What Is a PS3 Jailbreak:
It was only till the 2nd week of August when we could say the Sony PlayStation 3 device just cannot be hacked. But the modders at OzModChips are certainly ahead of all the 7-step security Sony has installed on the PS3. They have recently released a jailbreak which hacks your PS3 device to help you run custom code, backup games from the dump, and actually a whole lot of pirated content. The jailbreak is a small USB plug-and-play modchip which you plug into any model of PS3 and hack the highest security on a console ever.
The news of PS3 jailbreak is all over the internet, but very few know actually HOW it works. This article takes a hacker’s scoop on how the PS3 USB modchip jailbreak takes apart the top security I’ve already described in another of my articles. Some assumptions are from my own thinking, though.
How They Made It Possible:
1) The Modchip: The USB device is not just a pen drive or storage device, but it has a microcontroller chip which exploits the loophole in the security. Just like Sherlock Homes says, “a criminal always invariably leaves some clue” in this case, its not the criminal but the security itself which still had a loophole. The guys at OzModChips were quoted saying “It makes your PS3 feel it’s a developer device”. Now what does that mean? Its simple: the developers of PS3, that is the wise guys at Sony who made the security possible, also need their own way to run the code on the console while testing it. For that purpose, they used an external device via USB to convert a PS3 console into a developer console. The creators of the jailbreak released now, found the chip on the developer’s testing device, got it on a PCB, did some research and finally came up with a small, light, easy and plug-n-play device which looks like a pen drive. They make the console to appear as a developer console and then you can run any custom code on it.
2) Backup Manager: Having a way to run the code isn’t enough. Even though you can run any code, be it right or wrong on a dev device, there should be a code which runs a backup manager. At the moment, backup manager is the only homebrew code that they have released. What backup manager does is to dump the games from a blu-ray drive to PS3’s own hard-disk. Being a dev console, all security and encryption from the HDD as well as the blu-ray drive is broken already, hence its very easy to dump the game on the HDD. You can alternatively dump them on external Hard-disk as well. Dumping actually means copying the whole game from the disk. After dumping, you can leave any one of the original game disks inside the drive of PS3, and use the backup manager to “load” the dumped backup to play that particular game. But how does one put the backup manager on the PS3? As soon as you jailbreak your PS3 using the modchip, a dev version of the OS can be accessed, which can let you install the backup manager. Hence you can just insert another general mass-storage USB device, having the backup manager software on it, and install it directly in the XMB menu bar itself!
3) Free alternative: At the moment, even though many are claiming to have a free alternative which can install the jailbreak on any pen drive and use it, this is NOT true and actually installs a Trojan on your pen drive. Remember, the jailbreak is a ModChip and NOT a pen drive. It has the distinguished microcontroller in it which makes everything possible. Even if there will be free alternatives in the future, they will consist of using an already jailbroken PS3 to hack a clean one or maybe use LAN or Wi-Fi to install the code on the PS3 using your own laptop or PC. But its not too close, although it looks that way.
What might make a free alternative possible is to create a virtual microcontroller on your computer which has been done using Linux already, and use a USB cord to jailbreak the PS3. That is a difficult thing to do, but certainly possible. Only limitation would be to keep running your PC and the virtual porting software ON all the time.
What Sony Might Have In Store For The Hackers….
Sony would soon be busy making arrangements and ways to patch the loophole in their next firmware version. That won’t be enough, so they would ban those jailbroken PlayStation 3 consoles from PSN. Its also possible that they could identify the hack over the internet and just send a file remotely to disable the hack or PS3 itself, forever.
Also, if one wants to jailbreak sooner or later, he must make sure he doesn’t install ANY of the further firmware updates. But that does mean you lose out on some of the features Sony would be rolling out in the near future.
In my opinion, someone who would want a jailbreak won’t bother about having Sony’s features on their device. Because, anyhow in some days there would be lots of homebrew content on the PS3 to do things you might have never even imagined. Maybe one could enable a Microsoft Kinect device to use on their PlayStation! Finally, whatever Sony can release hereafter, can be run via homebrew content, and I’m sure the modders and freelance developers are capable of doing that.
To sum it up, Sony will have PSN bans, firmware updates and lot more in store to curb the piracy, but that can stop only the itty-bitty modders from doing so. Its very difficult now to stop the hardcore hackers from hacking the PS3 to the maximum, they now have got the one spark they needed to create the fire.
Beware of the hack fire, though. It may damage your console.
Why Hack? Stay legal, enjoy the paid game.
