Sony Responds To PS3 Hacks

[rajputwarrior]

why ? MS has done this already and noone has sued them successfully yet.

no they haven't. if you have the game on your HDD and you are still signed into your profile you can still play the games fine. updating said games is a dif story though.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

no they haven't. if you have the game on your HDD and you are still signed into your profile you can still play the games fine. updating said games is a dif story though.

Nope, they can control activations on their end and can disable your account tied to your PS3 remotely.

And for anyone saying it would go to court - http://uk.gamespot.c...ossed-by-judge/

Also rajputwarrior if you don't care about your PSN account that's fine, but I therefore don't know why you care if other people do if you don't even care about your own.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

As I said,

Report: Sony Have A 'Kill Switch' In The PS3

Shortly after we published a speculative discussion article on whether Sony would be banning PlayStation 3 users who circumvent their console's security via the recent 'Jailbreak' method, the evergreen Digital Foundry came up with a more comprehensive, detailed report.

He covers many of the same points, albeit with a decidely more educated vocabulary. However, one of the things we weren't aware of was that Sony ? according to the post ? can remotely 'disable' your PS3 if they choose to, known as a 'kill switch'.

"The amount of access Sony has to your machine is greater than you probably suspect," says the report. "The company even has the means to irrevocably disable your console should it so wish, and if that happens, it will remain non-functional whether you're online or offline."

This, to our understanding, wasn't public knowledge, and assuming Digital Foundry is right (we have no reason to suspect otherwise) this could be crucial in Sony's defence against those that choose to hack their PS3s ? remember, it's against the Terms of Service and you're asking for trouble?

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2011/01/12/report-sony-have-a-%E2%80%98kill-switch%E2%80%99-in-the-ps3/

[Miuku]

Good, big middle finger to all the chav pirates.

[HoochieMamma]

As I said,

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2011/01/12/report-sony-have-a-%E2%80%98kill-switch%E2%80%99-in-the-ps3/

Doesn't mean squat, they will find out how it disables the console and will find a way to get around it. Cat and mouse at play :D

[Richard Hammond]

I find it laughable that people think that its perfectly acceptable for Sony to disable PS3 just because you broke the EULA and modified the console, Sony would be in BIG trouble if they just started disabling PS3s. Disable the ability to play on PSN yes, but they cant just disable the whole console just because they feel like it.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

I find it laughable that people think that its perfectly acceptable for Sony to disable PS3 just because you broke the EULA and modified the console, Sony would be in BIG trouble if they just started disabling PS3s. Disable the ability to play on PSN yes, but they cant just disable the whole console just because they feel like it.

If you use their service (PSN), they can pretty much do whatever they want.

You can mod your console all you want offline, but Sony can do what they want online.

Works both ways, don't understand why people get upset, you all agreed to the PSN T&C when signing up.

[SkyDX]

Wow the killswitch thing is a bit massive, then again, on my iPhone I have a nice little option in SBSettings "Apple Killswitch ON/OFF" :p Who knows, the PS3 might get a similar option.. I'm seriously considering buying a PS3 Slim right now and using my old PS3 for whatever fun may arise^^

[Richard Hammond]

Yes i know but from what i read they can disable it wether you use PSN or not, they cant just block the whole console to stop the naughty pirates, if they mean just disable ability to PSN then thats fair game.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Yes i know but from what i read they can disable it wether you use PSN or not, they cant just block the whole console to stop the naughty pirates, if they mean just disable ability to PSN then thats fair game.

Well obviously they can't disable your console unless you have an ethernet cable plugged in/wifi connected. You don't necessarily need to be on PSN (we know stats are sent on console bootup), but if you have nothing connected there's obviously no way to send any requests to the PS3.

If the account on your PS3 isn't PSN activated either you should be fine, in other words an offline account.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Cheating online has begun,

GT5 Save Data Cracked Open

Yep. It's happening on Socom Confrontation as we speak. People with rapid fire sniper rifles, super jump, infinite health. Basically what killed Socom on PS2. Makes me sad.

[AbandonedTrolley]

As I said,

"The amount of access Sony has to your machine is greater than you probably suspect," says the report. "The company even has the means to irrevocably disable your console should it so wish, and if that happens, it will remain non-functional whether you're online or offline."

http://www.thesixtha...%99-in-the-ps3/

That's where Sony could come unstuck. As RH says, what right do Sony have to completely disable a product you have bought from them? Ban the online aspect that's fine but to remove offline play too?

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

That's where Sony could come unstuck. As RH says, what right do Sony have to completely disable a product you have bought from them? Ban the online aspect that's fine but to remove offline play too?

It's probably just for the likes of people who have child porn found on their PS3s. If everyone reads the Eurogamer article they're just saying such functionality exists in amongst various other methods of combating modifications.

I don't think there's much need for anyone jailbreaking to start worrying about kill switches, but I guess paranoia runs high amongst those modding their products then expecting to be able to use an online service.

[Azies]

It's probably just for the likes of people who have child porn found on their PS3s. If everyone reads the Eurogamer article they're just saying such functionality exists in amongst various other methods of combating modifications.

I don't think there's much need for anyone jailbreaking to start worrying about kill switches, but I guess paranoia runs high amongst those modding their products then expecting to be able to use an online service.

I'm buying a PS3 again, and I'm going to run homebrew on it, and I'm going to play emulators on it, and I'm going to keep it offline until I'm fully updated, and I'm going to use my console how I want, the way I want, and when I want, without some ******* telling me that they're going to kill MY machine, that I P U R C H A S E D , with MY money, there is a certain level of consumer protection here, disable consoles Sony, and I bet you people will sue the **** out of you, and ruin your image more than it's already been tarnished in the past. Remove features, ban online players, but don't EVER, E V E R, vandalize a purchased product.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

If you endorse the crippling of PS3 consoles just because a hacker decided to get ambitious with Homebrew, you're a bigger tool than I thought.

So you currently only think I am a wee tool?

I can't endorse anything as I have no idea how Sony will react. Everything just now is just speculation. All I know is I won't be affected as I will not connect to PSN with a modified console. If you do that's your risk.

It's very very very very simple as it always is, if you're going to modify do not expect a free pass when you connect to an online service you don't own and agree to T&C to use.

[Azies]

So you currently only think I am a wee tool?

I can't endorse anything as I have no idea how Sony will react. Everything just now is just speculation. All I know is I won't be affected as I will not connect to PSN with a modified console. If you do that's your risk.

It's very very very very simple as it always is, if you're going to modify do not expect a free pass when you connect to an online service you don't own and agree to T&C to use.

So do you sit here and quote text that I've edited out for good reason? If I REALLY thought you were a tool, I would've left it in my statement, but I removed it for a reason. Stop sitting here like an anxious little troll, waiting for someone to say something.

I got more to say, can I add to my post without you quoting me out of context??

Anyway, I agree with you, it's a risk everyone takes, that's part of the thrill of it I suppose, I don't give a crap if someone is banned from the service, just don't cripple their consoles, or someone is going to get sue. As for speculation, has anyone proved yet that Sony even has a kill switch in their console?

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

So do you sit here and quote text that I've edited out for good reason? If I REALLY thought you were a tool, I would've left it in my statement, but I removed it for a reason. Stop sitting here like an anxious little troll, waiting for someone to say something.

Basically I caught you with your pants down and you now reply with another attack? Hope you've not edited this out by the time I click add reply.

I guess this kind of rage and paranoia always runs high with likely pirates, or those that annoyed at the prospects of a company trying to protect their products/shareholders they must take it out on anonymous people online?

I bet no one gets a killswitch done on their actual console, but their PSN accounts will most likely be removed from their PS3 so once they're banned none of the content downloaded to the console will work any more. I suspect that's what Eurogamer mean anyway, as it's well known console activations can be tampered with remotely by Sony. Again though it's currently "ifs ifs ifs".

[Azies]

Basically I caught you with your pants down and you now reply with another attack? Hope you've not edited this out by the time I click add reply.

I guess this kind of rage and paranoia always runs high with likely pirates, or those that annoyed at the prospects of a company trying to protect their products/shareholders they must take it out on anonymous people online?

No, I didn't edit it out, I meant that one. :) It's typical that your only defense is to cry pirate, as you don't really know me, nor have I ever stated anywhere in my post that I like to pirate. As I look at your post and smile and shake my head, I have to wonder, what's with users here going "PIRATE, PIRATE, HE'S A PIRATE!", as if you're calling someone a witch. I mean honestly, anyone who cries pirate is a hypocrite.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

No, I didn't edit it out, I meant that one. :) It's typical that your only defense is to cry pirate, as you don't really know me, nor have I ever stated anywhere in my post that I like to pirate. As I look at your post and smile and shake my head, I have to wonder, what's with users here going "PIRATE, PIRATE, HE'S A PIRATE!", as if you're calling someone a witch. I mean honestly, anyone who cries pirate is a hypocrite.

I said likely, I have no idea what you're really going to do unless I have proof. However I do know that you said you're going to keep your console offline so what exactly do you have to worry about?

In a sense though, emulation of downloaded roms is piracy anyway, unless you're going to tell me you own every game you're going to emulate?

[Azies]

I said likely, I have no idea what you're really going to do unless I have proof. However I do know that you said you're going to keep your console offline so what exactly do you have to worry about?

In a sense though, emulation is piracy anyway, unless you're going to tell me you own every game you're going to emulate?

Silly nubbins, not if you own the cartridges. Otherwise, yes it is piracy, I'm not an overly imaginative person anyway, so I don't tend to look for games outside of my cart collection to play on my other devices, so what I usually do is pick a cart out of my library, download the rom, and then play it, as I don't want to use my gold colored Legend of Zelda NES cartridge and risk destroying a collectors item.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Silly nubbins, not if you own the cartridges.

Well I'll never know if you really do, only you know if you're feeding me a pile of horse manure.

[Azies]

Well I'll never know if you really do, only you know if you're feeding me a pile of horse manure.

No I'm being honest with you, I do download roms, but the most likely scenario is out of desperate preservation of my actual cartridges. Now as for the PS3, I did rebuy my PS1 Final Fantasy collection, specifically Final Fantasy IX. Oh god, I think I've blown $300 easy on PSN... lol

Edited because being the dingus I am, I put Final Fantasy 11 instead of 9.

[HawkMan]

I'm buying a PS3 again, and I'm going to run homebrew on it, and I'm going to play emulators on it, and I'm going to keep it offline until I'm fully updated, and I'm going to use my console how I want, the way I want, and when I want, without some ******* telling me that they're going to kill MY machine, that I P U R C H A S E D , with MY money, there is a certain level of consumer protection here, disable consoles Sony, and I bet you people will sue the **** out of you, and ruin your image more than it's already been tarnished in the past. Remove features, ban online players, but don't EVER, E V E R, vandalize a purchased product.

Technically Sony could probably get away with disabling hardware by saying it is tamper protection and that it got disabled because it was tampered with. Thwy would possibly need an option to let people who got theirs disabled be able to hand it in and get a new one for a small charge depending on age.

the point is fairly moot though. As I said before, the firmware hackers have full access to the firmware. and right now, they're still establishing what tamper detections are in there. and when they find these. they can totally disable them and make a custom firmware completely invisible to sony. HEck even if Sony managed to write a new firmware that fixed it (which they can't) they could in most cases just report the new firmware version back to sony and still run the old firmware, and any games with a version check they could just add dummy code so the game thinks it's running the new FW as well. But since it's impossible for sony to fix this particular hole anyway, it's not an issue and any new fucntions would just be added to the CFW anyway.

I wouldn't run a CFW right now since the security systems are still unknown and they're still digging into the firmware, but in a month or two, they should have a fully stealthed and undetectable firmware, and as long as you hold off on upgrading to the latest firmwares a bit, untill the CFW writers have been able to check for any new unknown tricks, you should be perfectly fine. Basically it's like changign the alarm code when the burglar already has full access to the alarm control panel .

[Azies]

Technically Sony could probably get away with disabling hardware by saying it is tamper protection and that it got disabled because it was tampered with. Thwy would possibly need an option to let people who got theirs disabled be able to hand it in and get a new one for a small charge depending on age.

the point is fairly moot though. As I said before, the firmware hackers have full access to the firmware. and right now, they're still establishing what tamper detections are in there. and when they find these. they can totally disable them and make a custom firmware completely invisible to sony. HEck even if Sony managed to write a new firmware that fixed it (which they can't) they could in most cases just report the new firmware version back to sony and still run the old firmware, and any games with a version check they could just add dummy code so the game thinks it's running the new FW as well. But since it's impossible for sony to fix this particular hole anyway, it's not an issue and any new fucntions would just be added to the CFW anyway.

I wouldn't run a CFW right now since the security systems are still unknown and they're still digging into the firmware, but in a month or two, they should have a fully stealthed and undetectable firmware, and as long as you hold off on upgrading to the latest firmwares a bit, untill the CFW writers have been able to check for any new unknown tricks, you should be perfectly fine. Basically it's like changign the alarm code when the burglar already has full access to the alarm control panel .

Quite a sound point, and I agree with you completely. I probably will keep it unmodified, if anything I'll go to the pawn shop and buy an old NES or SNES and wince every time I put my carts into the console. haha.

[[DGS]]

Maybe one day they will find a way to make the blu-ray player of the PS3 multiregional