PlayStation 3 hackers have been hit with a lawsuit from Sony for publishing details of how to bypass the security features on its game console.
Sony claims that disclosing this information has caused 鈥渋rreparable injury and damage鈥� to the company because it now allows people to run pirated games on the PS3.
The PS3 was once considered invulnerable and the most secure games console ever built. It was the only one to have consistently withstood hacking attempts. But in December 2010 at the Chaos Communication Conference in Berlin a group of European programmers calling themselves they had finally broken specific lower levels of the PS3鈥檚 encryption system that let them run their own programs on the console.
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Jailbreaker
Shortly after this, George Hotz, a US-based hacker known as geohot, who gained notoriety in 2007 for unlocking Apple鈥檚 iPhone, built on fail0verflow鈥檚 method to gain complete access to the PS3 by obtaining the master encryption key.
Crucially, Hotz then published a decryptor key for Sony鈥檚 master key and released 鈥渏ailbreak鈥� software to allow others to run unauthorised programs and pirated games on their PS3. The hack comes as a huge blow to Sony, which produces and licences its own video games for the console.
Every file that is authorised to work on a PS3 uses a digital signature that is generated by Sony using a pair of keys, one of which is created by the firm, while the other, the 鈥渞oot鈥� key, is encrypted within the console itself. By discovering this root key, Hotz was able to trick the PS3 into applying Sony signatures to any file, allowing unauthorised programs to be run on the system.
Pirates ahoy
Both fail0verflow and Hotz maintain that their only motivation is to run their own 鈥渉omebrew鈥� software and games on the PS3 hardware. 鈥淚 do not support piracy or counterfeiting,鈥� Hotz told 快猫短视频.
But in Sony鈥檚 motion for a temporary restraining order it claims that publishing the methods and keys encourages piracy and violates the user agreement. 鈥淚ndeed, in the last few days people have already started copying, playing and trafficking in pirated copies of video games,鈥� it reads.
鈥淚 am a firm believer in digital rights,鈥� says Hotz. 鈥淚 would expect a company that prides itself on intellectual property to be well versed in the provisions of the law, so I am disappointed in Sony鈥檚 current action. I have spoken with legal counsel and I feel comfortable that Sony鈥檚 action against me doesn鈥檛 have any basis.鈥�
No consolation
Marcia Hofmann, an attorney with the Electronic Freedom Frontier in San Francisco, agrees. 鈥淭he internet is a place where freedom of speech is protected,鈥� she says. And code counts as speech. Hardware is protected against hacking under US law. 鈥淏ut the law also contains an exclusion for reverse engineering where it is done to make a system interoperable with other systems,鈥� says Hofmann.
Sony鈥檚 complaint also draws upon the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, arguing that the company still has some form of ownership of the console. 鈥淭hey are suggesting that if you access your own computer in a way that Sony doesn鈥檛 like then you are committing a felony,鈥� says Hofmann. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a completely ridiculous scenario.鈥� And one that has already been unsuccessfully argued in court, she says.
Regardless of what happens with the lawsuit, it will be impossible for Sony to put this genie back in the bottle. Not just because the encryption keys are now widely available (not just on the internet but also on T-shirts and coffee mugs) but also because, according to fail0verflow and Hotz, no amount of software updates or patches can secure the PS3 against this sort of hack. Sony鈥檚 only option, the hackers claim, is to change the hardware with an entirely new encryption system.
