Easier and improved method to bypass version check in PSN/F@H

[RexVF5]

Hi!

On this forum I have read the way to overcome the firmware version check. However the guide is confusing and in my opinion bit overcomplicated for the aimed target. It requires setting up 2 things to work: Ettercap (or some DNS spoofer) and WEB server.

Also the method is too heavyweight and not very reliable: if (for any reason) your PS3 asks any other file from the firmware hosts the whole thing will fail as you do not have them.

So I decided to simplify and improve it a bit. My approach is using a HTTP proxy to fool PS3 - so the first improvement is that you only need to setup one program. I used http://www.proxomitron.info/files/index.html that is free but specific for Windows (and no longer developed but suits nicely). There is an open source alternative http://proximodo.sourceforge.net/ that should work cross-platform but I haven't tested it.

So let's get back to the thing. The idea is to run all the communication through Proxomitron (it is HTTP proxy so there should be no problem) unchanged. Only when PS3 asks about available version, we'll forge the answer the way we want. Proxomitron supports this nicely and it can even be done more than 1 way but the easiest one is like this: when someone asks for the version file we'll return the spoofed one residing on our filesystem (i.e. second and third improvement: no need to setup web server and we only spoof this very specific file - all the rests comes unchanged from original servers).

Here's how the rule looks like:

In = FALSE
Out = TRUE
Key = "URL: PS3 firmware check hack [OUT]"
URL = "*.ps3.update.playstation.net/update/ps3/list/eu/ps3-updatelist.txt$RDIR(http://file//C:/ps3-updatelist.txt)"

See what this means? For any OUTgoing request to *ANY* of the update sites (without the need to list them one by one) for version check file we'll just return the file stored on local filesystem (in my config it's C:\ps3-updatelist.txt). Easy as that. You can get a working content of such file from here for example: http://208.68.92.162/update/ps3/list/eu/ps3-updatelist.txt

I have tested this and could setup a PSN account with 2.00 firmware and System update says I have the latest version To make it easier for you I have prepared config file that has everything required enabled (all the other rules are disabled). It is configured to accept connections from any IP address and listens on port 8080. So what you need to do is just:

• Download Proxomitron from here http://www.proxomitron.info/files/download/ProxN45j.zip end extract it somewhere
• Replace the file default.cfg with the one provided below
• Download the ps3-updatelist.txt from here http://208.68.92.162/update/ps3/list/eu/ps3-updatelist.txt and save it to C:\ (modify the path in .cfg file if you want it elsewhere)
• Run Proxomitron
• Setup PS3 to use host where you run Proxomitron as HTTP proxy, port 8080

Voila!

Here's the default.cfg file contents (I removed all the default rules that we do not need):

##
## Proxomitron Config File
##

[Global]
Enable = TRUE
FreezeGIF = FALSE
FilterHTML = FALSE
FilterHeadersOut = TRUE
FilterHeadersIn = FALSE
EnableProxy = FALSE
EnableAutoRun = FALSE
ForceTextures = FALSE
NoTextures = TRUE
SysTray = TRUE
Promiscuous = TRUE
UseSSLeay = FALSE
CloseLocal = TRUE
PriorityBoost = TRUE
BypassURL = "$LST(Bypass)"
AccessRange = 0.0.0.0-255.255.255.255
Port = 8080
MaxCapURL = 999

[WinSizes]
Win.00 = 638:377:1042:672
Win.01 = 638:377:1042:672
Win.02 = 395:328:1284:721
Win.03 = 626:503:973:667
Win.04 = 88:108:488:371
Win.05 = 596:363:1083:653
Win.06 = 5:41:473:139
Win.07 = 5:146:473:252

[Blocklists]
List.Bypass = "..\Lists\Bypass List.txt"
List.AdList = "..\Lists\URL Killfile.txt"
List.NoImages = "..\Lists\Kill Images.txt"
List.CookieList = "..\Lists\AllowCookies.txt"
List.AdKeys = "..\Lists\Keyword list.txt"
List.AliasList = "..\Lists\URL Alias List.txt"
List.MIME-List = "..\Lists\MIME Fix List.txt"

[HTTP headers]
In = FALSE
Out = TRUE
Key = "URL: PS3 firmware check hack [OUT]"
URL = "*.ps3.update.playstation.net/update/ps3/list/eu/ps3-updatelist.txt$RDIR(http://file//C:/ps3-updatelist.txt)"

[Patterns]

[Proxies]
 OpenLog = TRUE

[PS3 News]

Gave ya some Rep Points.. cool guide RexVF5!

[RexVF5]

Gave ya some Rep Points.. cool guide RexVF5!

Thanx. There's more:

This trick can be used to install .pkg files through F@H method. You just need to add one more rule like this:

In = FALSE
Out = TRUE
Key = "URL: F@H installation hack [OUT]"
URL = "http://*.ps3.download.playstation.net/download/ps3/*/fah/fah.pkg$RDIR(http://file//C:/your_downloaded_package_here.pkg)"

You just need to provide correct path to the .pkg in the second part of the rule.

Also, some user posted that actual version check for F@H is located at http://deu01.ps3.download.playstatio...h/updtinfo.cui However I didn't manage to make F@H work with 2.01 firmware.

He posted the the check is passed but then Proxomitron stumbles on accessing "www.k2.cbe-world.com:443" That is SSL port and Proxomitron doesn't support that out-of-the-box. You need to get SSLeay files for it - read on Proxomitron site.

[spanik]

excellent tutorial RexVF5 , very easy to read/understand ; will try this tonight

cheers

[ProsaCC]

Thank you for this simple tutorial, works great on 1.50 EUR PS3

[PeiXePT]

Great Tutorial and very simple! Works on 1.94 EU.

Just a little warning: dont forget to config Windows Firewall (or other Firewall) to allow Proxomitron... ive lost 10min with a noob mistake

[Zoddi]

i read through this last days and played on the ps3 between... my only question: why don't we just use the good old ps3 proxy server by cf3b5 and everything still works over f@h (on 2.01). i don't see the advantage of that method explained above

[RexVF5]

i read through this last days and played on the ps3 between... my only question: why don't we just use the good old ps3 proxy server by cf3b5 and everything still works over f@h (on 2.01). i don't see the advantage of that method explained above

You're free to do so :-) When I was putting this method together I didn't know about ps3proxy - only method with DNS server and WEB server was known to me. I do not claim this is the best method out there and you should stop using anything else - it's provided here as an alternative.

I haven't used ps3proxy but form what I read you need to click here and there etc (but maybe I'm wrong). This is universal method that can be used many ways and once setup it just works in background. Also it allows pretty flexible things in terms of wildcards - I mean you can forward all *.ps3.update.playstation.net/update/ps3/list/eu/ps3-updatelist.txt somewhere. You could even go further and do something like this:

*.ps3.update.playstation.net/update/ps3/list/*/ps3-updatelist.txt which would work for just anyone. So you'd spare all the newbies finding the correct URLs, wondering what's wrong, etc.

The long story short - if you like it, use it to your benefit. If not, just leave it as it is.

[Zoddi]

sorry if it sounds like that but i was really no critics behind my post.
think it is a benefit for the community to present them a way to pass around the update.
was only wondering because that method seems to me much more work than other methods.

[onelargeprawn]

Props to you RexVF5! Worked like a charm