There are no steps and it requires opening the system and applying a pulse to a certain section.

... 25gigs ... 50gigs .. damn I barely have space on my local HD .. then there's the space on my ps3 HD ... this is stupid unless if they have a seriously nice compression routine to go a long with image making ... who would want to waste time, bandwidth, and HD space on this?

If kids take this seriously I'm investing in stocks related to the manufacturing of HDs with re-dunk-q-lous sizes. :D

The method is ridiculous. Won't work on a Slim and requires soldering or the application of a current, which could just fry the mobo. There will be a fantastic number of melted, ruined PS3 circuit boards over the next few months.

And he (the hacker) still hasn't gotten access to the Game OS, just the Linux side of things. There's a tremendous amount of reverse engineering still to be done, and no guarantee that you can peek into the PS3 side of things from Linux.

Isn't there additional encryption on PS3 software as well? If anyone has the answer, please let me know.

my linux savvy friend whos a programmer by profession, says all this does is free up the memory, and bypass hypervisor .

in other words

no sony os no games

its mainly for people who want to be able to utilise the full power of cell without sony, like buying a new cpu and mainboard without an os

it cant run games

it isnt usable by the laymen unless you understand this :

volatile int exploit_second_stage() {
unsigned long crap, j, slb1, slb2, msr, hsprg0;
unsigned long i, g1, g2, status, raff_ptr;
unsigned long vas_id, old_vas_id;
unsigned long act_htab_size;
//2, (24<<56)|(16<<48)
printk(KERN_ERR "construct address space: %d\n", lv1_construct_virtual_address_ space(20, 2, 0x1814000000000000, &vas_id, &act_htab_size));
lv1_get_virtual_address_space_ id_of_ppe(0, &old_vas_id);
printk(KERN_ERR "address space is %d, old was %d\n", vas_id, old_vas_id);
if(vas_id == 0) {
printk(KERN_ERR "ADDRESS SPACE FAIL\n");

its for hard core programmers and people with iqs 160+

its an exploit only usable in the phats and not even them much longer sony has this and will be working on a way to limit it

cells root key is still secured go away pirates

I am NOT poking my PS3 while it's on. You have to poke it after you compile the kernel and run it under linux. It'll tell you to "press the button" then you poke the chip with a screw driver in the spot indicated in the picture. It'll break the circuit long enough for the hack to completely get through the security.

this only wrok with the fat ps3s.... since all slim doesn't allow other OS...can't really see it make that much of an impact

IQ isn't really relevant as anyone can learn programming, it just takes time and patience.

Well, he figured out the most important part... the exploit. Let the games begin(both fig. & lit.)! :D

It's not right, but if this can be "productised" then PS3 sales are gonna soar.

That'll be the end of the 360 almost overnight....

Problem for Sony is they can't afford for that to happen :/

r.

I was pissed when they patched my exploit for Nintendo games on PS3. There was no volume and no battery backup, but it was still great! Don't know why they care if I play old Nintendo games on my PS3.

BTW: Games use to be really hard. Megaman 2 was like Demon's Souls x 10!

If you hack your system, Sony iz gunna probe that oss!*jokes*

So the PS3 is hacked ? No
Altough it's nice to capture all these HV calls and stuff from a plain (not encrypted) lv1 binary, but this will never lead to a hacked PS3.

Let's have a look. The major security architecture on the PS3 is called the "Secure Processing Vault" and is the most important thing regarding "hacking" the PS3.

There is NO WAY for the PPU or even the HV to gain access to the SPU, which is an application running inside of an isolated SPU.

Well you can kick out the isolated SPU, like geohot mentioned, but this gives you nothing, as ALL the encryption and execution of applications (HDD encryption, app encryption, decryption, executing, signature checking, root key extraction) happens inside the isolated SPU.

To run homebrew on the PS3 you would have to reassemble the whole functionality from the SPU inside a binary running on the PPU. For this you will need the root key.

The root key is stored in hardware (not even close to the things on the iPhone). The root key cannot be extracted by any software or hardware means and is essential to ALL encryption/decryption, executing and checking routines.

The only way to get the root key is inside of an isolated SPU, as it is kick-starting the hardware encryption facility. There is no other way to do that !

Let's just assume that geohot or some other guys are able to break into the local store of the isolated SPE. There they will just find some encrypted binaries.

The key for decryption is encrypted by the root key ! You won't get anywhere without the root key.

Let's assume that someone managed to do all those stuff from the isolated SPU on the PPU and creates a CFW (Custom Firmware)

There is still a secure booting environment. The first module loaded/bootet is integrity checked by the hardware crypto facility utilizing the root key. So you have also to address this booting stuff. Again, no root key, no booting.

So there's always runtime patching you might ask ? Not possible on the PS3 because the hardware crypto facility is able to check the signatures whenever it wants to.

And which part is responsible for this ? Exactly, the isolated SPU. So if you kick out the isolated SPU the system will not boot/run anymore.

The PS3 is neither an PSP nor an iPhone. It's the most secure system architecture of this time !

@Carbide7

I have to agree with Carbide7, this is far from a "hacked PS3". It only works on OtherOS, meaning only pre-Slim models, and it's basically a foot in the door -- far, far, FAR from a "hacked PS3". You won't be playing any pirated games for awhile. It took over 3 years to get this far, I can't imagine it taking any less to get to the point where anything at the GameOS level is "hacked".

Not to say that it isn't incredible work by geohot.

Guys, this Hack is not going Anywhere

1· You need a PS3 Fat cuz it uses The Other OS Feature, so Just this take out all the PS3 Slim Owners and newcomers

2· You have to Open your Fat and toy with it in order to make this "work", let alone the fact that if you F#ck Up your PS3 Fat, there is No Replacement since Fat models are not manufactured anymore

3· As far as I know This work with an OLD FW, I don't know if there is a way to Downgrade the Current FW you have installed

Even if the Hackers want to go further with this, they need:

1· Unlock the RSX, something that is locked for the Other OS Feature

2· Fight Against The PS3 Security Architecture called "Secure Processing Vault"

3· Unlock the SPU used for the OS, something that can't be done cuz

a· You have the Other SPUs working to prevent this to happen and obviously the PPU, the GPU can't do anything in this part of the process

b· If you unlock it [something Impossible], any change can F#ck Up your Console cuz the Hardware recognise what's going on with the Console and any change is not allowed, that means, try it but if it doesn't Turn ON, Congratulations, you just F#cked Up your Console :P

4· Fight Against FW Updates

[EDIT]

D'OH! Carbide7 beat me, well take everything that I wrote as a little Resume of what he posted...

Yeah Im not believing anything till I see a video of the ps3 hacked in a video running emulators. So far im reading in comments you have to poke it with a screwdriver (wtf) to hack it. Sure whatver you say. You may have found a way to bypass security but that doesnt need you know a damn thing about how to manipulate the software within. The ps3 is pretty much unhackable due its complex hardware. But thats ok really. Sony gives us everything we need in firmware updates anyway.

I also read his blog earlier,unless your StreetskaterFU :O

http://streetskaterfu.blogs...

it's funny that these other Alternative Sources didn't post this,his previous blog a few hours earlier.

http://geohotps3.blogspot.c...

"I'm not that opposed to releasing the exploit, but I think the majority of you are going to be disappointed, even if you do get it working. Unless you have pushed the HV to it's limits, this exploit really isn't going to do much for you...yet. So install OtherOS and start playing around. If people start coming up with convincing reasons why they need the exploit to go further, I'll release it. It's just a waste to release if people can't make use of it."

basically he's given up,released this as if it's a big deal and spawned headlines like this
PS3 = Owned explicitgamer.com LOL

AS it's been said without the root there is nothing you can really do.But this was a great comment on his blog.

"archie4oz said...

@ragerino

SPE's aren't "deactivated", they're just stopped, i.e. idle. PS3 Linux isn't using them out of the box. It doesn't mean you can't. YDL comes with an SPE-gcc compiler and you can compile and execute code on the SPEs. You can even get IBM's XLC for PPE and SPE along with threading and matrix math libraries for free from IBM's website.

People b***hin' about Linux being restricted and it can't do HTPC are a bunch of crybabies. The fact of the matter is that you don't need access to RSX (yes it would be really nice, but it's not necessary) to decode HD videos. The fact of the matter is that people wanting the PS3 to be an HTPC have wasted years sitting on their asses obsessing about GPU access when all the processing power necessary was sitting right in front of their faces.

Even the bdp stack on the GameOS does the bulk of it's H.264 decoding on a couple of SPEs and only uses RSX for scaling and some filtering (also to conserve RAM).
January 26, 2010 1:53 AM "

geo replied

"George Hotz said...

@archie4oz

Spot on about the SPEs

And actually, the RSX being restricted is just theory as far as I know. OtherOS under the hypervisor may have the access required to write a 3D driver, just no one wrote one.
January 26, 2010 2:06 AM "

When I read that post,I sort felt he'd had enough.

That led into

"George Hotz said...

This is why the internet can't have nice things... (regarding a fake GH account lol)

I have already addressed the stuff about it not being hacked in the last blog post. Please read.
January 26, 2010 3:45 PM "

I'll never use piracy,but i've learnt lots from this over the 5 or so days,and it's good reading.Will it lead to anything who knows,but IBM and Sony designed a cracking system regarding security,and if this is advanced on,it could stop a lot of issues on all future systems.

Why/how hackers get off on this stuff I'll never understand.

but from what i can understand

a) The PS3 unique architecture is preventing these hackers from achieving the most sought after feature - ability to play pirated games

b) free publicity for PS3 :)

I don't condone pirating by any means, and by reading comments above it seems that pirating games is still way off if not impossible even with this exploit, but the main thing I care about is keeping hackers out of MP games. Killzone: Liberation is still to this day one of my favorite MP games on the PSP, and I had to stop playing for about a year (just recently started playing again) because the hackers were ridiculous. Every game I went to for a few straight weeks had at least one hacker in it who just took away the fun/challenge of being in a MP match and I just couldn't take it anymore, so I gave up. Luckily it's not as bad today (must have moved on to other games), but I just pray this never happens on PSN. Besides, I think Sony can probably keep people who have hacked consoles off PSN, if it ever does occur.

And you can give a very smart pirate all that info plus the root key and it still won't work.

The Cell has spu's... 1 for the OS 6 for game applications 1 sitting dormant.

the one sitting dormant can be reactivated anytime per firmware (if it's not already active) and "MAYBE" be used just to calculate and monitor security countermeasures within the system and translate encrypted code on the disk software.

One bad code, algorithm, etc and that 1 core could gimp the pirated system.

Not too mention I see SONY moving to Double Layer Blu-ray disk thus (making their games even better) and deterring pirating even more
because No one wants to download 50gb worth of Data. I don't care if it's Uncharted 3 game of the Millennium Edition 50gb is alot at any speed.

and if you did I guarantee you your ISP will contact you in regards to bandwidth limits. For example Comcast has a250gb monthly limit

So Sony's PS3 is a safe well engineered item that CAN be hacked but not like other consoles.

jumping the guns too quickly there don't you think? there's a long way to go before any 'real' hacks allowing for bootleg games (don't even try to deny it! hacker are dying for this to happen, THIS & ONLY THIS!) to be played and this is not even possible for the Slim just yet because it needs Linux! and it requires your PS3 to be ripped open and turned "ON" for this to work! hohoho...that looks 'safe'/s!

took over 3 years for anybody to come to this point (although just took this kid 5 weeks)! and from what I read, looks like he gave up! (I might be wrong though) some people will look into this as deep as they can but while they're busy trying to hack their PS3, I'll use mine as it is! good luck!

"IQ isn't really relevant as anyone can learn programming, it just takes time and patience."

have you tried teaching hexadecimal math to the morons coming out of the schools today? lol

Gonna have to wait for a few weeks before anybody can actually do anything with it.. Seems it may also need linux to work too So useless for slims really.. He also said its got limited access so there ain't much you can do with it. This isn't much of a hack.

What is this guy thinking?
The PS3 cost millions of Yen to develop. Games cost millions of dollars and pounds to develop. All this has done is make it possible for the grubby, greedy leech like cheat to play games without recompensing those who worked so hard and spent so much money to bring us good games, and it will be the good games that deserve our cash that will suffer!
He's allowing the avaricious criminal and the spineless software pirate to profit!

This is the hack for you. If you are not and want to play games on your PS3, then stay away from this hack...? Right??

Ill be interested to see what the hacking community do with this, and I will also be interested to see how Sony respond.

Sony could put lots of money into re securing this exploit and fixing it fast, that would make sence, but I wonder if they do it.

"The genius said it"

Torrance Girls Softball League

or...
Temperature at Ground Snow Interface
Tactile Ground Surface Indicator
Tungsten Graphics Shader Infrastructure

I am glad I am not the only one who didn't know that acronym.

I thought I was the only one who didn't know what it meant.

so true since day one i asked myself wtf TGSI was =O!!!

TELL US =3

Yeah, like PirateThom said. He said it the last time someone asked.

TGSI = The genius said it

You guys truly make my day when that question is brought to attention. Bubbles all around : v ).

TGSI

And here I thought he just kept saying "Tokyo Game Show"

me tooooo!!!!

me three.

LOL me too

bubbles to all above me.

LMAO ...I wasn't going to admit that I had been thinking it had something to do with Tokyo Game Show....but I'm glad I wasn't alone there.

lol..i thought it was that i thought the i was for upside down exclamation like the '1'... lol

Ha, I too would always say "tokyo game show..." in my head when reading TGSI. I'm glad I know what it means now. Thanks Thom!

You still have the problem of actually pirating PS3 games. What with the cost to buy a blu-ray burner (about $200), plus the cost of discs (a 15 pack will cost you like $40). Then you have the problem of downloading all that data. In Japan it wouldn't be as much of a problem. However, in the US and UK where the average speed is more like 5 megabits per second, then it becomes a huge problem. It would take you something like 10 hours of non-stop downloading just to download one game.

On top of that you got to factor in the attention it would bring downloading all that information. I'm sure most people have Comcast here in the US. And they have no problem whatsoever cutting you off if you download too much (even though it's illegal to do such a thing).

The point is, hacked or not, pirating games on the PS3 is just not prudent at this time.

However, Homebrew and stuff like that would be interesting. I'd still never risk it though and hack my ps3 as it already does plenty of what I want it do do and all of what I need it to at this point.

@guy above.

Depends if this hack allows booting iso's, then you dont need to burn anything.

His main concern was dling the data of the PS3 game which can range from 25 to 50 gb and if you were to transfer that data from your computer to your PS3 HDD you would need to use an external HDD or find a way to put a FTP application on the PS3.

Either way though this hack doesn't really do much for software manipulation was their a list of what this guy said he was able to do after he hacked it? I think the one thing he said was PS2 emulation which essentially I'm guessing he just took the allotted space from the other os feature and just found a way to put in the PS2 data. I got just about half of what this guy did to do it. I'm not gonna risk opening up however. Nor do I have a FPGA board to send a pulse to the PS3.

why are so many ppl disagreeing with GrandDragon? When there's ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with his comment

I'm guessing because either because this exploit is far from getting a hacked PS3 to play pirated games. Also Geo Hotz didn't really intentionally made this hack for piracy so that might be another reason for the disagrees.