PS3 Home Hacking

ps3

Last week Sony launched the public beta of Home, their virtual world for the PlayStation 3. It wasn’t met with much fanfare and has proven to be quite buggy. Many were less than charmed by scarcity being ported to the virtual world. Others took it upon themselves to hack the service. Connections between the user’s home console and Sony’s server are unencrypted. You can sniff the requests and responses off the wire and modify them live. It seems you need the console to establish the initial connection, but after that you’re free to use builtin tools like Download.jsp, UploadFileServlet, and Delete.jsp to modify any file on the host server. You can also set up a proxy server to modify content, but that will only affect what your console sees.

[photo: nic0]

[via Joystiq]

21 thoughts on “PS3 Home Hacking

  1. all i gotta say is that Sony is moronic to have it so that anyone can modify anything (granted I don’t have a PS3, so I haven’t been able to see it in action or how this service even works)

  2. The only thing worth mentioning is the server upload hole, and it’s even sensationalized. The content isn’t propagated.

    Also the PS3 security model, on every layer, is extremely well designed. No? Enlighten us.

  3. As a PS3 fanboy who bought a PS3 early, I can say that Home is a complete waste of time.

    Frollard: “…its a free service, they have to pay for it somehow…”

    Actually, in the case of Home, the ads are the service. It’s just a glorified marketing pusher.

  4. Foxdie is right, the ads pay for it; plus it’s Sony.

    There’s barely any depth to it though, and it’s mostly bland MTV drones dancing to shitty music in the plaza, or yo-dawging over voice.

    You can script and model in Second life, and actually make money. It’s also got other mediums for live entertainment and creativity all in game.

  5. Pleez,

    Home was just launched to PUBLIC BETA. Almost all of the main features are still deactivated.

    And for this ‘hack’, it was only apache server in between network and PS3. So the user can, by spending hours doing config, change all the ads for some picture. It’s local only and very simple tweak. Kinda like I’d modify banners on this webpage to show goatse, just for my pleasure.

    So lets wait a bit and see where it goes. I bet it’s going to be quite neat service. AND you don’t have to spend any money to enjoy it.

    Most likely it will open doors for nice hacks too.

  6. “i played home on my cousins ps3 about a week ago,and it wasnt too bad, but definetly not worth playing when u could be in a co-op game in gow2..”
    -mrclaus1000

    Comparing Home to gears of war 2 is complete idiocy. Home isn’t an actual game, it’s a socializing network much like facebook. You have an avatar much like on sims or second life and you just interact with people; they have some things you can play in it like bowling or pool and stuff. When it’s done the most useful feature most people will use is game launching; you meet up with a group of friends, decide what you’re wanting to play, launch into the game, and when you’re done you head back to Home and decide what else to play. I’m pretty sure Sony will eventually make you pay to use Home though.

  7. My fiancee and I absolutely love PS3Home!! It’s such a great way to meet fellow gamers. I cannot imagine “talking” online any other way but the PS3Home way. Everything pales in comparision. PS3Home is also “girl-friendly” with easy games such as bowling, chess, pool and now the flying with the Red Bull Air Race. For a beta, it is not bad at all. Thank you Sony for making such an awesome Home!!! Sony rocks!!!

  8. home is a good place to meet. ok i also hate that u need to pay. but atleast they have made the psh or else u always do the same.im placing comment with my psp lol.

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