Clarifying The Hacked Home Situation

Written by Dana Olson
Published at 2008-12-17 11:03:06
Tagged: [Home]

Many other sites are reporting that PlayStation Home has been hacked. However, the reports I read aren't very clear about the situation.

Two things have actually happened, and both are often being reported as a single security attack on PlayStation Home. They aren't the same thing, and they're not even related, so they should have been posted as two separate things. I would have done this myself, but, it would defeat the point of what I'm trying to say with this post, and that is, to differentiate between the two.

OK, the first thing is that someone has discovered the ability to set up some software (web and DNS servers) on a computer on your home network, allowing you to play back movies, music, or images of your choosing, rather than Sony's own media. The effect is local, so, if you're desperate to be online and chatting and hearing your own music and whatnot, then go for it. However, nobody online will hear or see what you are listening or watching. This isn't a security exploit, and doesn't involve hacking unless your ISP is America Online and u r l337.

The other, separate, unrelated, different thing is that a hacker posted some information on his blog about how to exploit Sony's servers, allowing him to upload, download, or delete files on their systems. Whether this is a legit exploit or not has yet to be seen, however, his blog has been wiped clean and the information doesn't exist anymore.

In any case, the first issue isn't really an issue at all, and the second, if true, is likely to be fixed already (perhaps the maintenance we experienced yesterday?), or possibly in tomorrow's patch.

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