This is a fascinating article on why and how the Playstation 3’s software internals have become completely undressed.
Since shortly after its release, I’ve always wondered why there had been no jailbreak or “cracks” for the Playstation 3 when every other console had been broken.
Short answer? Because of the PS3’s option for users to install Linux, no hacker worth his salt cared enough to break the console.
I wonder if Sony knew they were signing the system’s death warrant when they removed the ability for users to install “Other OS” on the PS3. They probably had the hubris of thinking that their security measures were “unbreakable” after 4 years of relative unmolestation.
Oops.
The first custom firmware is already out for the system, although it doesn’t allow pirated games at the moment.
From Digital Foundry:
The Fail0verflow team says that hackers do the hard work in compromising a system to run Linux and homebrew code, while the pirates exploit that for their own ends. They suggest that the pirates themselves lack the skill to come up with the exploits, and that the PS3 was left unmolested for so long because Sony gave paying customers a way to run their own code on the system. In short, the real hackers weren’t interested in opening up a system that was already open enough.
“There is absolutely no doubt in our mind that the PS3 lasted as much as it did due to OtherOS. The security really is terribly broken,” the team posted on their Twitter page.
Read: Hackers leave PS3 security in tatters – Page 1 | DigitalFoundry | Eurogamer.net.