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Playstation 3 Code Signing Cracked For Good

Posted by samzenpus on from the forever-is-a-long-time dept.

ReportedlyWorking writes "It appears that Sony's PS3 has been fatally compromised. At the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin, a team named 'fail0verflow' revealed that they had calculated the Private Keys, which would let them or anyone else generate signed software for the PS3. Additionally, they also claim to have a method of jailbreaking the PS3 without the use of a Dongle, which is the current method. If all these statements are true, this opens the door to custom firmware, and homebrew software. Assuming that Sony doesn't take radical action and invalidate their private keys, this could mean that Jailbreaking is viable on all PS3, regardless of their firmware! From the article: 'Approximately a half hour in, the team revealed their new PS3 secrets, the moment we all were waiting for. One of the major highlights here was, dongle-less jailbreaking by overflowing the bootup NOR flash, giving complete control over the system. The other major feat, was calculating the public private keys (due to botched security), giving users the ability to sign their own SELFs. Following this, the team declared Sony's security to be EPIC FAIL!'"

5 of 534 comments (clear)

  1. What Would Epic Fail Look Like? by W.+Justice+Black · · Score: 4, Funny

    Folks toss about the phrase "Epic Fail" far too loosely. Here's what a real Epic Fail looks like:

    The DRM code has a bug that, when a certain condition happens (time passes, specially-formulated packet received, etc.), it overclocks the CPU to the point that it catches on fire. Within minutes of the event, most of the millions of PS3s in the wild have set peoples' homes ablaze.

    As a result, thousands die and the insurance industry collapses. Anarchy reigns, so there's nobody to enforce copyright anymore and the original DRM is rendered irrelevant.

    THAT is an epic fail.

    --
    "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana." --Groucho Marx
    1. Re:What Would Epic Fail Look Like? by NitroWolf · · Score: 2, Funny

      Folks toss about the phrase "Epic Fail" far too loosely. Here's what a real Epic Fail looks like:

      The DRM code has a bug that, when a certain condition happens (time passes, specially-formulated packet received, etc.), it overclocks the CPU to the point that it catches on fire. Within minutes of the event, most of the millions of PS3s in the wild have set peoples' homes ablaze.

      As a result, thousands die and the insurance industry collapses. Anarchy reigns, so there's nobody to enforce copyright anymore and the original DRM is rendered irrelevant.

      THAT is an epic fail.

      While I tend to agree that it's not exactly an Epic Fail on Sony's part, your description goes far beyond Epic Fail... that would probably be the most Awesome Fail in the history of electronics.

  2. Re:Sigh by socceroos · · Score: 4, Funny

    The only 733ts I'm aware of are my wife's.

  3. Re:Invalidate Private Keys by Brett+Buck · · Score: 5, Funny

    do something like: "Consider private key X revoked, and trust nothing signed with it, unless that something has SHA1 hash equal to one of the hashes on the following list..."

        Hey I think that sentence is a viable line of COBOL.

  4. Re:Invalidate Private Keys by orthicviper · · Score: 3, Funny

    1. Take out Linux functionality to provoke hackers to unlock your PS3
    2. Boost hardware sales from all the people buying PS3's to play pirated games, while acting innocent to your third party game developers
    3. ????
    4. PROFIT!!!