How a USB key defeated security on the Sony PlayStation 3 | MVG 

Sony traded a potential flaw for a very real one

moral of the story: do NOT take away features from people who bought your console, or they'll bring it back themself, by any means

Reverse engineering a hacking device just to make your own cheaper hacked version to hack an allegedly unbackable console is just so meta.

In a nutshell: Never call your console unhackable.

That's gotta sting. Loses millions by panic removing a complicated poweruser feature like OtherOS, but gets thrwarted by a USB stick.

Hackers: We want to hack the PS3, but it’s hard and there is almost no point because of Other OS. Sony: Removes Other OS Hackers: *COWABUNGA IT IS!*

I didn't pay attention to the release of this, but I do remember seeing quite a bit about flashing your own USB device to do the same thing! Awesome breakdown of how this all worked.

“Removing Other OS” “April 1st” Yup, I can definitely see why ppl were mad.

1. That awesome intro music 2. The word "Jig" being used many times 3. The word "payload" being used many times = one damn fine video. 4. USB flash drive*

OtherOS was removed because of the exploit we found. Once gone we still had other minimal exploits which allowed us to bypass Starbuck security checks. Thus allowing us to essentially run code to open other parts, and eventually creating home brew. Dave was awesome with his multiman home brew and helping us to achieve these goals. Once this was done it was time to finally get back to bringing OtherOS into cfws, which took about 6 months from start to finish. Because of the update Sony released to remove (it never was actually removed but just left there) the feature, we had to think of another way to create a bootable HD image which the system itself could use as a virtual drive for OtherOS. Sony’s official response to the community was that it’s just not possible to keep OtherOS because of security problems. This is not true, they didn’t feel like rewriting everything is all. OtherOS was still in the newer official firmwares but it was broken and not fixable because it completely closed the boot flags needed. This was the reason they dropped it, the exploit between ofw and booting OtherOS was patched. Sony was lazy and didn’t feel like doing the work and decided to patch the part which OtherOS needed. This was the only reason it took 6 months for us to bring it back under a cfw, we needed a newer found exploit to be finished before even trying to create a boot strap for OtherOS. I was personally responsible working with 2 other people to create the new way of reading OtherOS file systems. And let me tell ya, it wasn’t easy. I remember the moment we successfully booted into ppc Linux distro yellow dog. We couldn’t wait to tell everyone. We released the image I believe on 3 major dev sites and we didn’t get one single comment or thank you for about two weeks, in fact people were more like, ok so why did you feel the need to bring OtherOS back? Big deal. But to us developers, having to create new code, cfw, and hd images to boot an original feature that was still locked away in the back of new updates was a huge accomplishment for us. Don’t even get me started on how we prevented breakage due to updates, that took another two months to accomplish

Firmware 3.55 T_T my nightmare. Loaded up the jailbreak app on my TI-84+ (still on there today) at school. Came home from school, stoked to jailbreak, and my PS3 had managed to auto-update while I was gone. I was gutted. No way to soft-mod it again for 7 more years.

How many times do these companies need to learn: Never mess with Linux nerds.

Who's still mad about Sony's removal of 'Other OS' functionality? I used the PS3 for a couple/few years as my only 'PC' and I'll never forget how fast the thing rendered when editing video, despite not having full access to all the hardware. IIRC it was much faster than the mac mini I was using for work and about as quick as my father's mac pro. Cell broadband engine was a beast for its time!

It should be illegal to remotely remove an _advertised feature_ from a consumer product after it has been purchased without the owner's consent. Using a "technically optional" firmware update, without which the device becomes unusable for its _other_ advertised features, should not be a viable loophole to this law.

Sony will be forever known as the company that removed a key feature that led to people wanting to hack it back in.

7:00 Pirates pirating pirates. Doesn't get any more internet than that.

Moral of the story: do not piss off linux users ;)

Mistakes definitely made.

The biggest mistake here was that PSJailbreak decided to sell their device at a ridiculous price

every time i see "mistakes were made" i assume it's some kind of video about my past marriage

I remember when the PS3's private key was found and tweeted at Sony's spokesman at the time who RE-TWEETED IT! OMG it was hilarious! Needless to say the guy lost his job. ROFL! XD

I had no idea at the time what I was doing, but back in college I was able to pull off this exploit following a guide showing how to do it on a TI 84 calculator. Everyone in the dorm thought I was some kind of technical genius LOL

Sony: Removes Other OS Hackers: *So you have chosen... death.*

And now, even the super-slim can be modded. I love these guys. To me they’ve helped kept these older gens alive. My wii just sat collecting dust for years since 2011 until I learned about soft modding last year.

Those were the days! No way I could afford $120 USD back then, but I managed to get a clone once they arrived in New Zealand. I don't think we had Aliexpress back then, but there were more modchip-selling shops back then.

Everytime I see "Mistakes were made" on the thumbnail of an MVG video I immediately click on it no questions asked

basically: If it doesn't run linux, it will be made to run linux

Could you possibly do a video on how the TOOL battery modded PSP's at all? always found that fascinating that a battery could do that.

How to create a MVG video thumbnail. Console image + overlay text “mistakes were made”

Nice music.

They shot themselves I'm the foot when they removed Other OS.

As a longtime console gamer who has never even attempted to hack a system, I find these videos very entertaining and informative. Keep up the good work!

Classic Streisand Effect. Another great video, thanks MVG!

Some newest Company: We made a console that is pure unhackable unlike PS3 and XBOX Some hacker: *I SMELL A CHALLENGE*

i LOVE this series you have been doing. please keep doing them

I really enjoy your videos. It's not the usual rehashing of video game information that I am used to other content creators using. Refreshing and very educational and unique in this modern day of RU-vid.

I love these in-depth exploit retrospectives that you do. I find the whole process of console exploitation so fascinating, all the reverse engineering and loopholes, and just the game of cat and mouse between the devs/crackers and the manufacturers. I still remember when I first learned that my phat PSP could be hacked, and then watching as the scene around it exploded. And then all these years later I got to repeat that experience with the PS Vita. Hopefully we'll see something happen in the PS4 scene now that it's reaching EOL.

I was pretty mad when OtherOS got removed (so much so that I took part in the class action suit as I commented on your last PS3 vid). At that time, the PS3 was my main TV emulation box. This was before the Twilight Hack opened my Wii up but even after that point, the raw processing power of the PS3 meant that snes9x and VirtualBoyAdvance ran significantly better on the PS3 under Linux in a hypervisor than they did unoptimized natively on the Wii.

Thank you for these videos, they are incredibly informative and in-depth enough to not be boring.

Best part after coming home from work on mondays..new MVG content...thanks !

If I’ve learned anything from these kinds of videos it is “don’t tell people they cannot do something if you deny it they will prove you wrong”

When you wish you could press a bigger LIKE, cause of how great the execution of this video is!

what a great find by the PSJailBreak Team, and a great video by MVG!

Iv gota say thanks for all your videos. This is history that needs to be known, and you do it great.

After the PS Jailbreak was cracked the method I used was an iPhone 2G with a modified Android booter that loaded the payload. Until we got the permanent CFW of course. #goodtimes

I remeber getting one of these . Aaah good times ☺️ i remember the selection of playable games when the PSJB came out was very limited, but grew in time

I swear I watch this channel all of the time. I can't help it. You are just that knowledgeable 👍🏻

i love how you just get straight to the point. Great video

I see "Mistakes were made" on the thumb, I click.

George Hotz is such an insane character. Watch his videos on how to reverse engineer a program or he's open source autopilot for cars.

Great video, got lost in 2018 vids that were outdated but this takes the cake! :) TY

I just really love this channel and can not wait for the next video upload. The old cyber espionage music and explanations of how the most famous hacks were achieved.

I remember seeing this back in the day. I was sure it was fake as it looked super sketchy. How wrong I was.......

Me: got born MVG: MISTAKES WERE MADE

I always love the chiptunes at the beginning of your video. Gets me hyped and remembering a day long ago with "warez" and keygens

I’ve just got a ps3 super slim which apparently can’t be cfw hacked... but have installed HEN and works superb!!! Epic videos as always MVG

absolutely no one: modern vintage gamer: mistakes were made

Sony , creates USB access Anonymous co , we reversed engineered the system and created a USB port to hack the system. But it cost a lot Random dude : we reversed engendered the stick and it is now open sourced.. So far this is the best "you played yourself" meme in history

This was a really well put together video, much admiration!! 👏😎

it's always a joy to watch your new videos, even i can only understand half of it

My roommate got one for his system, what i remember is that it was a temporary software mod that would disappear after every power down and need to be re-applied, similar to the Switch paperclip hack. Also, sony made new firmware with new games that would mess with the hack, so you could never play new games without either looking for a custom firmware, or maybe you had to mod the game image to rip out the update i cant remember exactly.

God I still remember booting into CFW by hooking up my fucking iPod Nano and booting that up just in the right moment, haha. To this day it still has that CFW load on it. This brings back memories.

An incredible video as always, thanks Dimitri!

Been waiting this video for so long dude.

Woo! More hacking videos, I love watching these

Next video: How a Paperclip defeated security on the Nintendo Switch

love these kind of videos, keep on making quality content!

Thank you for taking the time to document these hacks. I appreciate the information that you are researching and sharing.

Next up: How a paperclip defeated the Nintendo Switch

So the moral of the story is, never remove a promised feature. No matter how much people threatened you.

Another amazing video, your videos always keep me interested

Love these videos. Definitely ranks among the top channels on YT.

Sony: A bee just stung me! I'll kick the hell out of the beehive!

I used a Ti-84 calculator. It blew people's minds that technically "I used a Calculator to mod my PS3".

quality viewing as always mate. all killer no filler.

Great video. I had a vague idea of how it all worked back then but you filled in all the blanks :)

I remember this vividly. This is when I got into following the scenes and the different developers. Literally 3 weeks after setting up Linux on my PS3 and having Sony take it away. I've been anti Sony ever since

when i see 'mistakes were made', i know this will be good

I really enjoy your videos regarding console hacking and piracy. Always interesting to see how these issues are tackled by Sony et Al.

Great video once again MVG!

I will laugh heartily when the PS5 comes out already hacked.

MVG, thank you for all of the work you have put into systems over the years. Do you stream games or AMAs on RU-vid or Twitch?

Great video as usual, keep it up!

Love your videos always something awsome to watch

Never forget GeoHot ... Internet Legend.

We need a mistakes were made t-shirt ;)

Your videos are a blessing to my boring Mondays.

Awesome explanation, thanks man!

I remember the name GeoHotz being everywhere back in the day!

I pretend I understand mostly of what you say

Awesome, I loved how you explained this. Your videos are great.

Again top notch video. I feel like I learned something watching the code on the screen

Sony: spends millions in settlements by removing other OS to protect PS3 from exploits Community: *finds exploits anyway*

geohot is a legend, he was the man that helped me get into rooting and programming at the most fundamental level

Love your work I love the way you explain how they are done.

I love the retro style music of your videos!

"You caused the very thing you sought to avoid Sony"

The only time I ever used my Texas instruments calculator.

can we talk about how genius this trick is? the guy who figured this out, man respect to him/her for coming up with that fake 6 usb hub, that was really cool and interesting to see you breakdown and explain.

I love your content so much I can't wait to see what's coming up in 2020 there was a lawsuit with Sony and the removal of the otherOS feature