Antivirus Software for Playstation 3

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Vertigo Acid

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Yes, you read that correctly. Trend Micro has released what is believed to be the first anti-virus for a console. Given the large number of people using their consoles to browse the web, this may actually prove to be a good idea, even though there has yet to be an outbreak. Trend Micro will be giving away the software until Spring 08. Also included are parental controls to filter web content, which I suspect will be a much stronger selling point in the future.

The company says video game players are increasingly vulnerable to Web attacks as they use their consoles for more than just gaming. It vows the new software will make PS3 users feel safer browsing the Internet.
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Well, if your dumb enough to browse questionable sites on your PS3, you might be dumb enough to get a virus on it.

Whats next, Ad-Aware PS3 edition?
 
Dumb enough?

Browsing porn sites on big HDTV's is the smartest thing I've ever heard of in my life.
 
Truthfully, I'm surprised that antivirus/antispyware/security software (for all consoles, not just the PS3) haven't been released sooner.

But wait, it's not really antivirus software, is it?

[Trend Micro] has launched software for Sony's Playstation 3 that promises to block malicious Web pages and those dealing in sex, drugs and violence.

The company bills the software as the first of its kind for a home gaming system. It was released earlier this month as part of a PS3 upgrade and will be free until April.
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OK, how much is this going to cost us come April?
 
This kind of reminds me of the pharmaceutical industry.

A company has a drug, so it invents a disease for it to treat :p
 
Nah, I just stream my HD porn from my computer to my HDTV through 360 :)

Epic wanks ftw
 
Soon your "console" will be crashing; getting virii, spyware, and adware; require upgrades to play the latest games; and cost a small fortune. Such is the price for a multifunction machine. Personally, keep the gaming system and everything else separate. The more complicated something is, the more likely it is to break.
 
Wow can they make people feel any less secure just for using their console. I would like to see someone prove to me or show actual proof that a console could even get a virus.
 
firebane said:
Wow can they make people feel any less secure just for using their console. I would like to see someone prove to me or show actual proof that a console could even get a virus.
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I don't really see why it couldn't.
 
And this is why I'm glad that MS Xbox Live has a more closed network, unless someone can show me a way of infecting my 360 with malware via streaming media. When does it become reasonable that you have to install antivirus software on a console?!
 
Well, this is like a challenge to all the hackers now, "hey we got an antivirus software for teh PS3", so now everyone will start making them...
 
Can a console get a virus? Questionable. After all a PC is made to run whatever you want, but a console is designed to expressly lock you out from running whatever you want. (not really to protect you from viruses, but to keep you from running unauthorized programs). Under the Xbox 360 it's called the hypervisor I believe, not sure what term Sony uses to describe their prevention of unauthorized code from running. Even if somebody finds a flaw because of softmods the console manufacturers have already come up with plenty of ways of trying to force you to update to fix security holes.
 
not a bad idea really. I think the PS3 is more open than say the X360 even if it does have blocking measures in place.

Interesting
 
pigwalk said:
Dumb enough?

Browsing porn sites on big HDTV's is the smartest thing I've ever heard of in my life.
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Ha nice

firebane said:
Wow can they make people feel any less secure just for using their console. I would like to see someone prove to me or show actual proof that a console could even get a virus.
Click to expand...

Could they get a virus? Sure. Hell you have some cell phone virus in the open.

Also look how people are hacking the iphone to get it to run unsigned code. Same tricks have been used on consoles in the past. Most of the time it was to run pirate or homebrew software. No reason they couldn't make it do other things.
 
*cough*

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/power/library/pa-linuxps3-1/?ca=dgr-lnxw55Linux-and-PlayStation3

http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/linux-kernel/2007/10/19/348677

http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/linux-kernel/2007/9/10/192347

If you don't get the point, the PS3 uses a Sony / IBM developed stripped out Linux kernel with it's customized desktop, in the same manner as the Playstation2. Granted, the drive does not use a standard formatting as the drive shows Unallocated in Gparted, and unmountable in Kdiskfree, so there isn't a direct way to show that the PS3 OS uses separate /home and /root accounts, or if everything runs as root. I'm inclined to think that the system runs in a /user mode and an SU script runs whenever you need to check off changes to the underlying OS or accept a system upgrade. However, that is the smart way to do it, and Sony hasn't exactly been smart recently.

Sony also went on record about a year ago that there would be an LDK for the PS3 just as there was for the PS2, and that the same restrictions would again apply. Most of the tools used in the retail dev kit, but some of the documentation would not be included, and there would be no development support from Sony.

So, what does this have to do with Trendnet's AV? Well, if anybody can name the last time that a Linux virus for x86 successfully went into the wild and took down even 10 Linux computers...

Oh wait. There hasn't been. It's a nice PR move for the casual buyer, thinking that their Internet Browser enabled console is protected from malicious attack... and there is legitimate concern for the browser in use on the Playstation3. A quick check on the Acid 2 test and the PS3 browser certainly isn't using a FireFox code base, and as it fails horribly, we know it isn't using Opera. It's not using IE code either, the faults are different from both IE6 and IE7 codebases... and besides, Sony hasn't licensed any Microsoft technology for their console. So, that indicates that their browser is possibly inbuilt and proprietary like IE... and like IE, that does mean it could be (and is since it fails Acid2 so horribly) open to attacks.

Whether or not those attacks can actually do anything to the PS3 itself? Is highly unlikely.
 
bleh... no edit button and I typed TrendNet instead of TrendMicro. One makes horrible network controllers, the other makes software.
 
Considering the PS3 could make up a nice sized botnet, I don't see any reason why a virus would not be written for it. The simple fact of the matter is that a virus can be written for just about anything if someone decides to take the time to do it.

Get a decent sized install base for the PS3 (something on the order of the PS2 install base) and it definitely becomes worth the time and effort to write a virus or something else malicious for it.

Just remember, if you can write an antivirus program for something, viruses can also be written on it.

 
This doesn't make much sense to me.

It seems to me that the virus would have to be specialized for whatever weird OS(I don't know much about PS3s) the PS3 runs.

Hence all the tradition spyware wouldn't do you any harm.

Also...can't you run a PS3 without the harddrive on?
 
I'm kind of mixed about this. I console as oppsoed to a full computer is a closed system, I have no access to it besides what games I put into it and what I can browse through with it. Otherwise I'm locked out, if I were to use to go to a page where I could augment the system to do what I like, legal or illegal I'd bet it would be "fixed" by the company on the next forced update or even on the next connection to the online service.

Because its closed I expect the same thing to be done with viruses, if it is attackable I want them to fix it too, I don't want to have to pay to have a system cleaned that I can't clean myself.
 
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