PS3 root key found....Anyone think we are going to see some changes soon

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GeoHot (cracked the iPhone and others) published the root key for the PS3.

link redacted

Since GT5 was apparently delayed at the last minute to be compatible with 3.55 I have to wonder how Sony is going to react and how that reaction may affect all of us that own a PS3.

Mods...sorry if this is the wrong area to post. Since any reaction will most likely affect GT5 users this seemed the most logical place.
 
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The short and simple truth is; there is nothing Sony can do about it. This isn't something that can be addressed by a firmware update, it literally requires new hardware or new discs with different root keys.

Likely you will see a lot more new games requiring code activation in order to access online features; as seen in some EA titles such as Medal of Honor.
 
Failoverflow destroyed all the security that means anything on the PS3 so I don't know why geohot gets all the credit everywhere.

And yes, I think we will see homebrew, hopefully XBMC or something like it and of coures a ton of piracy...
 
-Cheezman-
The short and simple truth is; there is nothing Sony can do about it. This isn't something that can be addressed by a firmware update, it literally requires new hardware or new discs with different root keys.

Likely you will see a lot more new games requiring code activation in order to access online features; as seen in some EA titles such as Medal of Honor.
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They don't have the keys for app loader, as far as I know. Correct me if I am wrong.

link redacted
 
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Yes, I realize that it wouldn't be a firmware update since such updates are now pointless for combating piracy.

I was thinking more along the lines of an accelerated PS4 release, or perhaps something more ominous like requiring users buy a USB dongle with another key on it to play future games or games coming with such a dongle to install and/or play them.
 
Centura
They don't have the keys for app loader, as far as I know. Correct me if I am wrong.

link redacted
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What do they need the specific key for? They have the root key and can sign any code...

JGW
Yes, I realize that it wouldn't be a firmware update since such updates are now pointless for combating piracy.

I was thinking more along the lines of an accelerated PS4 release, or perhaps something more ominous like requiring users buy a USB dongle with another key on it to play future games or games coming with such a dongle to install and/or play them.
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I am thinking something will come along like a future firmware with a new key for all games after a certain date, then a white list of all games before that date with their respective keys and checksums.

This way the damage is limited to existing games on the market at least... although I can't imagine too long before a custom firmware that circumvents the check or the new key is hacked.

Oh and one thing I forgot to mention in things I expect to come:

Cheaters.

The ability to sign your code means you can alter the game, then sign it and run it.

On the original Xbox the teams behind it agreed not to release the signing tool so exactly this couldn't happen. With Xboxlive's banhammer cheating is has somewhat of an answer.

On the PS3 it remains to be seen how Sony will react to this and whether cheaters will get bans or even if any homebrew or falsly signed code will result in bans.

Also the ability to sign your own code gives the ability to create viruses... a simple virus could turn millions of PS3's into a huge botnet.
 
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I just hope this doesnt head into the PSN front, as I am not really keen to search through lobbies just to try and find non hybrid/hacked cars or even hacked physics races. The seasonal timetrials are cool too and I'd hate to see those hacked so someone can extend their ego by having their name at the top with 0.000000001 total time or something to that effect.
*Just trying to keep this inline with GT5 as someone asked what any of this has to do this forum*
 
In my personal opinion this is all for the sake of piracy, unfortunately the linux compatibly was disabled by Sony for no reason,It was believed that Linux will enable a boot loader for PS3 games,so they took it away,something that "upset" hackers(it certainly did),but the matter of the fact is that the USB piracy created by the Jailbreak team did not involve Linux emulation and lead directly to piracy(they say game backups,but we all know that is for piracy).

As for "homebrew applications" goes is not something that I'm looking for,all applications that can be done using PS3 hardware can be easily done by Linux emulations,so PS3 will use Linux based system as the original xbox did,and such applications developed at the time now can be done in the PS3 system(Web browsing,music playback,video playback,etc...).

So I like the bit that they say "Linux running on PS3",that was something that the PS3 did loose and something that needed back,but the rest as I said before is for the sake of piracy so there is not too much to look forward, except of course for massive updates,tons of firmware versions and online game hack(just like Socom series on the PSP,which were damaged badly in the online gameplay).

What I found weird is the fact that several groups are attributing the PS3 Key founding,something weird if you think about it(three groups in less than a month?).

Finally as GT5 is concern about this topic(which BTW should not be here),the game will be pirated,but with all of these updates,I don't think that the pirates can get the full amount of features that GT5 updates are giving to players,and I found quite hard to see "pirate" players in online since it requires updates,so GT5 can be pirated,but it can be played as well as a real copy does.

Devedander
Also the ability to sign your own code gives the ability to create viruses... a simple virus could turn millions of PS3's into a huge botnet.
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That is a bit apocalyptic if I'm honest,it will require a massive attack in several severs by a large group of people.
 
I am not quite sure yet if this thread falls afoul of the AUP as specified here:

# You will not use these forums for the purposes of sharing or distributing viruses, licenses, registration information, software keys, pirated commercial multimedia files, “cracks”, or other information designed to do harm to or allow unlawful access to any computer software or systems.
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As it's only a news item, fair play, but I'll be removing links for the meantime just in case... until we can deliberate on whether this thread will be allowed to continue.

I know this is not a discussion of piracy or whatnot, but it's against forum rules to post software keys or links to such.
 
This has alot to do with GT5 and every PS3 game in fact, because it could open the floodgates for cheaters to ruin the game for everyone.

I'm all for people screwing around with their consoles, so long as they keep it offline.
 
Apologies to all if this wasn't the proper place to put this. Note the last sentence of the OP.

I simply wanted to make everyone aware and did not see a console area until after I posted it.
 
Nah, the 360 has been cracked wide open for years... no real effect there... and MS just started banning people outright. Tricking the hardware is one thing, tricking the network is completely different...

But I do expect a boost in sales as many people will keep one offline...
 
alexleighton
This has alot to do with GT5 and every PS3 game in fact, because it could open the floodgates for cheaters to ruin the game for everyone.

I'm all for people screwing around with their consoles, so long as they keep it offline.
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Cheaters already have ruined the game for everyone by duping cars, cars that used to be rare are no longer rare.
 
Devedander
I am thinking something will come along like a future firmware with a new key for all games after a certain date, then a white list of all games before that date with their respective keys and checksums.
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Doubt it. Checksum checks aren't particularly practical to do with optical media, let alone notoriously slow to read optical media that would need to be checked every time you play the game. And a whitelist wouldn't do much good if you could hack apart any game that required it and resign it after you made necessary changes.



As an aside, they ended up getting the keys for the PSP as well, which means that all of Sony's efforts to eliminate unsigned code on that system with the release of the PSP 3000 are basically gone as well.

Lawndart
Nah, the 360 has been cracked wide open for years... no real effect there... and MS just started banning people outright. Tricking the hardware is one thing, tricking the network is completely different...
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This, to be frank, is a completely different situation than anything seen in the past. It isn't even really analogous to what the PSP and Wii went through.


GT Motion
Cheaters already have ruined the game for everyone by duping cars, cars that used to be rare are no longer rare.
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I'm pretty sure he meant cheating which legitimately affected other people. Not selfish whining about B-Day and car duplication exploits.
 
JGW
Apologies to all if this wasn't the proper place to put this. Note the last sentence of the OP.

I simply wanted to make everyone aware and did not see a console area until after I posted it.
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No problem. It has been moved. Like I said, though, it may be locked or removed completely pending a decision by the admin.
 
r2nyGT5
It would be kinda of cool to see some new home-brew applications for the PS3...
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Yep, personnaly I would be interested in a way to read PS2 games if you do not have a retro-compatible PS3.

Although the problem is that Sony will probably find a way to find who modded their consoles and ban them from PSN.
 
Lawndart
Nah, the 360 has been cracked wide open for years... no real effect there... and MS just started banning people outright. Tricking the hardware is one thing, tricking the network is completely different...

But I do expect a boost in sales as many people will keep one offline...
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No, it hasn't been cracked wide open. The DVD firmware was hacked, the 360 security was actually quite strong and until Jtagging it was a pretty closed system outside a few very dedicated people who gave up any ability to update past a certain dashboard.

Even now, the 360 is not as open as the PS3... the PS3 is literally cracked as wide open as it can be, the 360 still has some protected areas that haven't been compromised yet.

Toronado
Doubt it. Checksum checks aren't particularly practical to do with optical media, let alone notoriously slow to read optical media that would need to be checked every time you play the game. And a whitelist wouldn't do much good if you could hack apart any game that required it and resign it after you made necessary changes.
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You are right, checksums on optical media wouldn't be good, perhaps byte verification or nothing at all... just a whitelist.

The point of the whitelist wouldn't be so much to prevent future pirating but rather as a necessity because a new security key would render old titles unplayable without a whitelist.

akiraacecombat
As for "homebrew applications" goes is not something that I'm looking for,all applications that can be done using PS3 hardware can be easily done by Linux emulations,so PS3 will use Linux based system as the original xbox did,and such applications developed at the time now can be done in the PS3 system(Web browsing,music playback,video playback,etc...).
Click to expand...

The question though is who has a linux emulator running of a cell processor? Admittedly the graphics chip is not anything fancy anymore, however the original OtherOS was very limited (sommething which pissed off linux nerds right off the bat) and AsbestOS aims to give full access to all the hardware in it's full power... so it really does have some interesting opportunities... couldy you imagine a Dreamcast emulator finally possible?

Finally as GT5 is concern about this topic(which BTW should not be here),the game will be pirated,but with all of these updates,I don't think that the pirates can get the full amount of features that GT5 updates are giving to players,and I found quite hard to see "pirate" players in online since it requires updates,so GT5 can be pirated,but it can be played as well as a real copy does.
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Why would pirated copies be any less playable online than retail copies? Once signed, the code would look completely legit to the PS3 and if it wasn't changed in some way should appear completely legit to the online servers also. Failoverflow has basically made everything that was doable with the jailbreak possible without a jailbreak and made it possible on any firwmware so you can go online.
 
Devedander
Even now, the 360 is not as open as the PS3... the PS3 is literally cracked as wide open as it can be, the 360 still has some protected areas that haven't been compromised yet.
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I think some perspective needs to be made in this thread to understand just how important this statement is. Up until now, the only way systems in the past were able to execute homebrew applications is by disabling (temporarily, in some cases, permanently in others) the system security or circumventing it in some way. This PS3 (and PSP) revelation basically just turns the security off entirely. And this is something that I don't think this has happened for a video game console since 1992.

To put it metaphorically, let's say a game console was a house. To do homebrew on something like the PSP, you had to pick the lock or jimmy open a window to get into the system, and hope the locks weren't changed in the future (in the form of upgraded firmware). Now, you are basically handed the keys to the front door and the code for the alarm system.

Devedander
The point of the whitelist wouldn't be so much to prevent future pirating but rather as a necessity because a new security key would render old titles unplayable without a whitelist.
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Oh, I get you. Though I'm not so sure how useful a new key would even be. Now, granted, I realize that Sony will have to act and implement one anyways, but I'm doubtful whether it would make any difference.
 
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Lawndart
Nah, the 360 has been cracked wide open for years... no real effect there... and MS just started banning people outright. Tricking the hardware is one thing, tricking the network is completely different...

But I do expect a boost in sales as many people will keep one offline...
Click to expand...

The xbox360 was hacked in a different way,unlike its predecessor is harder to make homwbrew for it,and agree the sales of PS3 hardware will be boosted,in countries where piracy is the mainstream game market,Xbox has been very popular because of that.

Apart from that I don't see an effective countermeasure against the security breach,MS tried something with the AP.25(anti-piracy software-"something,I'm not so aware of that scene for quite a long time),and it hasn't been effective,the only thing that I can see effective is DLC based games,DLC are hard to emulate because they content keys for download and load,and online confirmation while installing(cant be seen but is present),that would be a "possible" solution for piracy,but it will meant that the BR(Blue-Ray)technology developed for the PS3 is pretty much pointless,there is nothing that can be done for the current PS3 related software at this point,since the hardware was the one that "failed",is hard to conceive an effective countermeasure for piracy,its a hardware security breach after all,so it involves all PS3 models sold at this moment,something that can be done is change the PS3 security level architecture,but that will require a re-desing of the PS3 hardware,something that they tried with the PSP-go and didn't work.

Devedander
The question though is who has a linux emulator running of a cell processor? Admittedly the graphics chip is not anything fancy anymore, however the original OtherOS was very limited (sommething which pissed off linux nerds right off the bat) and AsbestOS aims to give full access to all the hardware in it's full power... so it really does have some interesting opportunities... couldy you imagine a Dreamcast emulator finally possible?
Click to expand...

Sorry didn't remember that,it was disappointing to have very limited hardware performance considering the Cell-Processor capabilities,what I'm thinking right now is a custom firmware,just like PSP,but linux-based,as far as emulation goes,it might be even capable to run PC games and PS2, although 512 Ram memory will stop bigger stuff, although hackers can even make the thing emulate anything,and now that I'm think about it,it was possible to emulate dreamcast on an original xbox?,as far as I went,you can only emulate PS1 games and counter strike,and no mention the XBMC which was awesome,I had you tube on it back at those days.
 
Toronado
Now, you are basically handed the keys to the front door and the code for the alarm system.
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And the lock and the door are completely unchangeable and are essentially part of the foundation... you can never be locked out now...

akiraacecombat
Sorry didn't remember that,it was disappointing to have very limited hardware performance considering the Cell-Processor capabilities,what I'm thinking right now is a custom firmware,just like PSP,but linux-based,as far as emulation goes,it might be even capable to run PC games and PS2, although 512 Ram memory will stop bigger stuff, although hackers can even make the thing emulate anything,and now that I'm think about it,it was possible to emulate dreamcast on an original xbox?,as far as I went,you can only emulate PS1 games and counter strike,and no mention the XBMC which was awesome,I had you tube on it back at those days.
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Xbox dreamcast emulator? I highly doubt it, not a very functional one anyway... the N64 emulator was chunky on a lot of games... The DC is some pretty hefty custom hardware, honestly I am not sure either of the current gen consoles could emulate a DC solidly.
 
Dreamcast.....I still have a working DC boxed up somewhere. I always thought that the DC was an excellent system for it's time. In fact, you could say it was ahead of it's time.

Unfortunately, it was a last call for Sega as a hardware manufacturer and they started focusing on software.
 
Hopefully people can resign saves soon for GT5 or any other game account locked like you can with Modio and the like on Xbox 360.
 

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