GeoHot Jailbreaks PS3 Firmware 3.55, Runs First Piece of Homebrew
As many of you have probably read, the internet has been set ablaze with the recent discovery of formerly secret PlayStation 3 encrypted signature keys which allow any program to be officially “signed” as though it came straight from Sony, allowing users to modify their console and run essentially any piece of homebrew that their heart desires. George Hotz (GeoHot), the hacker responsible for Sony’s removal of Linux after his original hack of the PS3, is at it again, this time showing off a “jailbroken” version of PS3 firmware 3.55, along with one of the first pieces of homebrew.
According to GeoHot, the console was first jailbroken with what will soon be a special .PUP file, which then made it so that the PS3 no longer bothered to try and recognize signature keys when loading programs, packages, etc. This is basically like removing all security from an airport terminal, letting every single person by without first giving them clearance to enter the terminal. Note that this was all done without having to install any sort of modified or custom firmware first; the whole process was made possible by simply cracking 3.55′s shell and exploiting it. A modified firmware did hit the web a few days ago, but it looks like there won’t really be a need for it.
Check out the video below to see GeoHot’s first piece of homebrew in action. Though simple, it shows that the homebrew scene is now in full-effect and that boundaries seem to be non-existent.
Sony mentioned yesterday that they’d fix the current security issues with “network updates” despite hackers saying that it’s impossible at this point. We’ll keep you updated if Sony does indeed attempt to combat these recent hacks and if they are or aren’t successful.
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53 Responses to “GeoHot Jailbreaks PS3 Firmware 3.55, Runs First Piece of Homebrew”
I love homebrew and use my psp with it legitimately. The problem I have is if cheating programs come up and are not detectable like they were for the first few fireteam bravos. The games were screwed online because there were way too many cheaters and its just ruined it. Granted, the psp online scene is nowhere near the size of the ps3 and I assume Sony will take a much better stance on banning people who cheat, but its still very unfortunate when jerks use homebrew to screw others over.
If this is a software Hack then it can be defeated. No matter what the Hackers contend it needing a hardware fix. Every chip shipped on the PS3 requires some sort of software to function and in that fact it gives Sony a small leg up on the Hackers so that they can rearrange function calls etc to load in a specific manner and there bypass the Custom Firmware.
And remember in the US we have the DMCA to contend with. So if you are contemplating doing this just remember that it is a “Federal Felony” to do what GeoHot is allowing you to do. And if Sony decides to grow a pair like M$ does with software piracy and X-Box live access to hacked consoles then good luck.
Error code: Access Denied
Explanation: Your console has been hacked and we are no longer offering a connection to our servers for your use Pleas read the Terms of Service you acknowledged when agreeing to login and download the firmware and access the “PlayStation Network” servers…
Asbestos keyboard engaged…
i agree this is nothing special sony needs to do what M$ does to their system. even if is a root key sony can change the PSN servers to read this information and banned ur systems. then again i don’t what geohot do to the ps3 i still were buy the games and support them.
agreed, considering most people have noticed yet sony said a “network” update. not a software or firmware one. single player games are quite fun, but even then i enjoy the network access while doing so. incase a buddy is playing the same game and i am curious as to where they are in the game if i need a clue as to what to do next.
as of right now, all i can say is; enjoy your soon to be useless systems boys and girls. also, sony reserved the right to send a kill code to your system in the event they deem it needed. Muhahahaha, evil laugh on sony’s behalf.
SPD55
Start taking a computer programming class and see how this won’t work. No one really gives 2 shits about the stupid DMCA anyways.
Nothing like a hacker story to bring out the worst of the trolls.
Surely a kill code would be like blowing yourself up because somebody just stole your wallet.
more like blowing up your wallet someone else just stole. also, since i will have no part of this, i could care less for those that use this and end up receiving one. that is, if it is the route sony so chooses. you reap what you sow.
I can’t wait for the weekly 0.01 firmware updates to combat whatever intervention hackers come up with. Thanks a lot guys. I’m so excited you let me get “homebrew”.
Sony should find this tool and have him prosecuted to the full extent of the law. 21 year old punk kid how has nothing better to do with daddy’s money other than create a headache for Sony and its honest users.
If your 21 then your not really a kid…
Your age matters little. Its your level of maturity that counts. Obviously this kid hasn’t learn the ethics or respect that come along with being a grown adult. I stand by my statement.
Lol, I don’t think Geohotz really needs daddy’s money anymore. He got a 350z when he was like 18 as payment for his jailbroken iphone and with all his publicity he will probably have no problem finding a high paying job.
I know people on here don’t like hearing about these hacks because it will ultimately lead to piracy and even though I am against piracy I still find this stuff interesting.
This type of stuff is what leads to better and more secure technologies.
Not if the people who bring us these new technologies have no money because they are busy defending against the pirates who use these hackers “innocent” exploits to steal from their bottom line.
No matter their intention, it hurts in the industry more than it helps.
and it hurts us the most. the end users that don’t want to carry on in this grey area matters. want linux, put it on your PC. hell want any of the so called “homebrew” features, use your PC. don’t have a PC, maybe you should have gotten that instead of a PS3. “but, i want it on my television”, most PC’s these days have HDMI outputs. if not, get a video card with HDMI out.
so very sick of these “entitleists” thinking they should have everything they want, regardless if they can afford it or not. its quite simple, can’t afford it, earn the moeny for it. can’t earn the monies, guess what, you’re not gonna get it. no one, NO ONE, deserves anything they can’t get for themselves through legal means.
@ Zerocool327
Love the name reference. Did anyone else catch it?
Offtopic, but my favorite part of that movie was them accessing a terminal with that funky IP addy. One of the octets were 289 in it….3rd octet I think.
Geohat has some cracking skills, but I agree that Sony will no doubt update their network. They have a number of ways to monitor the packets, or even to search your console. Read the EULA carefully about 2/3′s of the way down. ***Someone posted it earlier what it said, but I’m not exactly sure what it was, so I’m leaving it up to you to look….IDK about homebrew, or jailbeaking it.
Just gives them a legitimate excuse to peruse my shift on my system.
even if this guy didn’t hack it, someone else would hack it, eventually it will be hacked, like most other gaming consoles… personally, i support pirates, it really saved me thousands of dollars over the years… and i strongly disagree that pirates would hurt gaming industry. i keep seeing great games coming out despite of all the pirates for many many years… LOL
Sony should’ve kept the Linux compatibility… Otherwise GeoHot wouldn’t be so butthurt and be out on a crusade to destroy Sony.
He was trying to hack the console before they took the Other OS option away. He is the reason the Other OS was taken away in the first place because he was abusing the option.
He’s still butthurt… phrases like “epic fail” are best left to 12 year old /b/tards.
I agree.
No way I’m even trying this on my only PS3, I have too much valuable save data I’d lose should something go wrong!!!
He can afford 4 PS3′s but not a tripod? I almost got ill from all that shaking. Who was holding it?Katharine Hepburn
Peace,
VG
Daddy’s money, Zero priorities.
@VanilaGorila-x- hahaha I was thinking the same thing, UGH shakycam FTL.
Would you guys at least stop trying to pretend like you don’t support hacking? You guys clearly follow it very closely and report on it better than you do real PS3 news. Your being hypocrites.
I don’t support hacking. The reason some follow it is because of its negative affects on those of us who actually like supporting the developers who bring us these games. George Hotz can sing all day about he doesn’t support piracy but the fact that he released this to the public proves otherwise.
This is nothing more than a masturbatory release for this tool. He does this because it makes him feel special. Nothing but a basement dweller who probably didn’t have many friends until he figured out how to get them free games.
this is playstation and gaming related news
Are you seriously still talking about this? I saw that shooting in Arizona on the news today. The news was not supporting shooting sprees. Stop being an idiot.
Man I thought this was going to produce something functional but so far all he has proven is that he can launch a graphics app from XMB. Can’t we do this with the create your own theme app from a few years back????
Sounds like a bunch of smoke an mirrors so far… But like I said earlier the DMCA applies in the US region, so good luck…
You really are a fucking retard… STFU about fucking DMCA…
It’s not all about piracy…
Why haven’t you been banned yet?
well, in his favor, its not all about piracy. its about homebrew, like super nintendo and sega genesis emulators….. oh wait. lolk
/end sarcasm!
I’m not really sure, I checked some of he’s previous comments and there seems to be only a post or two that didn’t seem to be directed some kind of insult at someone.
so if everyone knows who this guy is, shouldn’t it be pretty easy to prosecute him?
It can be done, Sony just needs to grow a spine.
This guys the reason they removed linux and he keeps trying without caring about all the serious gamers that he will probably hurt further. Now instead of a team working on new features theres a team working to stop him.
If it wasn’t for the hackers, Sony could be spending their time giving us new features in the firmware updates rather than playing defense against some nerd who lives off his daddy’s dime. He needs to be thrown in jail. Make an example of him.
Exactly, thats what I’ve been saying. Hacking is like taking a Pepsi and adding more sugar to it, then passing it off as your own, its not right its not his software to abuse.
so is this gonna be a regular thing now? Because whenever something like this gets made it seems to be the only thing people ever post on.
why not issue a warrant? Hackers are like parasites. They’ll eat you all up then make use of you and then destroy bit by bit!! No wonder our world is not a better place, its because of these situations..
i don’t get why you would waste money on a console to mess with it? besides you could easily just use a computer for most of that stuff anyways. i’m sure who ever this is doesn’t have many real life friends , stays at home alot , prob has never been on a real date , and this is what they do for fun with there life. i’d rradther actually have a life thanks.
so failbrew will be stopped before long, let them have there 5 mins.
So is this a site that gives out a free Sony teet with every post? Quit complaining about stuff if you don’t wanna do something. Home-brew has it’s advantages and dis-advantages. Personally I think it’s great that people are standing up and saying this is what I want.
True, these “home-brew” apps will always lead to piracy. However Sony is paying attention to what is being done. Why do you think they made PSN? Because back in the day people were using HDD loaders to play games, which increased performance. No we can download games and play strait from the console.
This cycle happens with every console, people want more from the 3-5 hundred dollar machine they bought. This console specifically is pretty powerful, so the sooner it’s done, the sooner everyone can move on. Who knows, maybe we’ll get some really good ideas for future iterations of the PS.
i get what your trying to say but people want stupid things for there ps3 they could easily get with a computer. most peole have computrs these days. would u radther risk breaking your 300-500$ console to fool around with it.
“this is what I want.”
Never has anyone around here summed up the narcissism in the hackers so beautifully.
Thanks GeoHot, now we’re gonna have to download Sony’s massive security updates again.
What a fool!!
hello …
WOOOHOOO … now we’re going to have a lot of apps for our PS3 like flashlight, fart simulator, fake scanners & all those great mega apps that are on other stores we don’t have & great we can make our own apps … like … huh! //// S.A.R.C.A.S.M!
When homebrew makers will make games like Uncharted series i’ll bow to them, when they’ll make homebrew apps like PSN titles i will respect them, when they’ll release apps or games as good as minis i’ll say hacking not that bad at all, i may even think they are doing some good work when they’ll make flash games or movie-tie-in bad games for any hacked system … but i think we are very far from reality!
GeoHot can’t even make coffee out of his PS3, Chuck Norris can! & without hands too!
Seriously now, we won’t just need to rely on SONY to protect the network but we’ll have to find solutions against cheaters who will spoil our gameplay, viruses & spams, identify thefts (OMG my poor PSN account has been hacked)…
We’ll say DRM on games & best friends not lending anymore, special limited editions or no more renting rights …
Y.E.S hacking is good … for bad things, those saying so are either ignorant / immoral or hypocrites… flame me but come 1st with good solutions against the bad things else just shut up & enjoy your hacked ‘useless machine’ as mentioned by Vesra & let us legit owners play with pride & peace of mind.
Oh I forgot, most governments are working their ways with ISPs to block piracy, i think it’s not the 1st time i’m saying this, you’d better be careful …
If you feel like it will only touch a few people who know how to hack, check out in my part of the country where our principal providers are from Asia … I’m looking for a solution to block this anyway .. they are selling pre-hacked console with games pre-loaded on the hard-disk, so even unaware people can get access to this, i wish SONY would visit some specific shops in MU …
Last but not least : If you pursue free & cheap life, you get free & cheap stuffs, shoot for the stars & if you fail, at least you can reach mountain high …
cheers!
Well done Richy2k9!!
I’d visit more threads if there were more replies like yours. Kudos for doing what 85% of the other’s fail to do….common sense is becoming a rare drop, like a trapezohedron….that should get the children’s attention around here.
A lot of ISP’s are going to be charging by the Mb soon, and will have download quotas in place. Charter, which is my provider is starting in Jan 2012 (95% sure of the month), and you will have a quota. If you violate this quota numerous times they can fine you or drop your service.
Think of Netflix, Gaming, or other torrent sites…..say having a 20gb quota or lower. That’s only a few blu-rays a month from netflix.
Read you EULAs for your ISPs my friends. I guarantee that you’ll find similar notes in it.
Anyways Richy…beautiful read and keep up the great posts!
hello …
thank you very much, it’s too bad not everyone sees the real impact on these. I work for a really big telecom & i know what’s being prepared before the implementation of a higher speed internet. sorry can’t say more
now with the PS3, the challenge would be to stop illegal sales of pre-modded consoles with pre-loaded games on external hard-disk & even support on such deeds. I Invite SONY to contact SONY World in Mauritius & do the needful to track those suppliers (not always small shops) …
See ya around & it’s always cool to see that there are a few mature members here
cheers!
So what?? That means sony isn’t going to fix this?? You know what’s the most irritating thing? people say you’re either stupid or not using common sense just because you don’t agree with them. YOU don’t use common sense because there’s a reason there ARE rules on psn. Hacking each other out isn’t as fun…. what about the other microsoft guys?? you don’t hear ohhh hacking this that BS. Stop making ps3 worse just because you think hacking is the best.
Yea and the immature members are the one that think this is wrong…. that’s so smart isn’t it?
hacking consoles i meant*