Also known as GeoHot, George Hotz, familiar to many from his iPhone and Playstation 3 hacks, has released source code for a piece of software which can allegedly be used to sign homebrew programs so that they will run on Sony's Playstation 3. The code is reported to run under the current PS3 firmware version, version 3.55, modified using jailbreak software (direct download), also released by Hotz.

Homebrew programmers can use this to sign their own programs for the console's copy protection system without requiring modification of the console hardware or use of a special USB controller. Hotz stresses that neither the jailbreak software nor the signing code is able to bypass copy-protection on commercial PS3 games and they cannot be used to make illegal copies of such games.

Hotz has previously published a PS3 signature key which plays an important role in running programs. This followed the 'fail0verflow' group's success in bypassing the PS3's security system, which they presented at the 27th Chaos Communication Congress (27C3) organised by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) in Berlin in December 2010. According to fail0verflow, the hack exploits a major bug in the PS3's encryption system and is not susceptible to patching by means of a firmware update.

See also:

Hacker previews custom 3.21 PS3 firmware with Linux support, a report from The H.

(crve)