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PS3 Hacked By iPhone Jailbreaker

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

January 26, 2010

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The US hacker who rose to fame in 2007 by unlocking Apple’s iPhone so that it could be used on any network has reportedly jailbroken Sony’s PS3.

George Hotz told the BBC that it took him just five weeks to crack the PS3 - which is the only console yet to be modified to work with pirated software - and that he would post full details online once he had refined the technique. Specifically, he said he would publish details of the system’s "root key", a secret master code that would help others hack the console’s security features.

"It's supposed to be unhackable - but nothing is unhackable… You can use hardware to inject an insecurity and then you can build on that," Hotz said, adding that the nature of his hack could make it difficult for Sony to combat.

Hacking the system would allow people to install other operating systems on the console, play pirated games and enable PS2 backwards compatibility, he said.

Citing curiosity as his motivation for opening up the platform, Hotz also claimed that he’s “never really played a PS3”.

A Sony spokesperson said: “We are investigating the report and will clarify the situation once we have more information.”

Ivor_Biguns's picture
On January 27th Ivor_Biguns said:

What a dick! This guys is a real asshole. This is only bad news for legitimate PS3 owners who don't pirate games. Look what happened to PSP where third parties stopped development due to piracy concerns. What a douche-bag. If he is genuinely doing it for curiosity then why post all the details online for pirates to access?

savagehenry's picture
On January 27th savagehenry said:

I always assumed that Sony were contractually very strict about reverse engineering their hardware. Maybe upon investigation they can hold him to account over his actions.

[Douche: What a brilliant and versatile word]

Ivor_Biguns's picture
On January 27th Ivor_Biguns said:

They can't do that. He has not entered into any contract with Sony. It's his PS3 (assumedly) and he can do what he wants with it. He's just voided his warranty that's all. I'm guessing that's not a major concern for him. Sony should offer him a phat cheque to keep his mouth shut.

Ha ha!! Check it out:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=douche

Ben_Lathwell's picture
On January 26th Ben_Lathwell said:

Just in time for the start of car boot season, pikeys will be loving it.

ArronC07's picture
On January 26th ArronC07 said:

Better rush ps2 compatibility out pretty quickly then.

Bleak Corner's picture
On January 26th Bleak Corner said:

There's less reason to modify the PS3 as it isn't region locked (with games). Enabling PS2 compatibility by being able to install an emulator would definitely be a good reason though unless Sony finally releases one of their own.

SimGrave's picture
On January 26th SimGrave said:

I agree. The only valid reason for me to do such thing would be for backward compatibility with the PS2 and I'm not even talking about playing pirated copies of PS2 at all, simply the original ones I own. Basically, I would be willing to hack my system to play legit games just because Sony doesn't want me to. I know they want to keep selling PS2 consoles, but it's a bad argument considering that I OWN a PS3, why the heck would they want me to also buy a PS2? People who actually buy the PS2 are doing it because it's cheap and there's a huge library that comes with it. We are talking about 2 different types of customers. Also, when it comes to the PS2 big library, if they would allow backward compatibility, even more people would buy the PS3... which sounds even more profitable, no?!?

Bleak Corner's picture
On January 27th Bleak Corner said:

Exactly. Back in the day, I modified my PS1 to play my copy of Chrono Cross, ordered from a US store and shipped to Europe. Now, current gen games aren't the problem but the PS3 is technically capable of playing my PS2 games - and I just simply don't have enough space around my TV to have all these consoles hooked up (current gen ones take up enough space). Therefore, I'd like it to be able to use one machine to do so. An emulator that supports some upscaling would of course be nice as well. ;)

Team Alfie's picture
On January 26th Team Alfie said:

What this is likely to mean to the average honest PS3 owner is even more regular firmware updates - as if there weren't enough in the first place. It will become like PSP, which I seemingly update each time I turn the thing on.

And on top of that you get to feel cheated by buying games when others steal them. Hack the hackers' fingers off.

prupert's picture
On January 26th prupert said:

Looks like that's another fail for the pirating community - who love playing games and watching movies so much that they steal them, which, you know, doesn't hurt the industry at all, does it.....
....though I appreciate the fun of hacking something and making it do things it is not supposed to, invariably the primary use of this hack will be to play pirated games, which I certainly don't approve of. If it resulted in a PS3MC version of XBMC, then awesome, but I doubt that will be the major draw for most.