**Famed hacker George “GeoHot” Hotz, who among other things helped crack the iPhone, reckons he’s found what are essentially the keys to the PlayStation 3. And has posted them online for the world to see.
While a group claimed last week that they’d done much the same thing, and were in the process of releasing tools to allow people to install Linux on their system, GeoHot has gone a step further and simply published the PS3’s “root key”.
The root key is a signature of sorts, that lets the PS3 know that the program that’s about to run on the console is a legitimate piece of software. If it’s now out there, then once people start messing around with it, they’ll be able to whip up anything - be that custom software or pirated games - and trick the console into thinking it’s OK to load.
Crucially, because this key lies at the very heart of the PS3 hardware itself, it appears that if it has been cracked, it will be almost impossible to repair (even via firmware updates), as altering the existing key would run the risk of rendering all existing PS3 software inoperable.
Meanwhile, the team from last week’s news - fail0verflow - have as promised released some “PS3 development tools” for hackers to mess around with. If the homebrew scene is your scene, and you’d like to take a look at what the PS3 can do without Sony calling the shots, you can find those here.
We’ve contacted Sony for comment and clarification, and will update if we hear **
source
Re: Hacker Claims To Have The PS3’s Front Door Keys
The PS3 May Have Just Had Its Front Door Kicked In
Forget jailbreak devices; the same team who broke the Wii wide open now claims to have done the same for the PlayStation 3, leaving Sony’s console at the mercy of homebrewers and pirates alike.
During proceedings at the 27th Chaos Communication Conference, a group of hackers gave a presentation called “PS3 Epic fail”. You can see where this is going. Sparing you the overly-technical explanation, the team claim to have found the PS3’s “private cryptography key”, a skeleton key of sorts for the console that would allow users to install and run their own code on the machine.
It’s hoped that tools allowing the installation of Linux - something Sony blocked earlier this year - will be released by the group next month. And from there, the sky - or, at least, a ton of pirated and homebrewed games - is the limit.
Re: Hacker Claims To Have The PS3’s Front Door Keys
it will run on Homebrew.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-ps3-security-in-tatters
since the key is unlocked.dam there is nothing sony can do now.if they change the key all the old games wont run on current ps3
already pirated games are going online now 
Re: Hacker Claims To Have The PS3’s Front Door Keys
**PS3 hackers make breakthroughs - Report..
Citing inspiration from removal of OtherOS option, coders deduce security keys that could irrevocably open system up to homebrew, piracy.**
While the Wii has its own unauthorized Homebrew Channel and Microsoft plays whack-a-mole with pirates on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 has remained a relatively secure system for Sony. That could soon change, as BBC News is reporting on new breakthroughs made by hackers that threaten to crack the PS3 wide open for people to install and run unauthorized software on the system, from homebrew applications to pirated games and custom firmware
The breakthroughs came from a group of hackers known as fail0verflow, and George Hotz, who originally gained notoriety for jailbreaking the iPhone. Speaking at a hacker conference in Berlin last month, fail0verflow members pointed out flaws with the PS3’s security and explained a method that could be used to determine security keys, numbers that tell the system a given bit of code has been approved by Sony to run on the console.
That was followed shortly by Hotz discovering and disseminating the system’s master key. While Hotz had previously used an exploit with the system’s OtherOS feature to run unauthorized software on the PS3 (an exploit that was addressed when Sony removed the feature from the system), the release of the master key causes problems that aren’t easily fixed with a firmware update.
“The complete console is compromised - there is no recovery from this,” a member of fail0verflow going by the handle pytey told the BBC, saying that the only way for Sony to fix the problem would be in future hardware iterations of the PS3. He added that Sony’s removal of the OtherOS option from the PS3 Slim drew the hacking community’s attention, and the firmware upgrade to take the feature out of the original model PS3s outright antagonized them, making the previously secure system a target for hackers.
Neither fail0verflow nor Hotz condones piracy, but they all acknowledge that it will be a likely outcome of their recent breakthroughs. As of press time, Sony had not responded to GameSpot’s request for comment.
GameSpot
Re: Hacker Claims To Have The PS3’s Front Door Keys
A CFW has been released by Geohot. Going to wait and let the early adopters test things out first and see if their consoles get banned.
Re: Hacker Claims To Have The PS3’s Front Door Keys
Geohot is being sued by Sony.
Re: Hacker Claims To Have The PS3’s Front Door Keys
I hope Sony loses and think they will. Apple also tried suing the groups that released tools to jailbreak the iPhone and they lost, that case, IMO set a precedent for cases like this.
Sony should have never removed the Other OS option. This is their punishment for removing features from already purchased consoles.
Re: Hacker Claims To Have The PS3’s Front Door Keys
Any updates? I recently read that the judge threw out the paypal “evidence” but nothing beyond that.