Has anyone here noted that the private key for the PS3 has been successfully calculated using "simple algerbra"?

The whole story began when Sony disabled OtherOS (= Linux) due to some security flaws. Hackers were pissed off because of this, and they started to investigate the PS3 security systems.

Long story short; it turned out that the random number generator used in the calculation of public keys actually returned the very same number every time, and then it's easy to calculate the private key using two different public keys.

As a ressult, it's now possible to properly sign software for the PS3, and there is no simple way for Sony to fix it, except for replacing every single PS3 unit sold to this date.

Read more about it here: http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/01/playstation-3-exploit

After the keys went online, Sony directly sued. However; not all the documents were signed, so I don't know if the action is valid.

Sony pissed off the hackers, because they didn't support Linux.... rofl XD

This is old news by now, in fact, unless I am sadly mistaken, this is all over the web. Besides, Sony won't win anything in any lawsuit, and that is a fact, if I am wrong, well I won't be. :p

It's just about one week old, though... and I didn't see any other posts about it here.

It will still be interesting to see how this thing escalates, or by what means Sony will attempt to solve the situation. With systems like the Wii, where it's a matter of channel IDs, it's quite easy for an update to notice homebrew. However, in the case with the PS3, this is not possible.

The key is mirrored all over the web, giving Sony 3 different possible options:
1. Turn their back and pretend nothing happened (Pros: Nice for the homebrew comunity, Cons: Negative company repurtation for Sony, PS3 being target for piracy).
2. Sue everyone who host the keys (Pros: Previous similar cases tend to rule in favour of the homebrew comunity, Cons: a real pain for any individuals involved).
3. Replace every single hardware unit and software title previously sold (Pros: Nothing, Cons: Extremely expensive for Sony).

As you see, none of these options have any positive effect on Sony.

heh, I thought something like ths would happen if the ps3 can get hacked, or at least jailbroken, by a calculator

Well as I said, Sony will win nothing in any of those situations, but unless I recall wrong, GeoHot has been threatened with lawsuits before, and I was referencing to Sony's past with threats on that, though this seems to be what they will do. Sorry if that came out wrong.

Not sure how Sony plans on claiming they circumvented the DMCA when the clearly didn't. They aren't circumventing the DRM on the device at all, the device is functioning as designed.

Also, lol @ crypto fail. Seriously, Sony, how on earth did you screw that up? Sure, the rest of the system was laughably stupid, but to screw up public/private key crypto implementation so bad that the private key can be calculated from the public one? wtf?

Now certain custom firmware and applications have started to appear, but development is still in it's early stages, which means that one should not relay on any of the releases before it has been well tested by a majority of users.

Yesterday* turned out as a major brickfest, where hundreds of consoles bricked because users attempted to install a highly unsupported and untested piece of custom firmware.

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2011/01/17/why-you-shouldnt-install-custom-firmware-on-your-ps3/

*(2 days ago for most of you when you read this)