Sony Claims It Can Fix PS3 Security Problems
- Thread starter Logan Westbrook
- Start date
Good on sony to be actively fixing it.
The xbox360 was hacked a while back, the wii has been hacked(for some reason) and the kinect was smashed open in hours, the ps3? 3 damned years before people can start doing anything serious. its a fort knox of a console, not impregnable, but your damn well gonna take as long as possible to do it
The xbox360 was hacked a while back, the wii has been hacked(for some reason) and the kinect was smashed open in hours, the ps3? 3 damned years before people can start doing anything serious. its a fort knox of a console, not impregnable, but your damn well gonna take as long as possible to do it
...Yes, I read the article. But that still doesn't mean Microsoft has FIXED anything. I don't expect Sony to be able to fix their security problems either.biggles1 said:
Hmm, let's break this down. First, PS3 is successful, famous for being unhackable, then an exploit appears (again). Unlike before where they block it with an update, they take out OtherOS altogether. That's where things begin - the people who actually used it want to get it back, so they start using their skills and talents to break the security. Few months later, after many outcries and threats to sue (with some actually attempted - I can't remember how it went), someone finally finds a way in and tries to make money off it (Jailbreak). Clones spread like wildfire and Sony try to get them banned in every country (and fail in Spain to my amusement). The PS3 scene really gets everybody's attention then and things take off. Not that long later, PS3 gets broken wide open.
To fix things, they need to learn their lessons from the experience. Firstly, putting OtherOS back will not do a thing - it became too late for that the moment Jailbreak got announced. Secondly, with a 40 minute tour through the PS3 hierarchy and how it broke down, they should take that to heart and rebuild from the ground up. As Sony announced, that means updates. It means a major update, probably to v4.0, and if they don't find some way to completely rebuild the entire PS3 system (considering that they keys to the system are public), it'll happen again. If they do rebuild the entire system, and fill up the holes in their security, they'll probably be successful in recovering. All they can do then is hope that their new games that require the new version to run will be awesome enough to make people want to update to it. It could happen... but probably not. Either way, I hope Sony succeed. I'd rather give my money to Sony than Microsoft (even if I may take this opportunity to try all the small older PS3 games that no shop seems to sell anymore).
To fix things, they need to learn their lessons from the experience. Firstly, putting OtherOS back will not do a thing - it became too late for that the moment Jailbreak got announced. Secondly, with a 40 minute tour through the PS3 hierarchy and how it broke down, they should take that to heart and rebuild from the ground up. As Sony announced, that means updates. It means a major update, probably to v4.0, and if they don't find some way to completely rebuild the entire PS3 system (considering that they keys to the system are public), it'll happen again. If they do rebuild the entire system, and fill up the holes in their security, they'll probably be successful in recovering. All they can do then is hope that their new games that require the new version to run will be awesome enough to make people want to update to it. It could happen... but probably not. Either way, I hope Sony succeed. I'd rather give my money to Sony than Microsoft (even if I may take this opportunity to try all the small older PS3 games that no shop seems to sell anymore).
Or rather, all the ones who could do it were tinkering with otherOS the entire time.Irridium said:
From what I've been reading up on, the main, foolproof exploit to replace the firmware on a PSP was 'patched' by the release of the 3000 model, which had a new motherboard that broke itself if you tried (clever bit of design, no?) Nowadays on the 3000 and Go models there are releases for Homebrew enablers and the like, and these are the ones getting patched out by subsequent updates and the like.Jumplion said:
Anyway reading Sony's response to this has given me the giggles to be honest, since you would hardly expect a major corp like Sony to just shrug and state 'Yeah, we're boned.' to the public. I am interested in seeing how this story goes from here on.
There are various things they could do, more or less onerous. But there's nothing they can do to prevent current consoles from being 'fixed' (ie further crippled) unless you accept a mandatory firmware update.
Perhaps they can issue new keys and whitelist old games? I've seen that one bandied about. That would mean that pirates would need to hack new games to use old keys, and then you're back to the days of every new game needing to be cracked.
They can just keep adding more layers of protection, like Ubisoft's 'always on' internet connection. New calls into new copy protection checks that only exist in newer firmware. Again, that'd only work with new games but new games would have to be cracked before they got pirated.
Without hardware changes, none of this stops anything, it just makes makes it more annoying. Like the PSP.
Would Sony do something that would stop all old games from working? I'd say no, that would be absolutely ridiculous; but then I remember how far they went to cripple the USB ports to keep Linux off, and I wonder.
Perhaps they can issue new keys and whitelist old games? I've seen that one bandied about. That would mean that pirates would need to hack new games to use old keys, and then you're back to the days of every new game needing to be cracked.
They can just keep adding more layers of protection, like Ubisoft's 'always on' internet connection. New calls into new copy protection checks that only exist in newer firmware. Again, that'd only work with new games but new games would have to be cracked before they got pirated.
Without hardware changes, none of this stops anything, it just makes makes it more annoying. Like the PSP.
Would Sony do something that would stop all old games from working? I'd say no, that would be absolutely ridiculous; but then I remember how far they went to cripple the USB ports to keep Linux off, and I wonder.
I love the people who act like they are on a crusade, passed down from on high, to crush the pirate heathens.LeonLethality said:
You know what Sony did? They went and slapped every customer who bought a PS3 so they could game and run linux in an interesting environment. Sure that wasn't what the fanboi's, such as yourself, bought it for, but that doesn't make their purchase any less legitimate.
Honestly the game's up. The root key is out. That is BIG news. Someone getting a root key on a closed system like the PS3 is huge news. The hardware is configured to only accept software signed with XYZ key. To update, you have to push a new key, which COULD BE READ since it has to be signed by XYZ key to be accepted by the current console. Even then you have to let software signed with XYZ key work since if it didn't everyone's games purchased before the switch wouldn't work.
The best part is that the key matches the PSP's root key. Security epic fail (TM Sony).
And there goes me giving any shit about reading your argument. That's just childish of you to say something like that.Tron Paul said:
Besides, I would at least like to be called a Nintendo fanboy if any.
biggles1 said:Good on sony to be actively fixing it.
The xbox360 was hacked a while back, the wii has been hacked(for some reason) and the kinect was smashed open in hours, the ps3? 3 damned years before people can start doing anything serious. its a fort knox of a console, not impregnable, but your damn well gonna take as long as possible to do it
Fail on not reading other articles. Not many people were trying to crack the PS3 because it had otheros once they removed that people tried, and it cracked within the same amount of time as the xbox360. It was never some super non hackable console people just didn't want to hack it because they got what they wanted out of it, using linux.Originality said:
Anyone want a bet on exactly how many games will be turned into glorified coasters by the 'fix'?
In the meanwhile, the rest of us will probably be "punished" by updates that risk rendering our systems temporarily unusable or worse.LeonLethality said:
GO SONY!
I've read every article because it's fun to read. I was just referring to articles and videos from around a year back about "Why PS3 hasn't been hacked". Sony even wore the label with pride, jumping on each game/update that introduced a potential exploit with impressive speed, and that level of security helped attract game design studios who could think "at last, a console that the pirates can't get at". Everybody knew it'd happen eventually, but back then they predicted PS4 would be out first. Naturally, everything changed with the removal of OtherOS.Rationalization said:
My biggest concern regarding the whole affair is about the game studios. Will they still develop games for PS3 now that the security is completely compromised and piracy becoming inevitable, or will PS3 follow the same path as PSP and Wii?
None of the noteworthy hackers were even bothering with hacking the ps3 while it still offered Linux support for them to play with. Then Sony jacked the support for the ps3slim but more inflamatory was retroatctivly jacking it from existing models. The xbox and Wii never offered a homebrew alternative, so the hackers descended like a pack of crows on them first. The kinect isn't really a console... I don't imagine it has much of anything resembling real security, likely comparable to your printer.biggles1 said:Good on sony to be actively fixing it.
The xbox360 was hacked a while back, the wii has been hacked(for some reason) and the kinect was smashed open in hours, the ps3? 3 damned years before people can start doing anything serious. its a fort knox of a console, not impregnable, but your damn well gonna take as long as possible to do it
The people that actually want homebrew access to hardware, are your more skilled hackers. They want to run thier code, not somone elses. The wannabes that just want to pirate games didn't have the muscle to crack the ps3 security. Which on the outside is rock solid. THe problem is that once skilled hackers became motivated to crack it's security, and found a way through, they found that stone wall was held up with toothpicks.
I'm all for fighting piracy but once you cross the line of taking advertised features away from a console you already sold I'm no longer in your camp.