back to article PS3 jailbreak seller hits back with firmware downgrade

PS Jailbreak, the USB dongle designed to crack open Sony's PlayStation 3, can now work with consoles that have been updated with firmware higher than version 3.41. Well, kind of. The software tweak actually enables the dongle to downgrade the console's firmware to 3.41 - or, indeed, any previous firmware version, the maker …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Enjoy the constant upgrade downgrade cycle

    I'll be playing GT5 in a couple of weeks that forces you to install firmware 3.5

    If you then want to install freetard pirated software, then you have to flash back to 3.42 Want to play 3.5 tommorrow? Flash update...

    Sounds rather gimped if you ask me. Just stop being freetards and buy games...

    1. David Hicks
      FAIL

      Errr, no.

      3.42 reliant games can already be told to run on 3.41 and 3.15. I'm sure it won't be long before 3.5 games can be made to run on 3.41.

      As for PSN access... well it works with 3.41 and the hack right now. So FAIL on you, 'freetards', as you so delightfully put it, will not have to mess around flashing things back and forth.

      Also, who gives a crap about racing games? Most boring genre after those dumb flash games dressed up brain as brain exercise.

    2. thecakeis(not)alie
      FAIL

      I have an idea:

      You stop being a narrow-minded git. Stop presuming that everyone who desires old firmware is a pirate just because you cannot personally understand why doing things like running Linux on your PS3 is a Really Neat Thing. For some folks that has absolutely nothing to do with pirating video games. Remove cranium from sphincter, then post!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Reason behind this havoc?

    Sony removing OtherOS option.

    Also, some of my sources say that there's a little hack that enables people with 3.41 and a different sort of jailbreak dongle to use PSN>

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Nonsense

      This was not because Sony removed OtherOS. it would have happened anyway. The existence of the very obscure flaw originated within Sony, someone leaked it to the outside would, who exploited it before Sony could patch it.

      The OtherOS freetards will of course claim it's as a result of removing OtherOS, but that's totally bogus claim.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Flame

        not a freetard

        I buy all my PS3 games - i have a reasonable collection (though not massive, I'm not a hardcore gamer and dont have that much time to invest in gaming).

        however, I used to use the OtherOS feature to boot the PS3 into Linux - cos I am a hardcore geek and liked to play with the CellCPU (heck, the 349 quid the PS3 cost me was less than 10% the cost of a CellCPU PCIX dev card!)

        then Sony blocked the OtherOS feature.

        guess what. its people like me who are now rooting their PS3 to get access back to booting into Linux... yes, I've had to enter the dirty dark underworld to get a feature that was part of the original purchase of the PS3. I now have to fight against Sonys stupid upgrade cycle - because I do buy my games and like using the PSN and online gaming too.....people like me are only one desperate hour away from deciding they cant be bothered to stay legit...its so quick and easy to now be one of those 'freetards', to just get the 100Gb torrent of AAA PS3 titles. but I wont...as I'm legit and just wanted to use the f*****g OtherOS feature!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          FAIL

          Bogus

          As Sony forced nobody to get rid of OtherOS for proper scientific or server use. Only the idiots that thought Sony would subsidize a Cell Blade server for them.

          The reality is, you don't have to install firmware that removes OtherOS if you have a genuine server or scientific use. Clearly anyone that fits into that category does not also use it to play Killzone2.

          Your post is Epic Fail of the week material.

  3. Tigra 07
    Pint

    But will they continue to fight this?

    Take that Sony!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    ETA

    ETA until this is reverse engineered like the last one so I don't have to pay exorbitant sums of money to pira---- I mean play my legitimately backed up games?

  5. LuMan
    Unhappy

    Alternatively...

    ...Sony could release a 'Home Developer' type of kit so hobbyists could create homebrew demos and games to boost Sony's game catalogue and user community. This way legitimate homebrewers and bedroom coders could apply their art without having to use a device that's locked out of PSN. Also, PSN could have a special Homebrew section so we could all show off our wares. Can you imagine how big this community would be?? Christ, it could be like the good old days of the Amiga where folk could once again look on with amazement as yet another coder pushes another envelope of the system. It would be fantastic.

    But I can't see it happening (hence !smiley)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      There already is dumbass.

      PS3 had a browser, it supports Flash.

      If you REALLY want to write games, Flash can do just that. The bonus is you can also play on them on PS3, PSP, PC ( and Wii if you use Flash7)....

      You already have homebrew....

    2. Ty Cobb
      Thumb Up

      Always though they should release a "enthusiasts model"

      Wish they released a model with no hard drive, and only empty slots for memory with the understanding the gaming part of the system would only recognize the first 256MB.

      That would have been enough for me to by a PS3, and "You betcha" it would have had OtherOS working.

    3. Guido Esperanto

      you're close, but you#re not right

      That scenario sounds great in a world of fluffy kittens and perpetual smiles.

      Truth is the world is a great big competitive place, with one person trying to get one over on another.

      Sony could never guarantee the intentions of all those using homebrew and would not any unscrupulous beings impacting on the service recieved by its *psn using customers (*thats actually a facade explanation, truth is they want to protect their profits!). As a result Sony maintain their standard by ensuring only those who comply with their rules, benefit from their services.

      Its a hardball game, and while I'm not a fanboi supporter of Sony, I can see it makes total business sense. How many more walled gardens are we seeing. Apple anyone?

      The same applies to other facets of our lives, sports, the law (debatable but go with me this time).

      I mean what sort of uproar would there be if a paid professional footballer, realised that if he actually picks the ball up (not goalie) and runs,. he can get it to goal far quicker than kicking, passing, dribbling etc.

      thems the rules for that sport, you either play with everyone else and abide by those rules, or you create your own subset of the sport and see if you can get everyone to join in.

      but to summarise, you are right, it aint gonna happen.

  6. Pahhh
    Flame

    @There already is dumbass. #

    I dont think you can compare writing something in Flash with exploiting the capability of the PS3 hardware now?. Think you need to re-evaluate who is the dumbass.

    Another point, the OtherOS option was screwed anyhow as Sony didnt provide / allow to talk to the accelerated graphic hardware thereby making it useful for Homebrew.

    I agree that a homebrew kit would be awesome, unfortunantly it increases the changes of someone finding an exploit so I doubt we will see it happening - which is a shame.

    1. LuMan
      Thumb Up

      @Pahhh

      Thanks for pointing out the obvious to AC!! Flash is OK, but it ain't no PS3.

      Agree with the exploit threat as well. Shame there's always some that spoil it for the masses. Suppose I'll stick to Little Big Planet - it's about the nearest we'll get for some time...

  7. Highlander
    FAIL

    Fail - as ever.

    Oh looky, the guys that want to make lots of money selling a piracy solution to a hard to crack console are making inflated claims again.

    Let's see, in order to play any game that is release from about *now* onwards you will have to have firmware 3.5 at least. Yet the freetard movement thinks that being able to force a console to downgrade the firmware in order to play copies of games is some kind of great victory over Sony. And let's not mistake this, these folks think that they are harming Sony and no one else by their actions.

    Well, I've got some news for these folks. First of all gimping your PS3 so you can play a copy of an older game, most of which cost $20 or less now anyway, is pointless in the extreme. Any work around used to gain access to PSN using such a gimped PS3 will soon be met with a fairly blunt instrument called the permanent console ban hammer. Oh, and finally, you can't play new games without constantly bounding your system between firmware versions, and believe me when I say it's only a matter of time before a firmware update actually validates whether or not a PS3 has been used with a 'jailbreak' device, and phones home if it has - at which time I will refer you back to the ban hammer I mentioned earlier.

    As for harming Sony. What is the motivation for harming Sony in this? Anyone who bought an early Ps3 was already gifted $300-400 (USD) of free hardware with their purchase since the systems were sold at such a loss initially. Sony - more than any other gaming company - actually tries to develop new an innovative games. Any harm you do to Sony's gaming division hurts their ability to continue operating the Playstation brand as they have in the past. The actions of freetards really don't do much to harm Sony as an organization, if they did, Sony would go elsewhere with their business focus. In the end, the actions of freetards and pirates alike hurt gamers in general, no one else. It's thanks to pirates and freetards that the PSP game market has become so stunted. That is the result of the actions of people who are so selfish and cheap that they can't be bothered to buy their own games.

    One other thing, this jailbreak crap has zero, nothing, nada, nil to do with OtherOS. It wasn't a response to the removal of OtherOS, all it was, was a business opportunity for a group of people trying to exploit others by getting them to buying a piracy device before it could effectively be blocked.

    So all you jailbreakers out there, enjoy your old classic games that can be had for cheep anyway, I'll be playing GT5. And when your console get's perma-banned, I'll still be gaming with my friends quite happily. Frankly, I'd like it if Sony came up with a way to brick consoles that had been jailbroken. I know they won't, but it would serve the entire lot of you right if they did.

    1. David Hicks
      Linux

      Why is there so much bile in your post?

      Really, your words drip with bile. If you don't wish to do this, why all the hate?

      To address some of your concerns -

      1 - Firmware 3.41 was current up until a couple of months back. 2 months doesn't make a game 'classic' in my opinion, nor that of the gaming shops.

      2 - You can already run some games that rely new firmware on 3.41

      3 - I disagree that running the games I bought from the hard drive or running homebrew is pointless

      4 - This is a question of ownership of a machine I bought, not some mission to harm Sony. It's MY computer. I will run whatever I want on it.

      5 - Some of us have better things to do with our time than spend it playing online anyway. Perhaps you ought to get some IRL friends, it might help with the anger issues you seem to be having.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        You sir, are an idiot!

        David, it is your console to do with how you see fit (within limits which apply to all areas of life).

        However to continue to use the PSN service and new games alike you have to also agree to their terms and conditions.

        As someone said above, if you dont like it dont play the game (pun intended)

      2. Highlander

        The anger - dear sir - is directed at pirates and freetards

        The anger - dear sir - is directed at pirates and freetards, the very people who think that their actions have no consequence. Just like Geohot though that his breaking into the hypervisor had no consequence. Yet it did, it resulted in the removal of OtherOS.

        Game Piracy and the freetard mentality costs all of the paying customers because we end up paying more for less because cheap gits won't pay for their entertainment.

        Not only that but in their desire to get free stuff, those pirates and freetards - oh hell, let's call it like it is - thieves who steal games are opening a secure platform that is there to protect the paying customers. If the security on a PS3 is compromised and it can access PSN unfettered, that represents a threat to the PSN security and any threat to that is a threat to the security of my financial transactions and information held within PSN. Sony knows this, and sure it protects their profits to protect PSN, but it also protects me as a customer. Thieves with nothing more than free games in mind might not be the biggest threat, but riding on their coat tails are the black hat brigade who want nothing better than to start scraping information from PSN so that it can be exploited.

        Before you try to argue otherwise, if you're an IT professional you know that network security is built in layers, and the clients are one of those layers. The first step to cracking a secure network is to compromise a client that has access to the network.

        So, yes, anger, bile, vitriol, all directed at the thieves who'd rather spoil the party for everyone else instead of paying for their entertainment. Oh, and that's without even discussing the negative impact that game theft (aka piracy) has on a software market, and that market's subsequent decline - which hurts everyone.

        Firmware 3.42 altered the USB device handling, 3.5 altered it further and threw in a whole new encryption layer. Downgrading your firmware back to a version prior to these is great and all, but things move, games get released, new firmware is mandated.

        As for doing what you want with your computer, it's a game console, not a computer. The PSN is Sony's network, not yours, the firmware is theirs, the encryption keys are theirs and the stolen service key that was cloned to allow the jailbreak exploit is Sony's too. So, if you're so concerned with your property, why are you not concerned with the property of others? If you want to take your PS3, downgrade it and take it off line forever, that's great. But if you being that compromised system back online onto PSN I hope, as I said in my post, that you find yourself the subject of a perma-ban because I don't want security compromised systems accessing PSN. It's your PS3, great, but it's Sony's PSN. Don't be all hurt when someone points that out to you.

        Gotta love that last point of yours. It's always the last resort when losing an argument to resort to the "you have no life and no friends" argument. It always smacks of projection when someone pulls that card though. But, well done you, I'm sure I'd feel crushed by your comments if any of them were even remotely the case.

        1. David Hicks

          If running unsigned code on a client...

          "If the security on a PS3 is compromised and it can access PSN unfettered, that represents a threat to the PSN security and any threat to that is a threat to the security of my financial transactions and information held within PSN."

          If someone else running unsigned code on a client machine can expose your personal or financial data then Sony have dropped the ball and deserve to be sued for negligence.

          It's that simple. If you're any sort of IT professional then you ought to know that relying on client security in a situation like this is a recipe for enormous, embarrassing and costly failure.

          As for the rest -

          "people who think that their actions have no consequence. Just like Geohot though that his breaking into the hypervisor had no consequence. Yet it did, it resulted in the removal of OtherOS."

          Yup, what a wonderful reaction from Sony, someone finds a way of modifying the hardware to gain hypervisor access so everyone loses OtherOS. Except of course that PS3 slim models had no OtherOS anyway and it looks for all the world like Sony were looking for any excuse to drop it. Either way, it's not a proportionate response and is questionable in terms of legality (see ongoing lawsuits on OtherOS, not that I have any faith they will come to much).

          Geohot was in the right, IMHO. Your blaming him for losing OtherOS is like blaming a free-speech advocate for the resulting government clampdown after they speak up.

          "Downgrading your firmware back to a version prior to these is great and all, but things move, games get released, new firmware is mandated."

          Sure it is, but much new firmware doesn't add anything and the games simply check a version number, this can already be spoofed. Games that genuinely require new features will probably be supported in time too, through the use of custom firmwares and further exploits.

          "The PSN is Sony's network, not yours, the firmware is theirs, the encryption keys are theirs and the stolen service key that was cloned to allow the jailbreak exploit is Sony's too."

          Actually, that specific instance of the firmware, within the limits of copyright, fair use and other relevant laws, is mine to do with as I please. Well, it is in my book, Sony would probably disagree and they can probably afford enough lawyers that anyone actually looking to do anything with their firmware ought to be careful.

          And the exploit doesn't rely on a clone of anything, it's an exploit that mimics plugging and unplugging a few USB devices to overflow the stack and then inserting code in just the right place to get it executed. It may have needed a service jig to find the exploit, but the exploit itself doesn't rely on any copyrighted stuff.

          This downgrade stuff may indeed be based on a stolen or 'borrowed' service jig, nobody knows yet as it appears to be all hype.

          I don't necessarily disagree when it comes to the PSN, it is Sony's network to do with as they please and they may choose to boot people off that they consider to be pirates, or who have the ability to run unsigned code and could be running bots, cheats, trainers or whatever else.

          However your reasons not to want compromised systems on the PSN are unbelievably dumb. Sorry, but they are.

          Personally I really like what happened on the PSP - custom firmware arrived that allowed you to boot into homebrew mode, which Sony could detect and not allow network stuff to run, or into original mode which would get you online but not allow hacks.

          And the reason I attacked you character was because you seemed genuinely angry about people gaining access to their devices and genuinely gleeful at the idea of retribution from on high. By a huge corporation, on hobbyists. You seem to delight in the idea of authoritarianism and that's usually not a good thing in terms of character.

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  9. asdf
    FAIL

    Sony didnt get memo on DRM

    Sony the last major corporation to still think DRM is the solution for propping up its business model for eternity (Spore DRM was invented by Sony). Hows that working for you there Sony with record losses since your releasing rootkits to your loyal customers? Must make you proud to sell far less PS3 consoles than you did PS2s. Maybe just maybe you will catch up to the me too crap Zune maker in second place. Howard String quit posting on here defending your Steve Balmer like contribution to shareholder value. You fail.

    1. Highlander

      Still living in the past and not dealing with reality?

      For any digital market place to work, there has to be a way to control the movement of content and protect it against abuse. If there is not, the digital market place will simply collapse like a house of cards. The security on the PS3 is less about DRM than it is about protecting paying customers, and their transactions. But you go right on tromping around on your aged DRM high horse. I'm sure you'll feel it's relevant for years to come...

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ttir,amcla/od

    "Anyone who bought an early Ps3 was already gifted $300-400 (USD) of free hardware with their purchase since the systems were sold at such a loss initially. "

    So you want us all to lick Sony's boots in appreciation of this? If Sony sold at a loss it's there own damn fault.

    Anyhow I'm only here for the service announcement: Using the word 'freetard' in your comments detracts all credibility from your rantings. If you want to be taken seriously and not labeled as a petty fanboy, then try using terms that aren't derogatory to the people with whom you are debating.

    1. Highlander

      No, but it would be nice if instead of...

      ...if instead of bitching to high heaven about how much Sony supposedly makes in profit from this and that, people would occasionally look at how much things actually cost to make, and therefore why they cost what they cost. You know, it's not exactly rocket science to understand that when something costs XYZ to make, the maker needs to recover that cost, plus the costs of distribution and advertising and a profit margin, simply to remain in business.

      As for the term freetard, I know the definition of it, just as I know the definition of pirate. I'm sure you do as well. If you choose to be labeled with either, that's your problem, not mine. I'm not the one defending people who don't want to pay for their entertainment, but would rather pay for a device that allows games to be copied and played for free.

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