PS3 hard drive cryptoanalysis ?

[drbolsen]

from news header:

For those wondering, the 'Network Hole' method in general can be used to change any file on the PS3 HDD providing you know exactly which file name to change, and the Devs have also confirmed access to directories of other installed games beyond Warhawk which is welcomed news.

If it is confirmed that it is possible to write any file to hard drive, can we use cryptanalysis approach and take a snapshot image of PS3 encrypted partition first then write KNOWN combination of bytes on ps3 harddrive, i.e. 0xFFFFFFFFFFFF, long enough to be notable - big image file filled with 0xFF or 0x00, then take snapshot again and compare ? It's known as Known-Plain text Attack on ciphers and it is quite effective indeed.

With some effort we would be able to decrypt encrypted partition content ... I am very confident that Sony uses one of modern symmetric key encryption schemes that means we could recover encryption key.

What do you think guys ?

[GrandpaHomer]

Have a look at this thread in PS DEV Chat ...

And - indeed - you can "implant" file with pre-defined content very easily - simply create a fake JPG / MP4 / MP3 etc. file with whatever you want in it, upload it to your PS3 hard drive via XMB and and then scan hard drive (using the utility from above thread or any other).

You can also write back to the hard drive (using the Linux) and see what effect it will have.