Andre Yoskowitz
29 Dec 2010 23:46
A hacking group called "fail0verflow" has presented at this week's Chaos Communication Conference 27C3, showing off the PlayStation 3 "private key" that Sony uses to authorize code on all retail consoles.
Knowing the private key means any hacker can gain full control of the PS3 system, without needing to jailbreak it using a USB dongle.
The team's site (here) is not available yet, but should be soon, giving more details.
If used, the PS3 should be permanently jailbroken, as unofficial code can be quickly updated when Sony creates new firmware updates like version 3.55, which added nothing of use to the console, but did block USB-based jailbreaks.
Fail0verflow says their main goal now "is to have linux running on all existing PS3 consoles, whatever their firmware versions."
In a tweet, the hackers note what many have been saying for months, that Sony made a terrible decision when the removed OtherOS, the built-in ability to run Linux. Says the group: "We only started looking at the ps3 after otheros was killed."
The video is very long, but interesting, especially for those with PS3 consoles: