Developer zecoxao invites us to discover BadHTAB , the implementation of the glitch in the HTAB hypervisor exploited by George Hotz , aka Geohot , on PS3 GameOS , currently in development (WIP).
This project focuses on implementing a known exploit, which takes advantage of a vulnerability in the PS3 hypervisor’s Hash Table (HTAB) management, allowing the console’s security measures to be bypassed and elevated privilege access to be gained.
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The “dangling HTAB glitch,” first discovered by XORLOSER , combines hardware intervention with software manipulation to bypass the PS3’s robust security measures, opening access to the LV1 hypervisor.
The HTAB is a critical data structure used to map virtual memory to physical memory. The glitch exploits an error in the management of this table, creating a “dangling pointer”, which remains suspended after the memory has been freed.
This error can be induced via a hardware glitch, such as a controlled short on NOR or NAND memory, and then exploited in software to gain elevated privileges.
The process requires precise timing, with the HTAB update interrupted at a specific time, leaving the hypervisor vulnerable.
A software payload can manipulate the suspended pointer, allowing operations such as “peeks” and “pokes” into LV1 memory or even hypervisor dumps.
XORLOSER then developed the XorHack toolkit to exploit this vulnerability. The toolkit included hardware instructions to execute the glitch, software code to manipulate the dangling pointer, and technical documentation on how the HTAB and the glitch worked.
XORLOSER ‘s work has inspired modern projects such as BadHTAB , a GitHub repository created by aomsin2526 . While the details of BadHTAB are not fully accessible, the project appears to contain tools or payloads inspired by the original exploit.
A concrete example of the exploit’s evolution was reported by notzecoxao , who used a Raspberry Pico to automate the hardware glitch on a PS3 running official firmware 4.84, allowing the first dump of LV1 and implementing peek and poke operations as a proof of concept.
At this time, we cannot predict whether this exploit will lead to the installation of a full custom firmware on the 3000 and 4000 models.
While PS3HEN is capable of performing many of the functions of a Custom Firmware, its main limitation remains the fact that it cannot persist after the console is turned off.
Download: Source code BadHTAB
Source: x.com