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PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot

Posted Jan 3, 2011 at 8:29PM EST by Karl B.

Listed in: PS3 Tags: Geohot, playstation 3 hacks, playstation 3 updates, ps3 hacks

ps3

The name Geohot is a highly-regarded one in the PS3 hacking scene. The famed hacker and developer has been flying under the radar these past few months but now he's back with one hell of a bang.

Last week we heard about the progress made by a group of hackers who have apparently found the PS3's root key. Geohot just went one step further and published the root key for all to see.

The root key will allow PS3 users to run homebrew without the need for dongles and devices like PS3Jailbreak. It also blows the door wide open for custom firmware or downgrading options for those running newer PS3 firmware.

What really puts Sony's PS3 security in hot water is that the root key apparently can't be updated or changed without extensive modifications that would turn legitimate PS3 software unusable.

You can find the key as well as some homebrew you can run at the source link below.

Via [Geohot]

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Let's see the accomplishments of Geothot for the PS3 community:

1. He first wrote about a vulnerability of the otheros hypervisor and proceeded to release some "evidence". I don't have to say that nobody knew what to do with the supposed "evidence" and no progress was made.

2. He supposedly created a "custom firmware" ~~that nobody but him ever saw~~. Sony got nervous and they deleted access to otheros. Maybe because they didn't knew what was wrong in the first place so they entered Panic Mode. Geohot told people not to update and wait for his firmware, but he never said the ~~decade~~ date he was gonna release it. ~~that is if it ever was actually made in the first place~~

3. ~~After people died of old age waiting...~~ Some people created a USB device hack called PSJailbreak. Geohot was nowhere to be seen at that time. The hack went mainstream and then even calculators were able to hack the PS3. ~~like a chihuahua screwing a great danese~~ Geohot was still nowhere to be found.

4. Some hackers discover the location of the PS3 root key. And then our "Godly Geohot" like any good messiah makes the key public. ~~like calling a dog "male" after seeing his "stuff"~~ Now our good hackers are vanquished to the "hell of the forgotten", being replaced by God himself, Geohot.

So yes you're blind if you can't see that Geohot worked the hardest for the PS3 community. Poor him, you ingrateful basterds.

-4 # RE: RE: RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — Musev 2011-01-04 18:10

Quoting ZodiacD:

Hmm, can you deliver anything? At least Geohot is delivering something to the community.

yep I can give the aids too if you so wish

-2 # RE: RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — Musev 2011-01-04 18:08

Quoting Techni:

He's highly regarded in the iphone hacking scene, but not the PS3 one

And everyone knows 90% of people that own iphones are arseheads that would jump off a cliff if it was in fashion

-2 # RE: RE: RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — Azariel_z 2011-01-05 04:18

I, me, myself..couldn't put in better words.

Absolute true...

-1 # there might be.. — Dani_Poo 2011-01-03 22:50

Custom firmwares out there soon.
And I can only speculate.. but..
I think that installing custom firmware´s will happen direclty from a normal USB-drive without having to use any kind of Jailbreak device...
Because! almost everything is open now. they can singn their own custom-made update files if they want.

But I dunno if the custom firmwares will support "running Homebrews"..
because if I got it all right, they wont have to!! You could sign your applications to run on a unmodified PS3.

So what do I think the custom firmwares will do?
I believe they will add the jailbreak function of installing .pkg's from the XMB. and maybe even boot things right off your USB devices.

This is only what I believe from what I have heard. But I dunno. Dont take it as fact. But to me it sounds realistic.

What's happening right now on the PS3 scene now is really massive!

-1 # RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — jazneo 2011-01-03 23:37

soo anyone know how to use this i try in usb pen drive it did nothing?

-1 # RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — Hazzatori 2011-01-03 23:57

Firstly you can just copy to USB and it does anything, it will be a few weeks before we see anything decent, but this time next year and basically it would be pointless paying for a game for PSP or PS3 as everything downloaded will be signed and work on Official and customer firmware, personally i feel its one step too far, this could really damage sony and PS3, i wouldnt say PSP as its life is basically over, but all PSP`s will play anything, PSN or Disc based, snap for PS3 just wait and see.

+3 # RE: RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — ISOHaven 2011-01-04 14:20

How is it going to damage them? You can copy 100% of all PS2 games yet it was one of the hottest selling consoles of all time.

This wont do anything to them.

# RE: RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — But Fukir 2011-01-04 20:33

There are lots of people who dont burn copied games even though they can.

Even outside of Japan.

What sony needs to do is bolster up their online capabilities and options like xbox does because thats the only way to really force people to have to purchase to play.

+1 # your as bad as nakedfaerie — Aces In The Palm 2011-01-07 08:40

it allows homebrew to be signed, not pirated Ps3 games to play. even though an isoloader can now be signed and used. all you guys care about is the piracy aspect (its pointless buying games now) i hope they never release an isoloader yet i know they will.
what i want is PS3 MAME.
MAME freakin rocks (being 33 it brings my childhood back)
a PS3 MAME would rule.

# RE: your as bad as nakedfaerie — HangmanSwingset 2011-01-10 19:05

It's not that EVERYONE is thinking about piracy themselves, it's that SOMEONE will.
Quite a few will. 90% of the people who say they want custom firmware for only homebrew and absolutely nothing else ARE going to pirate.
I honestly don't know if I will or not. I have no use for any ps3 games, and I use my ps3 for a blu-ray player. Sure, I'd play random emulators (which themselves are strongly linked to piracy, although you are legally allowed to own a digital backup of your hard copy, how many people have a real hard copy? I don't anymore, and that's why I want to download damn Sonic the Hedgehog 3, since that was my childhood being 10 years younger than you)

-3 # RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — PSNh8ter 2011-01-04 01:53

so how do i use this and yes i am a noob to this sort of thing some some extra info would be nice

+1 # RE: RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — ZodiacD 2011-01-04 02:27

Can't help ya when you're a PSNH8ter =D

-1 # RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — Anonymous_123 2011-01-04 06:08

Am I missing something? If we now can sign stuff ourselves, where is all the signed homebrew and/or games? What's taking so long?

-1 # Go Homebrew Go! — PixelDragon 2011-01-04 07:00

I'm really excited to see the homebrew scene take off for the PS3. Sony have nothing to fear as long as people act responsibly. Of course a section of the community will use this for piracy, but I agree with Hazzatori, open piracy on PS3 will kill it. I love the PS3 and have enjoyed it since release without needing to pirate anything. I'm all for homebrew, but piracy is for whinny bitches who cant afford what they want, so they steal it.

# RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — Snaku 2011-01-04 08:45

Interesting. I wouldn't want to install a cfw on my ps3 for fear that I would lose access to psn once Sony devises a way to detect it, but if homebrew could be signed, there'd be no reason to alter the firmware: just run the homebrew using the regular old fw.

I'm wondering, though, how would you get this signed homebrew onto your ps3 without using a cfw? We don't have access to transfer files into the ps3's games directory that I know of. Would it run from a mem card or flash drive? Burned disc?

+1 # RE: RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — ISOHaven 2011-01-04 15:46

What they found was a USB root key. Meaning you can install packages from USB and the PS3 will trust the source.

It works the same way as PSJailbreak except now the PS3 will have to trust it and Sony can never block it.

We already have HB on the PS3.

+1 # RE: RE: RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — Snaku 2011-01-05 14:34

Ah. I should've paid more attention.

I'm sure piracy will happen because of this (but the jailbreak already opened the door for that), but what I'd like to see is linux returned (with access to the RSX), a nice media player a la XBMC (I love XBMC on my old xbox but it can't do HD), and an app that can resign a save file to a different ps3--when my ps3 died and Sony gave me a refurb, while some games let me load my old saves, others wouldn't and I don't want to have to start those games from scratch.

Can Sony not simply patch the firmware so that it doesn't even try to run programs from usb? What legitimate programs are there that run from usb?

+2 # RE: RE: RE: RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — ISOHaven 2011-01-05 20:54

You can backup and restore packages you downloaded off PSN. Sony would have to remove any/all forms of backup/restore from the PS3.

"I'm sure piracy will happen because of this"

It already has. You can use the backup manager they created to dump ALL PS3 discs to either the internal hard drive or an external USB drive.

In other words, go rent a PS3 game, dump it to the HDD then return it. You now have a pirated version of that game.

But of course people will ONLY dump the games they OWN

At any rate, running the games off the HDD gives a pretty good load performance over the BD drive. It'll well worth it!

-3 # speed improvement? — ballin free 2011-01-06 12:51

Pirates load games off the hard drive too. Just look how piracy killed the PSP.

+2 # RE: speed improvement? — ISOHaven 2011-01-07 14:07

Um....ok.... I already said that:

"It already has"

No, Sony killed the PSP, not piracy. Every single top selling console was rampant with piracy yet they remained top selling.

+2 # RE: RE: RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — Aces In The Palm 2011-01-10 02:30

Quoting ISOHaven:

What they found was a USB root key. Meaning you can install packages from USB and the PS3 will trust the source.

It works the same way as PSJailbreak except now the PS3 will have to trust it and Sony can never block it.

We already have HB on the PS3.

just a quick correction. they found the master key, however this master keys only signs games IE Usermode modules, no kernel mode modules that things like ISOloaders need to run. therefore a kernel exploit is still needed for piracy to become rampant as the PSP (which it never be as rampant as PSP because of the sheer size of the games)

-2 # RE: RE: RE: RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — ISOHaven 2011-01-10 13:08

They already have kernel mode access. We already have piracy.

It's only a quick step to integrate these keys with what we already have to play games from the HDD.

The thing is, "those people" right now are not doing that. But once they release their tools....game over.

I have all my PS3 games running from the HDD. I do not require any of my discs.

# RE: RE: RE: RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — ISOHaven 2011-01-10 15:23

Looks like I spoke too late! After reading today's news, it's already been done.

So like I said, with homebrew comes piracy.

# RE: RE: RE: RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — ISOHaven 2011-01-10 15:26

http://psgroove.com/showthread.php?655-PS3-3.55-CFW-WITH-PEEK-POKE!-BACKUP-MANAGERS-CAN-NOW-WORK!

"Netkas and flukes1 have successfully managed to patch the lv2_kernel in v3.55 to allow peek & poke syscalls."

# Online? — squeeks 2011-01-04 13:50

Well if this will compromise online play and allow cheaters to run rampant, I'm off to 360 land.

-2 # i dont get it — lansingone123 2011-01-04 14:10

you need to put it into service mode then run it? so basicly you need to use PSjailbreak to run a peice of signed homebrew that would have run in service mode unsigned anyway?

i thought the keys were supposed to run on any PS3

-2 # RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — david G 2011-01-04 15:47

why the hell we would want to crack the ps3? Just wait a bit before buying the games and you'll have them for real cheap (I paid 9$ for God of War 3, 14$ for Killzone 2 and 14$ for the new prince of persia... don't tell me it's too much money...).

Also, how do you think devs make games? With our money, of course. It's not just for fun that games cost money...

-1 # RE: RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — But Fukir 2011-01-05 04:33

You dont have to stop paying for games.

The devs deserve their cut of your 9 bucks.

-1 # Ugh Geohot — super noob 2011-01-04 16:40

So basically Geohot goes and steals the spotlight. Team fail0verflow (i watched their presentation) probably did all the background work. Geohot did what they did in the presentation and just copied and pasted to public even though team fail0verflow said they'd release soon fully with exploit and all.

Doesn't deserve recognition for this. He just called 'First!' Same as the ios 4.1 hack. The dev team was going to release a ahack on a certain day and he released one the day before to steal the spotlight and burned a valuable expoit in the process.

I'll give it that he's a talented hacker but he can be an assole at times.

# RE: Ugh Geohot — HangmanSwingset 2011-01-10 19:24

First of all, he didn't burn an exploit. It was a hardware exploit that can't be patched. the only thing that could have been patched at that time is Apple blocking the use of Cydia upon the release of iOs 4.2.1. of course, this is for older devices that don't require a tethered jailbreak.

If it makes you feel any better, Redsn0w uses the Limera1n exploit Geohot released, and is barely mentioned in the credits. (since NOBODY reads those damn .txt's.)

# Bring it on!!!!! — skygunner27 2011-01-05 02:08

YaaaaaaaaY Geohot & fail0verflow!!! !!!!

-1 # RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — Azariel_z 2011-01-05 04:19

well, if this allows me to isntall emualtor without crashing my firmware and cutting my online experience..Ok with me..if is jsut another "downgrade" tool to play ISO, pirate games...no thanks..

-1 # RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — Alienhideout 2011-01-05 05:36

Quoting Alienhideout:

Quoting JOshISPoser:
Dude, you just became the coolest person for making that reference.

And I just thought I was old.

-1 # Region Encoding Mods? — M for Mod 2011-01-06 01:01

Does this open the door for the PS3 playing Blu-rays from regions other than the native one? Just wondering because my foreign import Blu-ray collection from China/Korea/Japan was rendered obsolete after my PC's Blu-ray reader switched it's region x amount of times and forced me to stick with one and not even VLC has cracked the Blu-ray codec nor will they soon I think...

# RE: PS3 root key located, made public by Geohot — Cloud2k6 2011-01-06 02:07

Ps3 is supposed to be more powerful than the 360 but clearly it fails to take care of the little things. U guys got graphics we got security

-2 # xbox360 crap! — minigill 2011-01-08 13:41

clout2k6 the xbox has been hacked for years

# RE: xbox360 crap! — HangmanSwingset 2011-01-10 19:29

Quoting minigill:

clout2k6 the xbox has been hacked for years

but... was UNhacked since the MASTER SECURETY CODE wasn't right in front of your face.

Go on, connect to Xbox live with your modded system. I'll give you a dollar. With this, you can install a homebrew to the system, update firmware, and still be able to play it. Sony can't see if you have this emulator or that app or whatever.

# Bad Day for Sony — RedDot-Coder 2011-02-18 03:58

Yes, very stressful for sony.
3.56 was released, and in hours I think an other ps3 jailbreaker, cracked the firmwire codes, and put it out for public..

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