221w ago - Headlines on other sites are reading: "Hackers decrypt retail PS3 HDD", "Retail PS3 HDD decrypted" and "UPDATE: We have confirmation that this decryption was done on a RETAIL PS3 (not Test/Debug)".
They are ALL wrong. We have looked into this over the past 24 hours extensively, and needless to say - our first suspicion was correct (which is why it was labeled as a
rumor). Simply put - its a fake.
The files are real, but they were dumped from a TEST PS3 (old news), from its
/dev_flash (Thanks
NDT!) folder which is 100% accessable with a TEST.
Furthermore, the explanation of the "encryption" was all wrong (see my earlier
post). On top of that, the real research done was 'borrowed' (to put it nicely) by
DemonHades from the source... namely
knightsolidus, who has been doing research with the PS3 HDD.
He made some interesting findings (hitting a similiar roadblock that we did, but we are now
working together to try to get past it), however, currently no part of the hard disk drive has been decrypted.
Again, our hopes were dashed with yet another fake... what's worse is other sites reporting it as legit misleading their users, and not even taking the time to look into it themselves!
Special THANKS to
idone,
knightsolidus and
NDT for taking the time to uncover the truth... and although there are no bad feelings towards
DemonHades it would be appreciated if he came clean with his users so we all can move forward working together.
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Is this anything of help?
The following method is a brief explanation on what to do (detailed tutorial will be available soon, though what is below should suffice).
1.) Make a dump of your PS3 HDD (connect to your PC via SATA)
2.) Plug HDD back to your PS3
3.) Copy a large-dummy file to the HDD
4.) Unplug HDD from PS3, and plug it back into your PC
5.) Dump the HDD image again
6.) Compare the two dumps you know have, and locate the encrypted dummy data (use HxD or any hex editor to do this) 7.) Replace the encrypted dummy data with sections of the data you want to decrypt
8.) Place the HDD back into your PS3
9.) Copy dummy data from PS3 to external media (USB drive/flash drive)
10.) Inspect the dummy file on PC from USB stick/flash drive.