No, we don’t mean turned into a grill or a laptop, although that would be awesome, we mean somebody got at the root key.
This has been a bone of contention among PS3 owners for a while. Time was, the PS3 supported Linux, and the open source nerds were happy. Then Linux support was removed, and they did their usual self-righteous whining about how it wasn’t fair and they were an oppressed minority. An unknown hacker named Geohot, however, decided instead of whining to crack the root key.
What does this mean, aside from Sony’s programming is more insecure than Woody Allen? Basically that via complicated exploit you can put an overcomplicated OS on a PS3 for scientific research and/or bragging rights. Hooray?
[ via the Sonyphiles at Make ]
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It means you can run pretty much anything you want on a PS3 now, including pirated games. And because you can’t alter the root key without changing the hardware, it means Sony is powerless to prevent this. There aren’t enough ninjas in the world to break into folks’ homes at night and solder.
Basically nerds took a shit on Sony’s plate and handed them a spoon and were all like “that’s your firmware.”
Geohot’s actually very well known within the iOS device jailbreaking community.
It does sounds like he’s got a pretty sizable ego to go along with his hacking talent, though.