PlayStation Home's door is wide open for hackers
- Posted December 16th, 2008 at 09:29 EDT by Steven Williamson
- 4,801 views
- 42 Comments
Despite PlayStation Home having only been open to the public for a matter of days there's already claims that hackers have invaded its virtual space and managed to tamper with some of the built-in advertising boards.
The claim stems from a hacker named StreetskaterFu, who via his blog reveals that a number of vulnerabilities in the existing code have enabled him to replace posters, exchange current trailers to custom ones and play his own music.
A video, which was uploaded to You Tube, showed how StreetskaterFu had edited posters, but Sony has allegedly been quick to step in and remove the footage and will apparently be working swiftly to release a patch to prevent further exploitation.
PS3 Hax.net has taken things a stage further by offering a guide on how to hack PlayStation Home, bolstered by some videos of what it’s so far managed to achieve. Sony won’t be overly concerned just yet, as the current hack only allows aesthetic changes to be made on local machines, but it will certainly must be a concern that security wasn’t made tighter before opening the servers to the public.
As StreetskaterFU states on his blog:
“SONY f****d it really up! First they delay HOME for more than a year, then they delay it a few times again and again till finally we have a HOME beta on a technical standard from 2005 with crappy graphics, a few boring areas and many many many many many many many many bugs.
It's a bit surprising just how weak the security is, especially considering the competitive pressures and the existing knowledge of how to build secure client/server applications. So far it sounds like basic enterprise development techniques would have removed these risks.”
Comments
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TheRealCarbonfibre
- 9:40am GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 1
Pfffttt well done, nice work alerting sony to the problem.
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pulga
- 10:08am GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 4
Hackers are low life people should get out more often and instead of being able to understand the programming language they should understand the language of real people. In another words LOSERS!!!!!. They failed in real life so they have to hide behind a computer. But not most of them but that is the general image you get of them.
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Ps3_aDdIcT
- 10:47am GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 8
just goes to show you he needs to find real people to hang out with, but more than likely, he is a social outcast/reject, and probably gets made fun of, even by his parents. So in order for himself to feel good he has to do something some other people thinks is cool so he is also know deemed as "cool". But in reality, not virtual reality, he is a D bag.
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markwesker
- 11:24am GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 15
Bet StreetskaterFU is sat at home with 2fingers up is a** and a woody now he`s changed a poster on home.haha posts in his blog like he`s a somebody now...psu or any other site don`t quote his blog,attention seeking geek.
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mixpix7212
- 11:29am GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 16
SONY f****d it really up! First they delay HOME for more than a year, then they delay it a few times again and again till finally we have a HOME beta on a technical standard from 2005 with crappy graphics, a few boring areas and many many many many many many many many bugs.
i think this D-Bag is a an xbot. go f u c k with M$
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Stef Nighthawk
- 11:50am GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 18
Boring hack, it's only on the local side.
Requests from a local PS3 are redirected to a different web server. He**, I could set up my own DNS server at home and each time my wife tries to surf to www.google.com I could resolve it to the address of www.psu.com.
PSU, the new Google :-p
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EFFORTLESS8
- 12:11pm GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 20
lol u guys are idiots lol. Hackers are geniuses. Who do you think tests security for companies? they hire hackers to test it out. They created their own industry, pay me to show you how to prevent ppl like me from doing something to you. thats just smart.
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Paranoimia
- 12:59pm GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 21
"Hackers are geniuses."
Well, some hackers are geniuses. People like this, though, are just morons who like to feck things up because they can. The real pros figure out how to, but don't feel the need to stroke their own ego by telling everyone else how to do it step-by-step. Posting how-to's on the web enables others to cause problems, and is just as bad as doing the damage yourself.
These tools are like graffiti artists, who rather than turn their talents to something useful, would rather use them to destroy or deface other people's hard work. If Streetskater was that good, he'd have a proper job, and wouldn't have time to prat around picking at other people's work. And even if he did, he might have a bit more respect for that work, rather than offering its secrets to whoever may be interested.
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jigglespsu
- 2:41pm GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 22
no wonder home is so cr@p and slow, uut's running java all over the place at the server end
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GuitarMaster231
- 2:57pm GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 24
They do realize they're hurting Home and Sony by doing this.
They complain about home and then hack it, which slows the Home team from upgrading and improving it because they have to work on stopping hackers.
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caveman7
- 3:05pm GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 26
First off, that's not a serious hack because it only affects what's on his screen, it's like when you change the source code of a webpage, save it, and open up the one you changed. second, hackers are not d-bags most of the time. In fact, companies will often create new software of some sort and then hire a hacker or two to find every loophole/exploit in it and then patch it up. That's fine by me (most of the time wink wink)
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Retaliation
- 3:56pm GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 27
Anyone with a inch of computer knowledge could see the amount of vulnerability especially in the trailers.
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kloss22
- 5:23pm GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 31
wow - i can't believe all the ragging on hackers. Some 'hackers' are very well respected and influential people in the area of network and computer security. On top of that, if someone doesn't know how to hack something, chances are they dont' know how to prevent someone from hacking something. Also there are some 'computer nerds' who have perfectly normal social skills and just choose to apply their logic to the world of computing.... can't blame them - it pays well.
The blatant ragging on groups of people such as hackers just shows your own ignorance. But then again those people won't read this post.
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StoneDogAiel
- 6:46pm GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 33
I wouldnt call this a hack, but since when did understanding coding languages and how to manipulate them make you a "loser". Im sure glad the programmers over at Naughty Dog and Infinity Ward dont listen to the shight you guys spew over here.
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Free_Agent
- 7:15pm GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 34
I think this is funny. Well, Sony releases this with holes in it, and what do they expect. I know they are new to the online experiance, but I guess this might wake them up. At the same time I feel kind of bad for them because they can't seem to do anything right anymore. They are kinda forced to release home though, because they hyped it for way to long, and had to release it in beta form. Although all the problems home have are deeper than typical beta bugs etc.. They need to flush the whole thing down the toilet.
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jphuff
- 9:24pm GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 36
I don't think the graphics in Home are crappy by any means. It's not Uncharted or MGS4, but it's not SUPPOSED to be. It's certainly much superior graphically to the Mii's or the 360's NXE environment. I think Home is great for what it is. A social networking add-on to the PS3 that will grow with time and has some good potential as far as interaction prior to games as well as getting you and your friends together in the same game.
Don't understand what people expected with it, but it IS what Sony said it would be. And as they stated repeatedly, it will keep evolving. Personally I think it will likely BE the next Playstations main interface, if all goes well and it keeps developing without major snags.
I'm not HUGE on Home, but I've gone around even in the Beta asking what people think and while there are a few "lame" type of responses most people seem to "get" it for what it is and its social aspect, which again, are its whole point right now. With how popular things like Facebook, etc, are and Sony's stated plans to soon link into the web, etc, I think it will be very successful for Sony overall. Just one additional feature that adds to the value of owning a PS3 versus another system.
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Fijiandoce
- 9:44pm GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 37
isnt it a Beta???......isn't this why you would have a beta in the first place.
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DemonOfRazgriz07
- 11:57pm GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 38
@2
wtf? i love Linkin Park. go suck a nut why dont you
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lforet
- 1:47am GMT - December 17th, 2008
- 39
At all the guys that want to insult SKFU (althouth I respect your opinion), those "Low life people" are in charge of the computers that run your banks, chemical plants (like me), ISPs, and many other vital things. Understand more before you insult. This was intended for internal testing with the homebrew community by setting up a mirror and messing with that. The messing with the real server was a really stupid move by some of the people that got this information. SKFU is indeed leading the movement by leaps and bounds but on a more personal opinion, he should have kept this internal to those devs that can do something meaningful. But in any case, this is quite a jump forward. Keep up the good work SKFU.
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jigglespsu
- 10:47am GMT - December 17th, 2008
- 41
psu.com is so full of 'tards ... most of you don't even know that a hacker is not a malicious coder but one who is produces works. Somewhat akin to the the term "hack" used in journalism. The modern use of the word hacker has changed in publlic opinion only. So funeralfog, my backward gator humpin friend, you insult all coders even the ones that relentlessly spew out the FPS cr@p that you enjoy consuming with your fried chicken whilst bangin yo fat mama
@4 I can't even come up with an insult that an individual of your ignorance would comprehend
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Acid-Hippie2007
- 9:25am GMT - December 18th, 2008
- 42
@ # 42 Wow, thats the most crap anyones ever talked in one post, that I've seen anyways.
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