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A few months ago someone started selling some USB devices that would allow you to install third-party software on the PS3 bypassing the security measures behind

A few months ago someone started selling some USB devices that would allow you to install third-party software on the PS3 bypassing the security measures behind sony OS. In short, you could rip games and play them from the hard drive without the disk. Later on, similar open source code was able to achieve the same without buying any special usb device: you could in fact use almost any ARM processor, including an android phone or an arduino. Google psgroove. Sony of course immediately fought back, first banning the altered OS from the game network and then releasing updates that were not compatible with the loophole. OS on the PS3 cannot be downgraded. Then, the hackerz fought back and again sold a PSdowngrade device that would allow you to go back to a previous version of the Operative system. Same path, an open source version is released called PSgrade (it's on github) but to work it needs a key associated to your own device or.... a master key.

extension 16y ago
Can Sony change the master key by pushing a software update? Can they use a different key in newly manufactured units while maintaining backward compatibility?
- liedra 16y ago
  It's a trusted computing type lock down AFAIK, so not software update-able. I think they can try the latter of your suggestions, but the same process could just be used to discover the new key, or they'd need to do some serious re-engineering.
- crocowhile 16y ago
  They sure have measures to counter act this on new units. I think they should take a different pathway though. I have a PS3 that was mainly used as blue-ray player but I am not a gamer by any mean (in fact the only game I have is guitar hero). I follow the scene just barely out of curiosity and what strikes me from what I see on different forums is that people care A LOT about the possibility to play online with other players and sony ban to the game network is really the main incentive for people not to jailbreak. To the point that someone got two PS3: one hacked for solo playing and one originale for networking!
- nikcub 16y ago
  then all the games out there that have already been sold wouldn't work anymore.

extension 16y ago

Can Sony change the master key by pushing a software update? Can they use a different key in newly manufactured units while maintaining backward compatibility?

liedra 16y ago
It's a trusted computing type lock down AFAIK, so not software update-able. I think they can try the latter of your suggestions, but the same process could just be used to discover the new key, or they'd need to do some serious re-engineering.
crocowhile 16y ago
They sure have measures to counter act this on new units. I think they should take a different pathway though. I have a PS3 that was mainly used as blue-ray player but I am not a gamer by any mean (in fact the only game I have is guitar hero). I follow the scene just barely out of curiosity and what strikes me from what I see on different forums is that people care A LOT about the possibility to play online with other players and sony ban to the game network is really the main incentive for people not to jailbreak. To the point that someone got two PS3: one hacked for solo playing and one originale for networking!
nikcub 16y ago
then all the games out there that have already been sold wouldn't work anymore.