

New PS3 firmware hacked in less than a day - hybrid11
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/29/ps3-firmware-3-56-hacked-in-less-than-a-day-sonys-lawyers-look/

======
martyhu
[http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/29/hackers-obtain-
ps3-privat...](http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/29/hackers-obtain-ps3-private-
cryptography-key-due-to-epic-programm/)

"Sony didn't bother generating any random numbers to secure the blasted
thing."

Not to bash Sony, but I think the interesting point here is that creating
secure systems is actually a really hard problem. Creating usable secure
systems is an even harder problem.

See Schneier:
[http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/08/security_vs_us...](http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/08/security_vs_usa.html)

~~~
wvenable
Actually, I think the interesting point is all the theory and practice around
secure systems is pretty sound but one very simple human error can cause it
all to tumble down. I imagine just have one or two more eyes on the problem
would have caught this and then the PS3 would have remained secure.

------
dimarco
I wonder if anybody at Sony has come up with the conclusion that it's always
going to get hacked, and the money they spend trying to secure it(along with
the bad press) could be better focused in other areas of the company.

~~~
msbarnett
It seems unlikely; if they're not seen as doing _something_ to fight piracy on
the platform, even if that something amount to throwing some money down a
hole, they could see publishers abandon them, which would cost them more money
in the long run than paying a couple of firmware devs to play sisyphus.

------
christoph
What I still find hard to believe is that the whole "cracking" effort was
based around the fact Sony removed OtherOS and they (the hackers) wanted to
return it to the people who paid for it. I still can't seem to find a workable
solution to re-enable it or install a custom Linux distro on my PS3...

~~~
wccrawford
You expected them to add a feature like that overnight? That's a pretty big
thing to hack into the firmware.

~~~
christoph
I didn't expect them to hack it into the firmware overnight, but I thought
maybe somebody would have re-signed OtherOS.self for > 3.15 firmwares on phat
PS3's, created a homebrew bootloader or developed a basic proof of concept.
All i've seen so far is people developing backup managers and PSN hacks.

------
hybrid11
this is too bad, call of duty is going to be full of cheaters again...

~~~
robryan
They can't just ban accounts off PSN now?

~~~
nathos
accounts are free, so it's not much of a deterrent.

------
drivebyacct2
Considering the extensiveness of the general populace's access to the PS3, is
this really surprising?

