164w ago - With the release of PS3 Firmware 3.21, many are now planning to hold off updating their PlayStation 3 consoles and use one of the PS3 Proxy applications to bypass the required PS3 Firmware update to connect to PSN.
While most of the applications, guides and videos are quite dated (from 2007-2009), below are links to some to make navigating easier. Special THANKS to ekrboi and themiker for making recent guides as well, also available below.
We will continue to add relevant links as they are dug up, and also links to posts with all new guides that prove useful.
How to Bypass PS3 Firmware 3.21 and Connect to PSN Guides:
Feel free to reply to this thread with which application and guide you found easiest, as they all accomplish essentially the same result.
Stay tuned for more PS3 Hacks and PS3 CFW news, follow us on Twitter and be sure to drop by the PS3 Hacks and PS3 Custom Firmware Forums for the latest PlayStation 3 scene updates and homebrew releases!
Yep. That about sums it up. Thing is "IF" Geo's custom FW ever comes out. We can bypass this completely by using our reals certs .. lol.. as it would negates Sony's check on FW version by Actually giving the correct fw even though its on the lower one.. heheh.. too much optimism.. i'll go get a shot of reality and come back.
In a small way (in which experts know about this already), I did some sniffing of things going on the auth.np.ac.playstation.net:443 as that site does the authentication before allowing to login. There were various exchanges of certificates to and from that server to the console. Somehow it triggers some command where it extracts the infos of the console then sent for checking and outputs 8002A212 if not latest firmware. The commands and info exchange are all machine language and its visible that its verisign encrypted.
Its very elementary and easy if all strings with lower than 3.21 on the UserAgents are replaced correctly, but that will be useless because all the critical info exchange are in the encrypted streams. The bad thing about this is how, where, when, and what packets to inject therein because essentially its intruding on an encrypted data exchange.
I see that there is some checking in place also to verify the authenticity and integrity of the data being exchanged (there are several followup connections to the auth server), so the modification coming from data injection would be tricky and difficult.
Perhaps a way to get this is extract a successful handshake from a 3.21 running console and replicate it on a lower firmware console via packet injection. But then, its a whole new different console altogether, and probably the certificates would not match.
This challenge seems beyond my current skill, but again, if I can assist on anybody else here with better progress, I am in.
So far as i can tell.. The authentication has been moved to server side (FW verification part). And It is in SSL. You can sniff the packet and see the xml sending the FW package info to the sony servers. Unless some one can write a reverse proxy kind of app to replace that xml with one we want it to tell it has.. No one is going back online without upgrading.
Of course, logically its simple enough. Practically.. all together a new ball game. Not to mention that every PS3's public cert will have to be read individually. To inject that xml back into the stream... ah.. the nightmare.. I don't want to upgrade.. (only on principle though, as I want the feature I paid for, even if I dont use it much )
As i posted earlier.. In some other thread.(shorter ver of the Rant ) I dont mind upgrading. Just hate what Sony is doing. So won't. Call me stubborn. But only to a point. After that, id rather go online and play with buddies than make my ps3 a doorstop just like the xbox
Though I should point out.. that Sony ALSO said PSN "would be free"... heheheh.. food for thought.
If you consider 3 - 6 months minimum as "soon" then yeah but if you're planing to play some online matches this months than you'd be UBER optimistic
I could care less about online if OtherOS is the only option we'll ever see homebrew on the PS3. I just hope we can play RDR offline if we don't install the update.
Also, DH says that Sony's new check will lock out Geo's modified PUP of the PSN. He better come up with something better.
i heard there is a problem with the saves on 3.55 for res evil revelations. can someone confirm the fix works? after you exit the game cand you load t...
i need to downgrade to 3.55
can you please help?...
Its very elementary and easy if all strings with lower than 3.21 on the UserAgents are replaced correctly, but that will be useless because all the critical info exchange are in the encrypted streams. The bad thing about this is how, where, when, and what packets to inject therein because essentially its intruding on an encrypted data exchange.
I see that there is some checking in place also to verify the authenticity and integrity of the data being exchanged (there are several followup connections to the auth server), so the modification coming from data injection would be tricky and difficult.
Perhaps a way to get this is extract a successful handshake from a 3.21 running console and replicate it on a lower firmware console via packet injection. But then, its a whole new different console altogether, and probably the certificates would not match.
This challenge seems beyond my current skill, but again, if I can assist on anybody else here with better progress, I am in.
Of course, logically its simple enough. Practically.. all together a new ball game. Not to mention that every PS3's public cert will have to be read individually. To inject that xml back into the stream... ah.. the nightmare.. I don't want to upgrade.. (only on principle though, as I want the feature I paid for, even if I dont use it much
As i posted earlier.. In some other thread.(shorter ver of the Rant
Though I should point out.. that Sony ALSO said PSN "would be free"... heheheh.. food for thought.
I could care less about online if OtherOS is the only option we'll ever see homebrew on the PS3. I just hope we can play RDR offline if we don't install the update.
Also, DH says that Sony's new check will lock out Geo's modified PUP of the PSN. He better come up with something better.
If you consider 3 - 6 months minimum as "soon" then yeah but if you're planing to play some online matches this months than you'd be UBER optimistic