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Playstation 3 Turned Into "Crackstation" for Super Hacking Goodness
Posted by Matt Buchanan at 12:20 PM on November 29, 2007
Forget Folding@home and its feel-good applications. There are cooler things to be done, like cryptography cracking. Taking advantage of the Cell's vector architecture, a security consultant with Security-assessment.com has cooked up a way to to bust passwords open like bad Easter eggs really, really fast. His Crackstation shoves past "the current upper limit of 10-15 million cycles per second—in Intel-based architecture—up to 1.4 billion cycles per second." To put that in non-geek, "Intel processors are designed to do all kinds of complex calculations, whereas the PS3 is good at doing simple things very quickly." The work apparently stands to change the whole cryptography industry.
For one, it shows that using Intel processors or ones with similar architecture as benchmarks "just is not good enough anymore." Cracking cryptographer will probably get faster all around as well, which should ultimately drive stronger cryptography with better implementation. Though they haven't tried it yet, by using a technique similar to Folding@home with distributed loads, the cracking power could obviously be increased exponentially.
All of that said, I just think it's funny how it's emphasised over and over again how "simple" Cell's architecture is, after Sony's spent all this time telling us how complex and awesome it is. [PC World]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
sdfasdfasdf
Posted December 15, 2007 6:02 AM
"the cracking power could obviously be increased exponentially." Incorrect, if parallel processing were used the cracking power would be increased linearly with the number of processor nodes.
VakeroRokero
Posted 10:22 PM 28/11/07
the Ps3 is a complex calculator, it gets a ton of help from the extra hardware. It's just different kind of processor, very powerful for regular stuff. Imagine a 4x4 Jeep (regular processors) vs a nitro Drag Racer (Cell Processor).
VakeroRokero
vr4z06gt
Posted 10:11 PM 28/11/07
@vr4z06gt: im gonna go with no, even with 100,000 PS3's running at 1.4billion operations per second it would still take 2.82x10^36 years to crack an xbox 2048 bit key with a brute force attack, assuming that the last one tried was the correct code.
vr4z06gt
myxylplyx
Posted 10:05 PM 28/11/07
@yoshi:
Yep.
myxylplyx
yoshi
Posted 9:53 PM 28/11/07
Is it possible to run Windows on a PS3 or just Linux?
TIA!
yoshi
Messer
Posted 9:52 PM 28/11/07
I'm going to take a couple PS3s, go back in time, and win that damn RC-64 competition! YEAH!!
Messer
mpercy
Posted 9:43 PM 28/11/07
Maybe one day it will even play video games!
mpercy
dna
Posted 9:20 PM 28/11/07
PS3 PWNS U NOOBS!
dna
vr4z06gt
Posted 9:18 PM 28/11/07
sooooo does this mean that that PS3 can crack the digital encryption for the PS2, XBOX1, XBOX360 and maybe even it self.....???
vr4z06gt
matt buchanan
Posted 9:10 PM 28/11/07
@krasnoderevshik: FTA: "The simplistic design of the processor architecture also helped increase the speed, he says."
matt buchanan
krasnoderevshik
Posted 9:03 PM 28/11/07
They didn't say the architeture is simple. It's complex architecture that does simple calculations very very quickly.
P.S. close all your credit cards quick.
krasnoderevshik
mainlinx
Posted 8:57 PM 28/11/07
Does this mean their making the Da Vinci Code for the PS3?
P.S. Too bad it cant blend.
mainlinx
VakeroRokero
Posted 8:56 PM 28/11/07
free porn passes! Thanks Playstation 3!
VakeroRokero
illiniguy
Posted 11:34 PM 28/11/07
@yoshi: But... why?
illiniguy
superd65
Posted 11:31 PM 28/11/07
If it's so fast then how come it takes me 30 minutes to download and install the 3 song Metallica pack for Rock Band?
superd65
stickystyle
Posted 10:54 PM 28/11/07
@VAKEROROKERO
I think you are going in the right place with that analogy, but need to expand upon it a little more...
The 4x4 (normal procs) can do jeep can do lots of things okay, go to the store, pick up the kids, go rock crawling. General computing stuff.
While the drag car (cell proc) can do one thing really well, go straight fast. Crunching big numbers.
stickystyle
ssjmichael
Posted 12:44 AM 29/11/07
@superd65:
Your connection sucks?
ssjmichael
x23
Posted 1:19 AM 29/11/07
@myxylplyx: which Windows runs on a PS3? it would have to be either 1) that funky PPC NT from ages ago. 2) Windows running in emulation under Linux... which if my memories of Windows running under emulation on a PPC-based processors is still fresh... was retarded slow and crappy... bordering on being completely useless.
x23
bobdobbs
Posted 1:15 AM 29/11/07
Wow, RISC vs. CISC? It's 1983 all over again.
bobdobbs
VakeroRokero
Posted 3:43 AM 29/11/07
@stickystyle: you got it. sometehing like that...
VakeroRokero
Jasoncscs
Posted 5:48 AM 29/11/07
@Stickystyle Great job on the analogy expansion pack. 'Cause I was totally confused about the whole jeep v car business. What you said makes it clear. Thanks!
Jasoncscs
tdjohan
Posted 5:45 AM 29/11/07
@bobdobbs: So right, déjà vu? or déjà lu?
tdjohan
MACPollo
Posted 6:15 AM 29/11/07
@bobdobbs: You are very right. That is probably the first thing one learns in any computer architecture subject.
MACPollo
JRo
Posted 8:34 AM 29/11/07
Just make sure your firewall has an anti-hammering feature. PS3 might be able to figure out your password, but not in 3 tries. This only changes the landscape for folks with lax security.
JRo
yoshi
Posted 8:04 AM 29/11/07
@illiniguy:
Just curious. PS3 seems like a n excellent PC canidate and relatively cheap for what you get.
I thought it would be cool to run Windows or Linux and use it as a PC.
I dunno. :)
yoshi
xaflatoonx
Posted 9:39 AM 29/11/07
just come out with the Modchip already ....
I wanna buy a PS3 with a mod so i can download and burn blue ray games on a blue ray disc with a blue ray writer... lol
Its been a year....
the 360 chips were out within a year...
xaflatoonx
Jeff the Riffer
Posted 10:24 AM 29/11/07
@JRO: You have know idea what you are talking about. But keep talking, it's amusing. :)
I believe the statement that the PS3's CPU has a simple design is in comparing it to processors explicitly built for cryptographic functionality. And in fact even compared to the Intel architecture it is simpler. Have you seen the Intel arch recently? It's a fucking mess!
Similar advances in cryptographic processing are being made with offloading to GPU's. Turns out the sort of math used for 3D graphics rendering works well for crypto as well...
Jeff the Riffer
inajeep
Posted 10:11 AM 29/11/07
@VakeroRokero: I appreciate the Jeep comment but would like to add that this jeep is the Unlimited model (4 instead of 2 doors), has myGig DVD player as an option and can be reconfigured w/ no top and no doors in the summer. Plus it is extra fun to drive.
inajeep
TheFaze
Posted 12:33 PM 29/11/07
I find it funny that no matter what info is released that puts the PS3 in a better light, Giz and their biased "editors" find a way to bash Sony.
Sad and pathetic.
TheFaze
dragonphyre
Posted 12:33 PM 29/11/07
@yoshi: Umm... wrong. Your $600 bucks will be better spent at newegg buying parts and putting it together yourself.
dragonphyre
Munch
Posted 1:12 PM 29/11/07
I know that I read an article about some special import/export clearance need for PS3's around the time they came out (I want to say it was on Gizmodo, and I have no idea what came of it, and I don't remember which country it was... somewhere in Asia maybe?). I think it had to do with the PS3's mapping abilities and potential to be used as missile navigation system, or something similar. I wish my memory wasn't so crappy. Anyone else remember reading anything like that, or was I just using my tea-stirring stick for unintended purposes again?
Munch
deadatbirth
Posted 3:21 PM 29/11/07
maybe it can crack the CIA's long standing crypto cypher on display in their courtyard
deadatbirth