Could someone explain to me how PS3 games are able to be decrypted?

PS3Dec is a ISO encryptor/decryptor for PS3 disc images I found when looking for a JB folder to ISO package for Linux. I am curious how it works.

Tutorials I found online say you require a dkey and a post on PSX-Place mentions

The disk key is stored on the game disk and read by the PS3 when the game starts, without this key it is not possible to decrypt the game data. If the PS3 cannot decrypt the data correctly you will see the 80010017 error just after the game starts.

Are these keys acquired by running the game on the PS3 and somehow intercepting them?

If anyone could explain how it works or link me to a video or forum that does I'd appreciate it. All I have really been able to find are tutorials on how to do it.

Even just knowing how game ripping works with other consoles would be neat. I imagine ripping and decrypting WiiU games works in a similar way.

Sign in to add comment

From what I remember (over 10 years ago, mind), the key exists outside the normal area of the blueray disk data to prevent disk copies. Some Blueray devices can read that sector but it requires custom and undocumented scsi commands.

Not sure what exactly those scsi commands are but after you get data1 you would encrypt it with AES CBC and the ps3 secret/iv to get the binary data to decrypt the rest of the encrypted sectors with AES CBC.

https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Bluray_disc#%22Data1%22_and_%22Data2%22 https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Bluray_disc#Deriving_the_disc_key

Anyone out there, don't click on that ad-infested link.

For OP, check out this page Myrient | Content Listing. It has almost all the keys available. By the way, Myrient also hosts PS3 ISO files.

I'm not looking for the keys. I am wondering how they were obtained.

The two links I posted were for the GitHub page and PSX-Place. Both are legitimate websites. Even disabling my ad blocker I'm not seeing an excessive amount of ads so I'm not sure what you are referring to.

The only way 2 people can keep a secret is if one of them is dead.