PS2 Exploit Allows Running of Unsigned Code

DrEldarion writes "This man has figured out a way to make the PS2 run unsigned code without a modchip. "To make a long story short, the exploit allows anyone with a memory card and a valid, legal PS1 disc to hijack the boot process and run any piece of code.""

Comments

Re:What kind of hardware is needed...

[Anonymous Coward]

"SharkPort or one of the other memcard adapters"

Third paragraph of the article... but I can't blame you for not reading it in full, as you probably wanted to be one of the first to comment :-)

Re:What kind of hardware is needed...

[Caff]

I believe you can use interact's SharkPort disc, and connect a USB cable between your computer and the PS2, or something like that. I think Datel makes a similar accessory, but I'm not sure. In addition to this, various manufacturers, such as EMS, make USB-compatible memory cards, or "Memory Adapters" where you plug in a memory card and have the ability to connect it to a PC using a parallel cable.

Re:What kind of hardware is needed...

[k_187]

Interact, I believe, made a thing called a dexdrive that let you put save games from the internet onto a memory card. I'd bet that it would work. I'm sure there are other similar devices that would also work.

Re:What kind of hardware is needed...

[DrEldarion]

Lik-Sang sells them for around $30, I believe.

-- Dr. Eldarion --

Comparable to Xbox hack

[remahl]

This provides to PS2 what has existed for the X-box for a while now. It was mentioned on slashdot and allows the X-box to run unsigned code after some preparation.

It replaces some font files (which are not checksummed) with ones that use an exploit in X-box firmware.

Re:What kind of hardware is needed...

[badasscat]

... to get arbitrary files on a memory card? I don't know about you, but *I* don't have anything like that. Will a small industry be created selling pre-altered memory cards?

You can use a SharkPort, as it says on the web site. These are tough to find and are no longer made, but follow the link on that web site to the XPort, which does the same thing (and in fact probably is the same thing).

These things have existed for a long time. I got my SharkPort maybe 6 months after the PS2 was launched.

Sony's ps2 linux kit

[jtilak]

sony's ps2 linux kit is crippled. read THE PLAYSTATION LINUX FAQ for more info. i'm assuming with this, someone can run a regular linux distro on the ps2.

Re:Sony's ps2 linux kit

[Space cowboy]

It's not crippled as regards linux. It's crippled as regards the PS2.

The PS2 is a dataflow architecture, which relies heavily on programmed DMA between chips. The DMA controller is more powerful than most, allowing chained DMA commands to be set up. You can "program" it on the fly.

The linux kit emulates the DMA controller, providing little of the flexibility of the real PS2, and hence a lower standard of operation.

Simon.

Re:No fair

[Anonymous Coward]

> I hadn't even thought about playing non-us games.
> Shoots a hole through my rant. Are US playstations
> able to output PAL?

Japanese television is NTSC just like the US, not PAL. (Of course, you won't be able to understand what the hell the game says, since it will all be in Japanese)

Re:No fair

[blincoln]

I hadn't even thought about playing non-us games. Shoots a hole through my rant. Are US playstations able to output PAL?

Yes. I have a chipped PS2 so I can play import games (and my own hacked versions of games I own), and it outputs PAL just fine. Since my TV is NTSC, I have to hook it up to the video-in on my PC and play it on the screen there. I've got video-out too, so I could probably set up my PC as a very overpriced PAL->NTSC converter by using a capture program with a full-screen preview option.

Re:What kind of hardware is needed...

[blincoln]

follow the link on that web site to the XPort, which does the same thing (and in fact probably is the same thing).

Yes, they're the same hardware. The Gameshark line of hardware (up until the V3) was made by a company called Datel in the UK and sold their under the Action Replay name. Interact just licensed it for North American sales. Their deal went sour, and now Datel sells it all here under their own brand.

Just to keep everyone confused, the Gameshark brand is now owned by MadCatz, and their "Gameshark V3" is actually closer to the Code Breaker that Pelican sells. Both were developed by a company called Fire.

Is that like the gaming equivalent of a soap opera or what?

please stop blaming sony and ps2linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay.. let's post anonymously for obvious NDA reasons.. I'm not from sony, but i am both an official PS2 developper, and a ps2linux owner. And am terribly pissed-off by some comments.

• PS2Linux distro, by itself, is a bit crappy, but anyway it is not designed to make the ps2 you webserver/x workstation/whatever. There are other distros (black rhino, debian based) if you want it (but anyway it is a bad idea with the cache-less 300 mhz mips core, and the pcmcia disk interface!). The distro has nothing to do with being able to launch RTE bootloader with or without a legally bought DVD!
  
• PS2Linux is not something for everybody.. It's not to show your friends you're cool because you've recompiled your browser so it runs un your PS2. You can do it, but it's not its goal. It's something for hobbyist programmers.
  
• I would have preferred not to have linux, because of the highly bloated nature of linux, or any high-level os, which is obviously not the best thing to work low level, as it is required for this console. This is not an anti-linux troll, i would have said that about any os. But they did port linux to the ps2 and it is a good thing, since this is the only official/legal development system for hobbyists on any available console, almost since the VCS ! And with some patches, for instance that allows you decent dma-able physical memory allocation, it starts being almost usable to do serious low-level stuff..
  
• Can I remind you that ps2linux is totally open source. I can guarantee that the hardware manuals you get with the ps2linux kit are exactly the ones we get as professional developers (excluding minor typos / corrections in the updated ones). We don't have magic data from sony. That means, if there is a functionnality you want, like mpeg2 using IPU, CODE IT! You can, really...
  

To summarize, stop blaming sony! They did a great thing by releasing ps2linux, and all the related info. That's impressive. You know, a few years ago, the hardware manuals where so secret that there was my company name printed across each page..

PS2linux is far from perfect, but it is up to you to enhance it, because of its open source nature.

And if you don't want to use linux, because of its bloat, there are even bootloader projects hosted on sony's own website(playstation2-linux.com) that allows you get raw low-level access.

According to me, sony's biggest mistake was to target linux zealots, instead of focusing on console programming enthusiasts, as they did with yaroze. So they got a lot of disapointed customers... But if you want to do console programming, ps2linux is still a great thing, with lots of things to create (and that's the interesting part!).

Re:What kind of hardware is needed...

[Yakko]

But what PS2 Linux calls "mcfs" is NOT full access to the memory card. It's just access to the big file on the card set aside for Linux, so you can't just plug in any old card and mount it.