Clarifications about 3.73 (and 4.0) “jailbreak”

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Update:
I tested the jailbreak on the latest firmware 4.0 since it was released and I can confirm that it still works.

Hi all,

I’ve been flooded with questions on twitter and I’ve read many posts on news sites and  I’ve seen some stuff being said on IRC and I thought I needed to clarify a few things…

First of all, I didn’t expect to see my tweet front paged on all ps3 hacking news sites.. although I should have expected it.. but anyways, the “jailbreak” is not ready to be used, at all. I only tweeted that because I was excited having it working and I wanted to share my excitement with everyone. But this is a bit equivalent to the day I released that create_cfw.sh script that created the very first CFW/MFW but it still took a couple of months before a real, easy, multiplatform and fully fledged solution was released : PS3MFW.

We are currently at the same state, I have the proof of concept, it works, but a solution that anyone can use where they just click a button and their PS3 gets jailbroken is still far from ready.

I’ve seen people say (and even write it in their front page news) that I’ll release it in two weeks after I come back from vacation. That is not true and I never said that. What I said was that for the next 2 weeks, the project is on hold until I get back.. but when I get back, then I will continue working on it, and it will then take some more time before it’s ready and released.

Some asked if it’s based on what gitbrew was doing/suggesting or if I used someone else’s exploit or work. No, this solution is my own idea and 100% my own implementation. However, the actual solution for the full jailbreak involves some components on which I will not work, and I expect/hope that someone else will provide the solution for that.

Some speculated it might be what I spoke about back in March which I later said I wasn’t pursuing by lack of motivation.. and yes, you are right. The same hack I had in March is still valid today, I told a few people about it (rms, Mathieulh, an0nym0us, and a couple more), but no one was interested in pursuing it further and actually exploiting that flaw (mainly because it requires a huge amount of work to get a proof of concept working). 10 days ago (I started on the 11th), I got bored and decided to start poking at it again, and yesterday (a lot faster than I thought it would take), I got my first pkg installed on 3.73 firmware.

On twitter, I said “do not update if you are on 3.55”, I said that in response to someone who said he would update.  Because of that, people speculated that you need to be on 3.55 first, and then install something before doing the upgrade. No, that’s not it, that would be useless. The purpose of my solution is to jailbreak a ps3 that is already on 3.73 firmware and which had never been jailbroken before. I told people not to update because, first of all, it’s not yet ready, and second of all, the 3.55 firmware gives you a lot more possibilities than what can be achieved on 3.73.

So what is this jailbreak? I won’t say because I don’t want Sony to block it in a firmware update (and yes, they potentially could) before it’s even released (and yes, I will release it when it’s ready). But I will explain this to you : in order to run your homebrew apps, you need two things. First, to be able to install them on the ps3, and second to be able to run it once installed. I did only one of these two things.

Some may say it’s not a real jailbreak, but the way I see it, there are three ‘jails’ on the ps3, I broke the first one which prevents you from installing anything, so now you can install your .pkg, great, but it won’t run, that’s the second jail. The third jail is being able to modify the firmware (peek&poke).

The second jail (running apps) is something that can be done, but it’s not my area of expertise (npdrm algo), so I will not be working on that. I am waiting for someone else to achieve it (some have succeeded but do not wish to release it, at least not for now) then I will release.

The third jail (modifying the firmware) is not possible with my method, this means that you will  not have a “CFW”, you will run your homebrew applications and games on an official firmware. This also means that without peek&poke support, none of the backup managers will work. So, again, my solution is piracy-free, and as always, I do not plan on working on a way to enable piracy (or even legal backups).

Overall, the purpose will be to allow people who are on 3.73 firmware to enjoy the homebrew games that were released, to play a bit with Eskiss, and to use Showtime for playing their movies. This should be more than enough for everyone.

Finally, I will conclude by replying to another question I received : Do you accept donations? The answer is yes. I do accept donations but I do not seek them out. I will include a donate button to the bottom of this post, so if anyone wishes to donate, they can do so, however, I want to make it clear that whether or not you donate does not and will not affect in any way, the release, or the progress of the work I’m doing. If you donate, you would do it as a sign of appreciation of my efforts, and not in exchange of any favors or anything crazy like that.

That’s about it I think… If you have any more questions, please refrain from asking them, I get enough as it is already.. I also said everything I needed to say and I don’t want to give any more information than that (for now).

KaKaRoTo

435 thoughts on “Clarifications about 3.73 (and 4.0) “jailbreak””

  1. god job kakaroto cfwne 3.73 tak enteni bos
    sak endonesia ngenteni sampean,
    ki jek dikerjani karo trueblue seng regane nggaplek i nggo maen game 3.60 wedhus tenan

  3. Good job 🙂 I hope you persue your creation with motivation 🙂 best of luck from the irish

  4. Pingback: [Topic Ufficiale] KaKaRoTo annuncia il Jailbreak per OFW 3.73 - Pagina 11

  6. Slt Kakaroto,

    Pourquoi les firmwares inférieurs au 3.55 et 3.41 n’ont pas été jailbreak ? car ces firmwares disposait de beaucoups moins de sécurité que le 3.55 ou 3.41 et surtout disposaient encore du Other OS, ils pourrait avoir plus de potentiel qu’en pense-tu ?

    PS: je me permet de te poser la question en français car tu comprend le français 😉

  7. First of all, thanks!
    Second, i have a question: could some one make cfw out of this? I mean when you released it? Some one like kmeaw or teams like rebug? Is this possible?
    Thanks again!

  8. All my faith on you! But I have a question…When i was on CFW 3.55, i installed a Package file, that im having on FM 3.73 right now, but i cant run;error 63b87..something.Is that normal?

    Sorry my english =)

  10. Pingback: KaKaRoTo working on PS3 3.73 hack, but it’s ‘far from ready’ | MyCE – My Consumer Electronics

  11. Hello!!! karoto is the best!!!!
    good job!!!!
    go to the leader!!!
    very very thanks!!!! karoto!!

  13. Siamo tutti in attesa del tuo lavoro, siamo certi di poterci fidare della tua esperienza e se lo vuoi puoi lasciare news e rumors sul tuo jalibreack del firmware 3.73 sul forum!

    Ti stiamo aspettando!!!

  15. SALVE MEU CARO VOCE E UM GENIO SE EU FOSSE MILIONARIO SE NAO MAIS TRABALHAVA MAIS SOU BRASLEIRO E AQI TA OSSO ESPERO QUE VOCE TERMINE SEU TRABALHO E ALIAS NO MEU 13 SALARIA VOU FAZER DOAÇAO SIM VOCE MERECE SAUDE E PAZ

  16. maybe you upload you work in public
    ps3 because of you and other hackers stupid peace of shit
    maNY promises and no result thisis face current scene
    on
    wii-all right
    xbox360-all right
    on failps3-many drama and shit
    kakaroto-you don n have noting because you liar like other hackers
    for ps3 scene nedd for succes
    1)OPEN FULL
    2)NO PROMISES ONLY RSULT
    3)PROFIT
    WITHOUT THIS SCENE PS3 IS DEAD

    • Okay dude seriously you’ve got it all wrong. xbox is shit. Okay i take that back, i admit that it has better online play and better players but that’s becasue you have to pay for it. Why the fuck would i pay for something i can get for free with ps3? It doesn’t even have an internet browser, let alone the ability to download things like music straight to the console. I mean i realise it’s not that hard to put it onto a flashdrive and transfer it that way but it’s still kind of inconveinent. Plus it’s ONE GIANT PAIN IN THE ASS TO HACK IN THE FIRST PLACE. In other words XBOX = SHIIIIT. The Wii is shit, always has been, and always be. I realise it’s actually kind of fun to play and its good for entertaining little children especially in a family setting but seriously… If i wanted to go fucking bowling or box someone I WOULD GO AND DO IT. Any other comments? Oh and one last thing, TROLOLOLOLOLOLOL

  18. hello to you, I’m a bit new to the area but I think you already mache work. I told you so thank you for this achievement. But I have a question on another subject for you tell me what to do if you’ll be facing a blue sreen of the dead in my ps3. Responds directly to me via private message if you have a reponce. Cordially thank you in advance

  19. Oh… showtimeit`s so nice.. Who needs this sheet on PS3 ?Buy dendy and playyour 8bit games..No one needs such jailbrake! People wants to play new games as like other scenes. Public your work and any others could make a CFW

  20. Could you be a little more fast if im not asking to much i would like to play the new games on the new year plzzzzz

  22. good work, thanks for clearing up the speculation, good to finally see a ps3 dev doing something

  23. Slt KaKaroto Pourais tu m’expliquer meme en anglais si grace au jailbreak que tu est peut etre sur le point de sortir dan moin dans quelque tans si on poura telecharger des jeux via son ordinateur comme sur megaupload par exemple est les instaler puis les lire sur ps3 merci de me repondre des que tu as le temps car je serais tree interesser de jouer a des jeux que je norais jamis comme par exemple “call of duty mw3,uncharted 3,infamous2,street fighter 4,need for speed the run”

  24. So, what about downgrades to earlier FW? Will that be possible on the JB once it’s ready? Keep doing what you’re doing, don’t rush, and keep us posted! 🙂 Thank you for this awesome news!

      • Imma keep it 100 with ya……nice work as usual but restricting your exploit to avoid piracy is flat out ***** dumb…….game companies selling wack *** games at high prices, gamespot rippin us off trade in is a joke, sony taking our *** and **** it up with updates removing **** and microsoft what a joke they restict you to the point you dont feel like you own your ****. I say **** them just like the music cds 10 yrs ago 20 bucks a cd for 8 tracks lol see what piracy did had them drop them **** prices…..my point is….not everyone bootlegs so dont restrict your exploit putting limitations on your work an accepting donations that you dont ask for lol if we cant put limitations onhow you spend….anyways good work…and p.s. imma *** I do *** in the dark im just tired of reading **** **** comments like matheliu however u spell the **** ….the only reason i commented dawg were not all lil **** nerdy kids lmao….good **** oh by the way i have an xbox360 with xkey so that just goes to show i wanted to make a point about this jailbreak ******

  26. Thanks Kakaroto, Really you will not works about SWF until March? We must wait then… Thanks for Answer anyway

  27. Gracias KaKaRoTo por tu esfuerzo, ojala algun dia cercano pueda tener instalado Linux en mi consola 3.73 Que Dios te bendiga por este esfuerzo

    GOD BLESS!

  29. First of all, congratulations on your achievement! Anyone would be excited with an achievement of this level. But, it seems that people are getting over their heads and their excitement makes them interpret things wrongly and has lead to a lot of confusion. Must’ve been frustrating for you. Heck, even when you stated that you’re not gonna answer any questions at this point, people still pester you here and there; everywhere.

    But dude, I gotta say, above all, I really respect your enthusiasm. Even when people flame, discriminate, insult and push you aside (despite your achievements; how strange indeed) , you still strive to do what you love most. It’s not easy to swallow all that hate people are spewing out and still continue doing what you like.

    I’m not good and putting words together, but I just wanna say you did a great job.

    • Thanks for this comment, well said!
      Yes, I think people are overexcited, and the amount of things I hear which are not true and I never said, is staggering, but I prefer not to correct me otherwise it will never end.
      It was frustrating at first but I’ve learned to ignore all those who cannot read. I learned that no matter how much I tell people not to do/say/ask something, those who do it are the one who never would have read my message in the first place :p
      Thanks again 🙂

  30. Ei, blz? Vc é brasileiro? Eu gostaria de agradecer todo seu esforço e parabéns!
    Vc não tem medo de ser pego através das doações? Tem como eu doar sem dar o número do cartão de crédito?
    Forte abraço e bom trabalho!

    • Αυτό το μάμποοοοο το μπραζιλέροοοο μου δίνει κέφιιιιι μου δίνει στυλ… ΠΑΠΑΠΑ.

  31. Hey KaKaRoTo, I am a computer programmer and I’m looking for someone to kind of teach me how to unlock the first jail. Your expertise

  32. Can’t wait for the 3.73 Jailbreak. It’ll be nice if it’ll allow us to run emulators as well as homebrew.

  34. ok so you got a long way jailbreak ready nice…but like you say … most people want 1 button JB’s… well i’m not one of those…… i’m getting sick and tired of these JB announcements saying it’s finished and then wait months because it all needs to be a pretty gui with flashy animations…where are the days you had to load a .bat followed by a couple of extra scripts and even had to hex edit files before your able to actually do stuff… real people who want their PS3 Jailbroken for homebrew etc don’t mind doing things the long way..just following a tutorial always succeeds

    • First of all, I decide what I want to release, I may even want to not release it, and it would be my choice. I want to wait until it’s actually working correctly and that’s what I’ll do. And nobody said anything about “pretty GUI” or “flashy animations”. It might still be a command line tool, but one command rather than spending 2 hours to get the jailbreak working.
      Secondly, if it’s not simple to use, then most people won’t use it and will wait for a simple to use app, but by that time, the next firmware will be released which blocks out my method. So you lose.
      Finally, If you’re “sick and tired” of this, and you consider yourself one of these “real people” you talk about, ten let me tell you something :
      real people jailbreak their own devices, they don’t wait for somebody else to give them the solution.

  36. Pingback: Pronto estara el Jailbreak para FW 3.73 (por KaKaRoTo)

  37. Great work kakaroto, I hope you are enjoying yourself in Chile (my country :P). Keep up the good work and good luck!

  39. Will “blackb0x FTP” and “Install Package Files” be in the jailbreak when this gets released, also, even if Sony did release an update, isn’t it possible to simply bypass it?

  40. Its been inspiring to see your work. I hope people learn and try their hands on the things to know how hard it is to come up with something like this.

    Besides i would like to say , if u release your work try to take some charge for your work because people are just wanting it all free , may be tasking money would make them realise how much work and efforts are required for something like this

    • The idea of jailbreak was for it to be free software like it has always been as he said he dose not mind people donating to him but dose not go out and actually ask for it

      Also i thinks its great that this is hapining im getting board of my nintendo wii lol and anyways on the nintendo wii you can install ios’es that allows you to do stuff cant that be posible for the ps3 for it to be able to do more??

      also Thanks for sharing your work over the years ^^

  41. KaKaRoTo is 100% bullshit. *** on guys, do u *********************************************
    *********************************************************************************************
    *********************************************************************************************
    ************************************************************************, while i enjoyin a brik free 3.55 Costume firmware PS3, deranking, pwning, and killin ppl in cod, u guys will be sheddin teers down ur face ****************************************

    Edit:
    also if this was sooooooooo real thn weres tha proof, u see proof? i dont see proof, *************

    • If you don’t believe it why SEARCH up this site, I mean this site doesn’t just magically appear does it? Moreover if you don’t like hacking why either A. Search for JB news or B. Look on KaKaRoTo’s Twitter Page? Because the first word that comes to mind is Troll *Cough*

  42. First thanks for your hard work, I agree with not running back ups but what about a file manager

  47. First of all, I’d like to thank you for everything that you have accomplished so far. I’m gonna give you an idea of what happens here in Brazil (yes, I’m brazilian): A single PS3 game costs about US$ 110.00 (R$ 200.00), and I presume that 90% of the people that own a PS3 don’t have money to buy a game per month (which would be a normal rate). So what all you guys are doing is give the chance of us, normal people that makes less than US$ 300.00 of minimum wage, have a taste (a taste, because one cannot really enjoy 100% of what a game offers, because of the online blocking) of what PS3 can offer. I just say this for you: take your time. We (normal and polite people, who respect you) can wait, we have patience, unlike some crazy rude dudes, who complains of you don’t hurring up. YOU DON’T OWE US NOTHING. All we can do is thank you for everything that you’ve done. Chill out, take your time, and finish the jailbreak when you can. You don’t need to hurry up. That’s all I ask for. I’m going to make some effort and gather some money to donate to you, because you REALLY deserve it. That’s all I’ve got for you.

    (Sorry for the bad English, it’s my second language.)

    Keep up the good work.

    Truly yours

    Aleson B. Araújo – Brasília, Brazil

    • Same in here, i am from Bogota, Colombia (yes the land of the drug cartels and everything, although is different now.) average salary here is 250 dllrs. sadly, i am an average person here, a family guy but an absolute ps3 fan (btw they have not include our countries in PSN (NOT PSN for Colombia.Ecuador,Peru ETC GRhhh!), yes is not someone else fault that i have no money but i mean, if you buy a device, if you own it, that`s it, you OWN IT and you have the right to do with it whatever you want, i have fight hard to buy my console and i would like to install on it Linux with the distros already out there, but there is no option, we have no access to the PSN discounts, demos etc… for guys like me with a little English is kind of easy to create another profile but believe me there is ppl here with CERO idea of English, and they simply does not have access to nothing. You are the Justice, you are “El Libertador Digital” go ahead conquer, give them a slap in the face in our name, the deserve it.

  49. I have a questions well 2. Can you add me on facebook? My name is Stewie Walter Kuchinski. 2nd question is if u get it working can you release it i was reading the 1’s up there^^^. I think you should make it that it allows only homebrew games and able to mod games like file managers i hope u dont get mad from this post! I’ll be donating soon!

  50. You told us to refrain from asking questions…. Seems I can’t hold back though.
    Anyways… I haven’t bought a PS3 yet, I have the money and am deciding whether to buy one with firmware v3.55 or just purchase the new 160GB consoles that come with newer versions (although they’re new models CHECH-3XX… Don’t know if that’s a factor).
    Let’s say KaKaRoTo releases his firmware 3.73 ’cause you’re a badass (of course), would I be able to run your version via the new models (Slim, CHECH-3XX…) that Sony’s manufacturing as of 11/28/11?
    It would help if you could provide info. about what model you’re using for your tests or your goals since it would be useless for it to work only on consoles running on firmware 3.55 as you said.

    • Sorry, I can’t give any answer until it’s released, there’s no urgency I guess, once it’s released, you will know what to do, and then you can buy the PS3. But like I said in the article, this will work if you’re already on 3.73, you don’t need to be on 3.55 for it to work.

      • No problem. Thanks for answering though 🙂
        Good luck on this and future projects of yours.

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