Ps3 3.56 firm ware contains a rootkit

[macwest]

I thought I would post it here and see what everyone has to say about this. I was reading articles and it seems sony released their latest firmnware with a rootkit so they can in someway control your PS3. If this is true I am done with sony it sure does not seem right and has to violate some consumer laws. What does everyone think or know about this?

[PS2Guy]

On PS3HAX a security "Expert" is claiming that the Rootkit came out in earlier firmware versions! So Sony has probably been doing it already, and we would never even know about it!

I've only just loaded 3.55CFW on mine so don't really care if they have or not, cause I don't use mine on the net!

If it gets hooked back up to the net, it'll be running Linux through Graf_chokolo's OtherOS app, which is due to be released soon!

[APE]

I've seen this bit of "news" posted all over but I've yet to see anything substantiated come out of it. Given Sony's history with rootkits (everybody loves having their drivers fucked with because they paid for a CD instead of pirating it) I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they did this. Not one bit.

However Sony DID receive a huge backlash for that rootkit both financially, legally and from a public opinion perspective. I sincerely doubt they'd be stupid enough to try it again but hey I've been wrong before when it came to Sony and being stupid enough to try something twice expecting different results.

[liquitt]

i wouldnt be surprised either. of course we need proof for this, BUT as i said, sony is the one to do shit like that....

[Alchy]

Seems like it stretches the definition of "rootkit" to me. Companies checking what your computer's doing when you're playing online is nothing new - Blizzard have been doing it with the Warden for years, and PunkBuster was around a decade ago. If you want cheat-free online gaming (on an "open", insecure platform) you can expect some form of monitoring.

[Twimfy]

All I know is that the new firmware makes my PS3 lock up and crash on a regular basis.

[subbie]

From what I've read on it I think sony is fine for doing it in the first place. It's not going to modify your unit, chances of it being hacked to backdoor your PS3 is slim, yada yada yada. It is just being use to validate the integrity of your PS3 before permitting access to PSN and personally thank god they're doing that. If you want PSN access then don't hack your PS3.

[macwest]

From what I've read on it I think sony is fine for doing it in the first place. It's not going to modify your unit, chances of it being hacked to backdoor your PS3 is slim, yada yada yada. It is just being use to validate the integrity of your PS3 before permitting access to PSN and personally thank god they're doing that. If you want PSN access then don't hack your PS3.

What they are doing is illegal. It is the same as if someone installed a backdoor on my computer. That type of hacking has already been found illegal in courts. Since the PS3 was sold as availible for other OS system it can be argued it is the same as a PC.

Their contract you read at download, is an adhesion contract and a reasonable person would not think they are instaling a back door on your system. This would be similar to the last backdoor they tried and lost at.

The good way to look at it is after all the lawsuits it will define that a system you buy you do own. up till now this has been grey area and no court case has really set precedent on it.

[syntax error]

Skilled hackers should create an modular open source replacement firmware to run Linux and otherOS (like NetBSD on PS2).

Tried coreboot.It was a a long way to install but boots a lot faster
and has a module called SeaBIOS that provides the usual BIOS functions.

[Alchy]

What they are doing is illegal.

They haven't actually done anything yet, though, right? Just implemented potential functionality. In either case it's hardly clear that what they're doing is illegal. I think this is a very different case to their audio CD rootkit fiasco.

[subbie]

What they are doing is illegal. It is the same as if someone installed a backdoor on my computer.

No not really. You have no ownership to the PS3 firmware files.

If you don't like it then keep to an older firmware.

Sony isn't going to use it to attack a system, it's purely for keeping PSN safe/clean. PSN is a service and not a right to have access to.

[macwest]

No not really. You have no ownership to the PS3 firmware files.

If you don't like it then keep to an older firmware.

Sony isn't going to use it to attack a system, it's purely for keeping PSN safe/clean. PSN is a service and not a right to have access to.

Same as a computer OS. you can give functionality but you need to give the owner the right to disable it. As for sony purposes everyone has their own idea and since it can be used for incidious purposes one can argue a valid reason they should not be allowed to do it. Either way should be fun to watchit resolve in the US courts I am sure there will be a lawsuit from it.

The argument on older firmware would be great if all games woud use it. I do not go online but you have to upgrade to play newer games or at time to play new blue ray movies and doesn't the newer systems have wifi so theoreticaly even if I do not go online the systems could call home even though I never agreed to it. Not sure if it does but if they do you can easily program a hardware system to do that.

[subbie]

The argument on older firmware would be great if all games woud use it. I do not go online but you have to upgrade to play newer games or at time to play new blue ray movies and

If it comes down to it, there will be hacks made to get around the need for the latest firmware. It happened on the PSP all the damn time.

doesn't the newer systems have wifi so theoreticaly even if I do not go online the systems could call home even though I never agreed to it. Not sure if it does but if they do you can easily program a hardware system to do that.

The suppose "rootkit" does not allow it to do that. It's a only when trying to log into PSN.

Theoretical BS has no place in an argument.

[Alchy]

If you're really that paranoid just disable internet on the PS3, there's a setting for that.

That's one of the major differences between this and the audio CD case - Sony isn't forcing you to connect to the internet, or to PSN. Any scanning methods they do end up using will be included in a ToS for PSN. I'd be surprised if this turned into a lawsuit, there's many examples of other game companies who are already doing similar things (and have been for a long time).

[lvsteven]

Microsoft CONSTANTLY CHECKS for modded hardware as you use xbox love, yet no one complains about that, do they?

They can install what they want. They have a privacy policy and will never steal your information.

Want to get upset? Don't use them.

Or steam
Or xbox live.
Or any pc game with drm enabled via online checks.

[macwest]

Theoretical BS has no place in an argument.

Whose arguing just debating to get to the facts.

I would like to know more on what the rootkit really does or does not do.

The way I understand this is the checks are happening on my end compared to microsoft on their end. for example, not saying sony is or is not but the root kit has the ability to phone home. all Micorosofts updates check upon validation so I would need to log in to have it effect me. Based on Sonys past I am just skeptical.

[Disjaukifa]

From what I've read on it I think sony is fine for doing it in the first place. It's not going to modify your unit, chances of it being hacked to backdoor your PS3 is slim, yada yada yada. It is just being use to validate the integrity of your PS3 before permitting access to PSN and personally thank god they're doing that. If you want PSN access then don't hack your PS3.

Couldn't agree with you more subbie, also don't you have to accept a user agreement when you login to PSN for the first time and get firmware updates, and I bet that root-kit is in the disclaimer that no one ever reads as well . . .

-Disjaukifa

[subbie]

The way I understand this is the checks are happening on my end compared to microsoft on their end. for example, not saying sony is or is not but the root kit has the ability to phone home. all Micorosofts updates check upon validation so I would need to log in to have it effect me. Based on Sonys past I am just skeptical.

I haven't heard of anything saying it can phone home. Far as I read it's when you try to log into PSN the server sends a small piece of code to check your PS3 and sends back a key that PSN verifies if it matches up to what it should be.

There are good reasons why the code has to be sent by server.
1. It means they can update it for new hack around with out a new firmware
2. It doesn't embed the code in the fw where hackers can sniff it out and just feed the server what it wants to hear

:shrug:

[PS2Guy]

A couple of days ago, we posted an article here about a possible rootkit that had been implemented in the recent 3.56 official firmware, this news came about, after IRC logs were posted, quoting esteemed PS3 Scene Developer Mathieulh say that the new firmware had a PSN rootkit, Mathieulh was very quick to respond via his twitter with this:

I said on irc that I saw small hints of possible remote execution code in 3.56, not the code itself, people should stop miss-interpreting.

I am tired of seeing sentences I write on irc being somewhat modified and then newsed all over way out of proportion…

While this may have been a misquotation, a rumour that got out of hand, that hasn’t stopped experts from the security world speaking out about it, just today Chris Boyd a security researcher, from GFI Security, has stated that this in fact is nothing new, here is the article in full, by John Leyden from The Register:[INDENT] Suggestions that Sony has added a rootkit with the latest firmware update to its PS3 console have been denounced as bunkum by a leading gaming security expert.
Rumours began flying on the interwebs earlier this week that the official 3.56 firmware upgrade for Sony’s consoles gave the consumer electronics giant the ability to execute code on the PS3 as soon as a user goes online.
Sony can use the technology to verify system files or to look for home-brewed games, it was suggested. More sinister still, it was warned, the code can be updated without further firmware updates.
The more excitable elements of the gamer community as well as tech blogs and gaming sites cried foul over the move, with many describing it as the introduction of hidden “rootkit-style” functionality.
But Chris Boyd, a security researcher at GFI Security who has studied the security of online games for several years, points out the development is not new since Sony wrote the ability for it to do remote updates into its terms and conditions since at least 2006.
“It’s been known for a while that a networked PS3 will contact Sony servers at start up (whether it has an active PlayStation network account on it or not), which performs various tasks related to error logs, updates and other activities,” Boyd (aka Paperghost) told El Reg.
Anyone using a PS3 agrees in the terms of service to allow their console to perform these tasks.
Mark Russinovich found a rootkit in Sony CDs back in 2005, provoking a huge privacy outcry. This has led some enthusiasts and bloggers to suggest that history is repeating itself with the PS3 firmware upgrade.
The PS3 firmware upgrade is nothing like as malign, argues Boyd, who has spoken on X-Box and online gaming security at several security conferences. “Comparing a last ditch attempt at blocking hacks and custom firmware to the truly dreadful CD rootkit is mind boggling.”
Sony bundled ill-conceived copy-protection on its music CDs that meant a rootkit was installed if they were played on Windows PCs. This created a vulnerability on affected machines later latched onto by malware writers. Sony withdrew the technology following an outcry.
Comparing this to the PS3 firmware update misunderstands what has actually been done or the practical risks of the move, according to Boyd.
“This is only really a concern if you’re interested in modding – otherwise I’m not convinced there’s a ‘threat’ as such,” Boyd told El Reg. “I’m still waiting for someone to explain how this ‘PS3 rootkit’ could be used to run unsigned malicious code on a non-jailbroken box,” he added.
Sony recently earned the enmity of the gamer and security communities by suing hackers who figured out a way to run unsigned code on PlayStation 3 consoles without the use of a dongle. The blogiverse has been inclined to ascribe the worst possible motives to anything Sony has done with a console since, regardless of whether it’s actually new or how what it’s doing sits against other potential threats.
Boyd, who has been vocal in criticising the lawsuits against the PS3 hackers such as geohot, nonetheless argues that gamers need to get a grip. “People will happily download homebrew from Basement Bob which could steal logins/credit card details, but code from the console maker is evil?”

This is all I know about it!! Apparently the Rootkit has been there for a while!! On another source that I read on another website it says that it's all crap so I don't know!!

[Taucias]

I don't think this 'security expert' knows what a root kit defines.