Thread: Mr_White's PS3 fun

none of this is real "hacking", but it was fun and it's certainly something most people cant do themselves.

so a few weeks ago I was looking online and found the passwords to the demonstration PS3s you see set up in stores. you know, this thing. by default, all demo units with the same firmware version have the same password (eg. all FW2.1x demo PS3s have the same password by default). so I copied the list of passwords, along with instructions, to a .txt file and put it on my mp4 player (it has an ebook reader). last saturday I went out of town "shopping" with my parents. I live in California, USA, and everything I did happened in Visalia. so if you live in that area, you may still be able to see what I did.

the first place we went to was Best Buy. after looking around a little, I went to the PS3 they had set up. I exited the game (virtua fighter or something) and went to the XMB. I was really nervous about it. I mean, if somebody saw me doing this, I could be kicked out of the store or banned or had the cops called on me for vandalism or something. how should I know? so at first I looked around a bit, taking time to see the pictures stored on the hard drive, pretending to just be looking at the PS3. I looked around and made sure there werent any employees around, then I pulled out my mp4 player and followed the instructions I had saved. I went to the Settings > Security Settings icon and hit the special button combo to unlock the PS3 (Select+Square+L2 +R2). I was very disappointed when nothing happened. after trying it over a few times, I just gave up.

after a little bit longer at Best Buy looking at tvs, we went to Circuit City. after looking at memory cards, I found my way to their demo PS3. I played around a bit, again looking at the pictures and game trailers stored on the hdd. this time though, I was more nervous than last time. the way the demo was set up I had my back to the isle, so I couldnt see if there was somebody behind me, and there was a register about 8 feet to the front, left of me. there were 2 guys there buying GT 5 talking to the cashier about Metal Gear 4. luckily they were all distracted, so this gave me enough time to do what I needed to. btw, it was saturday night on prom night, so most of the stores I went to were pretty empty. anyway, I went over to the settings menu again and pushed the button combo. nothing happened. I tried again and still nothing. so then I started trying different combos. the one that finally worked was Select+Square+L1+R1. (I wish I would have tried that one at Best Buy.) if you dont believe me, go try for yourself.
I was in! I looked around a bit and noticed some differences in the setting menu. there wan an Install Package File icon at the bottom of the settings. I clicked on it and it said there were no packages to install. I ignored that and went to the updater icon and tried to make an internet connection. nothing was detected. so then I started looking through the rest of the settings, seeing what I could find. I created a user account with the name Mr_White (a screen name I commonly use) so they would know who did it. then I changed the system language to Japanese and locked the PS3 again and left it to be found. I then walked over to the PSP and did the same thing. the whole time the cashier was just a few feet from me. I met up with my parents again. we then bought a game from the same cashier, then left.

the next place we went to was Target. I had no other interest in going in there other than to mess with their PS3. so I didnt even look around, I just went straight for the games section. this time there were more people in there. right behind me there was a cashier station with 4 registers there. there were two employees just a few feet behind me. I was nervous, but I never thought of backing out. again I looked through the pics and vids, constantly checking behind me. after a few minutes, all the customers pretty much cleared out, leaving just the two employees behind me. they started talking to each other, and were pretty distracted. I unlocked the PS3 and started changing things. at Circuit City, I didnt want to cause any damage. it would have been wrong of me. I just wanted to show them I was able to unlock it and change things. in Target though, my bad side got a hold of me. this time I changed the language to Swedish, just to screw with them. then I changed the parental level from 9 (thats what they had it at) to 1. for those who dont know what that means, all games for PSP and PS3 have a parental level. the "worse" the game (T, M, AO) the higher the level. by doing that, I pretty much locked out all games from being able to play. even most puzzle games have a parental level higher than 1. I also created a user account for Mr_White like last time. I didnt stop there though. I feel bad about this one..
next I changed the system password. so not only was the PS3 in total disarray, but they would be unable to change the parental level back. I was not able to lock the PS3 again though. I dont know why. so I just left the PS3 unlocked, in Swedish, with all the games locked. I also locked out all games on the PSP setup and changed the password. I feel bad about it, but not too bad. they can always send the PS3 back or something and get it fixed, or get a new one.

I guess Target got lucky that I wasnt able to lock the PS3 again. with it unlocked, they can change the language back to english. if I was able to lock it again though, they would be screwed. they would be completely unable to do anything with it. I think that if they just update their model, it should change the password to whatever password the new firmware version has. since I left it unlocked, they should be able to do this. if I had locked it though, they would have no chance.

well, I hope you guys liked my story. I will not post the passwords for the PS3s. what I did was bad enough. I dont want to fill your heads with ideas then send you running with scissors. if you're really dedicated though, I'm sure you'd be able to find the passwords online like I did.

I dont get it you changed a few settings and created an new account? how is that fun? maybe my sense of humour is getting drier