PS3 Hacks: Beware of Bogus Websites

In a deliberate attempt to mislead people into updating their PS3 units to the latest official firmware (4.70), blog sites such as the “PS3 Official PS3 Jailbreak, Downgrade, PSN” exists for this reason. For the unsuspecting individuals such as the newbie I was once was, the blog may looked legit especially knowing that there are comments on the same blog claiming the method presented to work. While there may be truth to those claims, those same commentators did not explicitly stated the condition of their PS3 units when they followed the method presented. This is only considering the legitimacy of these commentators. Otherwise, they are also a part of the trickery that makes the blog site looked legit, if not just the same person who made the blog himself / herself. Add to that the fact that the moderator of the said blog himself / herself is selective on the comments he / she approves. I know, since three of my comments asking about the methodology presented on its blog are neither responded to nor were approved for posting. Sounds fishy, right? Before undergoing any installation of custom firmware on your PS3, you should consider the following for the jailbreak method to work:

• Your PS3 unit was manufactured on or before 2011 as seen in model numbers: CECH-2XXX and CECH-2XX1. This means that your unit is downgrade-able were you had it updated to an official firmware higher than 3.55.
• Your PS3’s official firmware must not be higher than 3.55, as already mentioned. Even if it does, it must belong to a downgrade-able unit such as also already mentioned.

Not meeting any or both of these conditions, YOUR PS3 UNIT IS SADLY UNHACKABLE even at the present. I am even emphasizing on the phrase twice by writing it in capitalization and in bold font. To cut the said misleading blog site some slack, I will be pointing out that the method it presented were all correct and good ONLY IF your PS3 is already jailbroken before (i.e. running on a custom firmware) or has met the criteria I had presented thereby making it eligible to be jailbroken as a result. However, this all crumbles down as early as prior to step 1 when the said blog site explicitly stated the obviously bogus statements which any person aware would know at one look: There it mentioned requiring your unit to be upgraded to 4.70 official firmware (OFW) first before following the procedure and whose methodologies does not require flashers for downgrade. While both statements make sense and are actually inter-related, both are actually lies and the complete opposite of what every PS3 owners should do as far as current and proper PS3 hacking methodologies are concerned for reasons that:

1. You cannot install a custom firmware (CFW) in a PS3 unit unless it is on or lower than OFW 3.55.
2. If your unit belongs to those models that are downgrade-able but was already updated to a firmware higher than 3.55, you will be needing any of the mentioned flashers (which are troublesome to use, by the way) in order to go back to firmware 3.55 or lower and proceed to jailbreaking the PS3 from there. The mentioned flashers (E3 Flasher, Progskeet) are as useful to this day as they were since first introduced, granted that you have a hackable PS3 unit but has not gone to the process of downgrading it.
3. NOT ALL PS3 units are hackable. Only those units who have already undergone jailbreaking are the ones able to be upgraded to a higher version of a jailbreak. Period.

I was one of those newbies who got tricked into thinking that the mentioned steps provided on the blog is correct, only to prove myself otherwise. Here is my story: “I bought myself a second-hand PS3 Slim unit whose model number is CECH-3003B which was originally bought from the United Arab Emirates and whose firmware version is already updated to 4.55. Looking at both information, any aware person would know that there is no chance for it to get jailbroken as it did not meet both needed criteria — that is actually correct. As newbie a person I was back then, I followed every word that was stated on the blog and which acted as my guide to jailbreaking a PS3, including the need to update my unit to the latest firmware possible. All things followed and onto the installation of the supposed jailbreak (custom firmware), the system rebooted but only to give me an error with its corresponding code stating that the file used is “corrupted.” I later found out that I must meet two conditions before any successful attempt of jailbreaking a PS3 could be made and whose very same statements I just mentioned here.” Luckily, my PS3 unit was not damaged in any way whatsoever as a result of the failed installation of the jailbreak of which I am quite thankful of. But having experienced it first-hand myself, I think it is my responsibility to let people know of this deliberate attempt into tricking people to upgrading their PS3 units whose potential harm may be found on the idea that:

• Not all PS3s are downgrade-able and thereby leaving the same units, once updated to OFW 4.70, to remain in official firmware, which is contrary to the purpose of jaibreaking a PS3
• Even if the unit is downgrade-able yet has already updated to the recent-most version, the downgrading methodology is too difficult for the lay man to follow and can even be very costly especially factoring in the cost of buying any of the actual flashers themselves. This is not to mention the possibility of actually ruining the physical unit by mishandling especially for the inexperienced.
• The unit might be bricked due to some random circumstances by simply following the steps as stated on the misleading blog site.

If you are so curious to which website I was referring to and wanted to see it for yourself first-hand, see the blog site yourself by clicking on this link. As far as accessing the site goes, I can vouch that it is safe. What is not, is the wrong notion about the PS3 hacking methodology or should I say, the deliberate attempt to mislead based on its context.