PS3 Hacked Using Official Controller

YokimaSun writes "The PS3 Hacking War took on a new turn few days ago with Sony releasing a new firmware that blocks USB devices, supposedly aimed at cloned PS3 Joypads, but more than likely to stop the efforts of hackers. Today the PS3 is now hackable using its own Sixaxis/DualShock 3 Controllers. How will Sony stop people now from playing emulators on the PS3?"

Comments

Give up

[sakdoctor]

Adopt the kindle attitude to hacking.

Konami Code

[Ironchew]

Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A

Re:Konami Code

[Ironchew]

"B A" is vital to the hack. Maybe your controller's already been patched by Sony?

Re:Konami Code

[ooshna]

Say what again! Say-what-again. I dare you, I double dare you mother fucker! Say what one more god damned time.

More than likely

[Anonymous Coward]

This will be another firmware update and poof! All your base are belong to us!

Much thanks

[Anonymous Coward]

Many thanks to all the people who use their time, so that I can use my own hardware the way I want to!

Most obvious answer...

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

How will Sony stop people now from playing emulators on the PS3?"

Firmware updates.

3.50 still doesn't jailbreak. You can't go online with a 3.41 firmware either.

Re:Most obvious answer...

[spire3661]

Not completely true. I can still netflix on 3.41.

Good!

[toastar]

Sony deserves this for breaking my ps3predator, What are they gunna do now disable the controller that came with my console?

Why not boycott PS3s

[Nethemas the Great]

I don't understand why you folks keep buying such consoles and other locked down devices. You're only encouraging the business model. Efforts to subvert the security measures brings risk of criminal liability. Perhaps the "inferior" alternatives would stop being so inferior and you'd get what you really want, but on your terms not theirs.

Re:Why not boycott PS3s

[DarkofPeace]

That's a great idea for those who don't have a PS3 yet. For the rest of us, Its a fight to use what we've already paid for. (and not purchasing future product from a locked down device)

Re:Why not boycott PS3s

[TrancePhreak]

When I bought the PS3, it had OtherOS and was not as locked down. They changed all that after purchase, which is ridiculous and I haven't bought any more PS3 games.

Re:Why not boycott PS3s

[Mashiki]

So why don't you file in small claims to get your money back? Chances are they'll simply give you, your money just to be done with you.

Re:Why not boycott PS3s

[theaceoffire]

"I don't understand why... keep buying ... consoles and other such devices".

Allow me to help.

1) PS3 allows any hard drive, any video camera, any keyboard, any tablet, any printer, etc. It allows you to download random files from the internet, it allows you to play random files and store them on the hard drive, and it allows you to download PSN games onto up to 5 other consoles and let your friends play your games on their profiles. Compared to EVERY OTHER CONSOLE, the PS3 is the most free.
2) Most new games come out for consoles now, due to the fears of piracy on Computers and other non-locked-down devices. And for games that come out on console AND pc, the console has less security and more stable hardware targets. For example, most PS3 games have no 30 digit id codes, no constant Internet access required for single player games, and easy joining with friends with games.
3) Updates are not forced. If you wish to use every service available on the PS3 that worked before the last update, you can. It is only if you want the new features, the new games, and the new services on PSN that you have to upgrade.
4) The Other OS was only taken down AFTER someone started bragging about the ability to copy $60 PS3 games and play them. Until then, people could play emulators, PS1 games, PS2 games, n64, etc. Only 5-6 assholes who are too cheap to afford new games but feel deserving of free stuff ruined it for the rest of us. Or did you want Sony to let this turn out like the PSP, which is so hacked that almost no new games get released for it? They tried to open their system, and they got slapped for it.

So yeah, I bought a PS3 to play PS3 games. The fact that it had all these other benefits were just frosting on the cake. People bitched about the price, so Sony took $100 ps2 out of the system and sold it separately so you could enjoy PS1 and PS2 and not pay for it if you didn't want it.

Sorry, you can get back on your high horse about how evil Sony is. Just wanted to point out that out of all the evil companies out there, Sony is the only one letting you use generic parts and share purchases. Ooo, scary.

Re:Why not boycott PS3s

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a great idea for those who don't have a PS3 yet. For the rest of us, Its a fight to use what we've already paid for. (and not purchasing future product from a locked down device)

I don't understand why you folks keep buying such consoles and other locked down devices. You're only encouraging the business model.

That's a great idea for those who don't have a PS3 yet. For the rest of us, Its a fight to use what we've already paid for. (and not purchasing future product from a locked down device)

That's disingenuous and you know it.

It was clear from the start that the PS3 was meant to be a locked down device and that Sony would resist any attempts to open it up. The only justifiable area in which people can reasonably complain that they were burned was the withdrawl of its Linux support (which was never sold as giving full access to the hardware's capabilities).

But this doesn't justify your implication of bait-and-switch over the general nature of the machine. The PS3 was locked down from the day it came it, and everyone knew it.

This smacks of people wanting to have their cake and eat it, i.e. wanting to complain on Slashdot about Sony's obnoxiously controlling and authoritarian hold on the hardware, then buying it anyway because when it comes down to it, shiny new tech trumps principles. (Same old Slashdotters' story). *Then* complaining that their machine- which they already own(!)- is locked down. Well, yeah. You knew that before you bought it.

(Disclaimer to tl;dr skimmers, this is not an endorsement of Sony's locking down the hardware, but a rebuttal to the implication that anyone who cared about the issue could ever have bought a PS3 imagining it would ever *not* be locked down).

Re:Why not boycott PS3s

[Moryath]

They tried to open their system, and they got slapped for it.

Bullshit. They didn't "try to open their system." If they had had a proper way for people to code emulators or legitimate games for the PSP, and they hadn't been pushing that ridiculously stupid UMD as the game storage device (yeah I know, "DS has cartridges", but the DS doesn't have a cartridge slot that eats 30% or more of your battery life) then nobody would have had to spend the insane time trying to hack into the system.

Same thing happened with OtherOS. OtherOS didn't give proper access to certain parts of the system (video hardware especially). The end result was that the Linux guys were trying to find a way to get full access to the hardware. Full access for Linux would STILL not have done the pirates any good, since the games require PS3's OS to run on, but Sony decided to crippleware OtherOS. The end result was no surprise - someone figured out a way to get behind hypervisor and get complete hardware access, and the psychotic, paranoid people at Sony decided to strip OtherOS completely in response.

I'm convinced that what's really going on is that Sony hired behind the scenes one of those paranoid motherfuckers who was responsible for all the crappy Nintendo lock-down crap that resulted in shell companies during the NES and SNES days, blinky-blinky consoles when the "security chip" didn't read properly even on a real game, and then the horrible mistake of using cartridges and then tinydiscs for the N64 and Gamecube, driving all the 3rd party developers away.

Re:Why not boycott PS3s

[Andorin]

> Updates are not forced. If you wish to use every service available on the PS3 that worked before the last update, you can. It is only if you want the new features, the new games, and the new services on PSN that you have to upgrade.

I call BS. My understanding of the matter is that if you want to use the PSN at all, you have to have current firmware. This includes online multiplayer for games you already have. If you refuse to update, you are locked out of playing online.

> The Other OS was only taken down AFTER someone started bragging about the ability to copy $60 PS3 games and play them... Only 5-6 assholes who are too cheap to afford new games but feel deserving of free stuff ruined it for the rest of us.

Another Sony apologist who says the hacking attempt was motivated purely by piracy. Nonsense. If the only people who wanted to crack the PS3 were pirates, then we would have seen a crack much earlier in the console's life, given that it apparently wasn't all that hard. Instead the cracking started after Sony removed OtherOS. Isn't that interesting?

> So yeah, I bought a PS3 to play PS3 games. The fact that it had all these other benefits were just frosting on the cake.

To you. There are also people who bought it largely because of these other benefits. Just because you don't personally care about them doesn't mean Sony is justified in removing an advertised feature after the sale.

Re:Why not boycott PS3s

[Sancho]

Nerd rage? There is a world of difference between putting out a new product with fewer features than the older one and removing features from a product I've already purchased through the use of firmware updates.

Re:Why not boycott PS3s

[stoanhart]

I would argue that Sony did bring all this hacking on themselves. Sure, the first PS3 hack made use of OtherOS, but it was very impractical and required hardware modification. Very few people would ever have done it, but Sony overreacted and took away OtherOS. That pissed off a lot of people and suddenly there was intense motivation to hack the console properly. Lo and behold, there are now two separate ways to bust the console wide open and piracy is practical for all users. Good job Sony.

Re:Why not boycott PS3s

[flatlinr]

3) Updates are not forced. If you wish to use every service available on the PS3 that worked before the last update, you can. It is only if you want the new features, the new games, and the new services on PSN that you have to upgrade.

No you can't! It's not just "new services on PSN" that requires an upgrade. PSN itself requires it! Without upgrade, bye-bye PSN, yes, even for your old game you used to play on PSN before. Goodbye! Or upgrade. Seems totally unforced to you?

4) The Other OS was only taken down AFTER someone started bragging about the ability to copy $60 PS3 games and play them. Until then, people could play emulators, PS1 games, PS2 games, n64, etc. Only 5-6 assholes who are too cheap to afford new games but feel deserving of free stuff ruined it for the rest of us. Or did you want Sony to let this turn out like the PSP, which is so hacked that almost no new games get released for it? They tried to open their system, and they got slapped for it.

No one bragged about an ability to copy PS3 games via OtherOS, because no one could copy PS3 games via OtherOS! Sony used the hypervisor hack as an easy excuse to remove a feature they no longer cared about. Remember, it was removed from the Slim a long time before any hack!

Sorry, you can get back on your high horse about how evil Sony is. Just wanted to point out that out of all the evil companies out there, Sony is the only one letting you use generic parts and share purchases. Ooo, scary.

Sony consoles are also the only one to lose features over time.

Re:Why not boycott PS3s

[Ant P.]

Don't point the finger at them. They are the victims of bait-and-switch fraud by Sony, after all.

Re:Why not boycott PS3s

[GigaplexNZ]

Nerd rage? There is a world of difference between putting out a new product with fewer features than the older one and removing features from a product I've already purchased through the use of mandatory firmware updates.

Fixed that for you.

Re:Why not boycott PS3s

[petermgreen]

At the time the PS3 came out the choice was essentially consoles which were locked down but generally no-messing required and PCs which had all sorts of compatibility problems and a rising push towards online activation and other horrible protection schemes. At the time sony was being nicer (linux, 3rd party controllers) than the XBOX division of microsoft and had the games I wanted.

Could anyone have reasonably predicated that sony would be removing features (first linux support, then support for standard HID controllers) retroactively from existing consoles? I don't think any console manufacturer has done that before.

I agree those who buy a device in the era of updatable firmware and downloadable content under the assumtion that they can keep it both cracked and able to be used online and with the latest games are being very overoptimistic. The trouble is that those of us who just want to use the machine as originally designed are getting caught in the crossfire :(

Personally I find it all very sad, I like gaming but it all seems so much more painful these days.

Meanwhile

[Beelzebud]

My PC supports every major game that comes out, and I'm free to use my system however I wish.

Re:Meanwhile

[Beelzebud]

1. Then use Wine, or don't game on a PC. It's your choice, I'm not here to convert you.
2. You're making it sound way more complicated than it is, my friend, and I think you know it. The right Direct X version? Windows Update takes care of that. Was the last time you used Direct X in 1995 or something? The rest of the items you listed can be easily figured out by about 30 minutes of reading.
3. I beg to differ. With PC games I can still modify the games, and enjoy user made content, even if the game has DRM like Steam. I don't mind a company trying to keep their game from being pirated. The console itself IS the DRM. You're not free to do anything custom to any of the software you have for it. I'd say that is more invasive than anything for the PC.

Re:Meanwhile

[Robert Zenz]

...and I'm free to use my system however I wish.

So, you're not using MS Windows or you never read the EULA?

What the fuck Sony? I cant use a USB device now?

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

Fuck you Sony, You removed the Other OS feature, now you remove USB support?

Why not remove video support too so no one can rip data via hdmi now that it is cracked?

Fucking shit. Sony. you suck a whores shit hole.

The USB lockdown screwed me over

[Khyber]

I have multiple 3rd party controllers that no longer work with the PS3.

So lawyers that like cases they're guaranteed to win - who wants to join me in a class action against Sony?

We're gong for full-out charges of fraud, bait and switch, deceptive and misleading advertising, and theft of services.

I think the dollar amount sufficient enough to garner media attention will be 100 BILLION dollars.

Oh, and we need to let the EU know that Sony committed massive fraud against them, as well.

Re:The USB lockdown screwed me over

[Khyber]

I'm sorry, you don't just lock out something and then claim to adhere to the bluetooth standard for HID WHILE BEARING ITS LOGO ON YOUR HARDWARE.

Hint: You can't, you're now violating your licensing agreement.

Sony can't do this. Microsoft can because they're using a proprietary bluetooth stack. Sony went STANDARDS and what they're doing is a clear violation of those standards.

Obligatory XK... wait, what?

[The Archon V2.0]

The Escapist's webcomic Critical Miss seems disturbingly accurate.

Oh, the Irony

[Colonel Korn]

Sony removed OtherOS citing worries about piracy, despite the fact that the system was uncracked after years of OtherOS inclusion.

Very shortly after its removal, various groups publicly announced their intention to crack the system specifically because of the OtherOS removal. They very quickly succeeded, and now Sony is going to have to live with nearly instant cracks of every version of their firmware because they riled up the wrong people. Piracy is now trivial on the PS3, with the usual caveat of no online multiplayer, all thanks to some executives irrational fear of at the time nonexistent pirates.

It's a pity that the executive in question will probably be rewarded because the current rise in piracy proves that he was right about the menace of game copiers in the first place!

Should have left the abiilty to install Linux....

[Fallen Kell]

Sony, now 5 months after you killed linux on the system, there have been 4 different hacks, whereas for the 3 years you had left liunx being available to your customers, there where no hacks. I think we can now successfully say, "We told you so", when you decided to unilaterally removed an advertised feature from the PS3. The people with the knowledge to hack the system were finally given the reason to do so, because they wanted their linux back, but in doing so, that also released the floodgates of the tools used/developed to the people who simply want free games. Real smart move Sony.

Re:What the fuck Sony? I cant use a USB device now

[SuricouRaven]

From what I gather, it's some sort of whitelist of device or manufacturer IDs. The practical effect is that now only official Sony devices and devices that look exactly *like* official Sony devices work. But there is no crypto-auth on them, just some numbers it reads off. Some third-party accessories simply copied Sony's official ID numbers, and those still work. Some used their own, and those do not.

No more PSN for me...

[mad_minstrel]

I used to regularly buy stuff from PSN. Then they removed linux. I thought I wouldn't miss it much, so I updated anyway. But I do. So now that there's a hack and a hope for getting linux back, I'm not updating. Sadly, that means I can no longer buy anything from PSN. Too bad. I was hoping to get the new Lara Croft and the guardian of light game and maybe the deathspank expansion. Hey Sony! I have money right here! You can have it if you let me back into your store and/or put linux back in!

Re:The OtherOS was used to break the hypervisor

[twidarkling]

Actually, I'd say that they took perfect revenge. "Fuck you, you took away my options because you're pissy about piracy? Well, suck on this, I'mma making piracy goddamn trivial, you assholes."

Re:Who was really surprised by this

[tqk]

Check the archives. Researchers built a whopping supercomputer with ps3's.

they cripple OtherOS to preserve their revenues

[YesIAmAScript]

Sony get a licensing fee per game sold for PS3. They don't make money when you buy a PS3.

If you could use all the hardware from OtherOS, then developers would just ship their games to run under OtherOS and not pay any licensing fees to Sony.

So Sony crippled OtherOS, same as they crippled NetYaroze and PS2 Linux. But even uncrippled, OtherOS still sucked. By the time Sony yanked it, PS3 was $400 and vastly inferior to any Linux machine you could build for $400 (and took twice the electricity to run!).

UMD was stupid. Selecting spinning media right at the time when solid state storage became very cheap was a huge mistake. But that is not why people hacked PSP. People hacked PSP because they wanted to get games for free. This is the same reason they hacked GBA and DS, neither of which had spinning media.