday messages by potential users of such a hack a pretty meaningless. I’ve seen and read them before in every other console format I’ve owned.

    I cannot see a massive rush by the vast majority of the PS3 user base installing these custom firmwares in the first place. Yeah, they’ll be piracy, but then there always has.

  6. Back of the net. I’ve been playing FIFA and Flick Kick Football on my ipod all day so i though i would carry football to my comments. Glad to see that things aren’t going the hackers way.

  7. the world needs more ninjas.

  8. if they didnt leave us gamers out in the cold with the likes of ea then people may have felt more loyal and less likely to hack.

  9. As much as i love downloading free stuff i wouldn’t want to install custom firmware or jailbreak my Ps3 ,, i use my ps3 for online gaming 24/7 like many other people so why risk getting it band?

    • It’s not about the free stuff; it’s about having a piece of hardware that you could control, but which has been removed under false pretenses.

      They removed OtherOS in an attempt to secure the platform.

      Within a year, the platform security is wide open. The people only wanted Linux back. What do they have? Everything.

      One should not let its misled mind put too much money & trust into these companies that make money by /restricting/, not by /producing/…

  10. Ha! Serves them right

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