Although the latest firmware for the PS3 (with reports of a possible secret rootkit) is just hitting today, it looks like it’s only going to be a matter of days before an easy crack is made available for it, if early indications pan out. Not that we support piracy here at CrunchGear, but the constant battle between hacker and hacked is always interesting. Sony just tries so hard! Too hard, I think.
It seems that some extant tools for unpacking the PS3 firmware work just fine on the new release, and in a jiffy some savvy code monkeys will have extracted the means (the signing keys) to run unauthorized code and included it in a cooked firmware pack.
We’ll keep you updated. Really, though, you should just print out figure A, here, and look at it whenever you hear about someone updating or cracking DRM or console security. I might have to adjust the timing on those arrows soon, though.