PS3 Came across an OFW PS3 with CFW leftovers on the HDD for 9 years - not banned!

[Gabriel2Silva]

My cousin has a PS3 he got for Christmas in 2011. His family never had money for a PS4 so he's still using his PS3 on a daily basis since that day.

Today, after constant complains by my cousin of "overheating messages" and super loud fan noise, I've decided to do a complete overhaul on that console: cleaned it, repasted it and, of course, installed a CFW. Rebug 4.82.2 (he was on 4.82 because of HAN). On the first boot-up with CFW we could finally see his temperatures: 82ºC idle at the XMB! After all the cleaning now he's sitting at 61ºC max with 50% fan speed.

But as I was messing around with FTP I found something interesting: "GAMES" and "GAMEZ" folders on the dev_hdd0 partition. It even had some games inside, like Red Dead Redemption. I asked him and he told me he "used Multiman" in the past when he first got his console, somewhere between 2011 and 2013, but then he updated his console for OFW in order to play online. These files were long forgotten inside his HDD for almost a decade!

But here's the surprising thing here: he loves Call of Duty games, especially Black Ops II. He played this daily for more than 3 or 4 years. We played both GTA IV and GTA V together and if there was a timer on PSN we probably would've clocked more than 1.5k hours on both games. All of this on OFW, of course.

As far as I know, word out there is that these games check for CFW files on the HDD, doesn't them? Then how in the world is he still unbanned? He literally had the GAMES folder (with games inside!) on his dev_hdd0 for ALMOST A DECADE while playing COD BO2 like a psycho!

I don't know, I just wanted to share the word about that 'cause this really got me thinking. Does these games REALLY check for the "GAMES" folder and other folders that belong on the CFW file structure? Or is he EXTREMELY lucky? This is pretty crazy for me, honestly. This makes me think that the ban process made by games like BO2/GTA V is different than what people and devs really think it is.

Btw, my cousin is now playing online on his newly upgraded CFW (with PSNPatch and all the safety measures, of course!) and I find it ironic to see he's scared of getting banned right now, hahah.

 

[Cypher_CG89]

The games servers, like GTA and BO, check for people modding the games, if your playing retail games the normal way without modding then you have less chance of being flagged by the servers and as these games are mounted using the retail pathway for games, unlikely to be flagged as well. The PSN severs can detect CFW by the syscals but no one really knows what other methods are used.

I have been playing BO2 for at least 5 years on CFW, modding the crap out it as well in private online matches, as well as thrashing people in public matches, Modding other games as well, and playing other game online and am still not banned on any of my CFW PS3's, nor have any of my PSN accounts and I have about three of them.

The bottom line is that OFW has been used for the bulk of the time so the PS3 would not get flagged for this, and the game's have been play the normal way for the bulk of the time so again less chance of being flagged and the console being remotely checked, if that can even be done by checking the data being set back and forth between the PSN servers, host severs and the PS3.

 

[Gabriel2Silva]

The games servers, like GTA and BO, check for people modding the games, if your playing retail games the normal way without modding then you have less chance of being flagged by the servers and as these games are mounted using the retail pathway for games, unlikely to be flagged as well. The PSN severs can detect CFW by the syscals but no one really knows what other methods are used.

I have been playing BO2 for at least 5 years on CFW, modding the crap out it as well in private online matches, as well as thrashing people in public matches, Modding other games as well, and playing other game online and am still not banned on any of my CFW PS3's, nor have any of my PSN accounts and I have about three of them.

The bottom line is that OFW has been used for the bulk of the time so the PS3 would not get flagged for this, and the game's have been play the normal way for the bulk of the time so again less chance of being flagged and the console being remotely checked, if that can even be done by checking the data being set back and forth between the PSN servers, host severs and the PS3.

That's what I was thinking too. Maybe because the game was mounted the legit way (through a Blu-Ray disc inserted into the BDD), he was avoiding the CFW check. Or maybe other reasons like having a OFW installed or idk. But it's good to know he's not the only one to play BO2 with mods inside of the PS3 and still being unbanned.

Also, I'm really impressed by the fact you never got banned. By your description, you should be top 1 priority on the ban mechanism (if there is one). What is your methodology on going online? PSNPatch and all that stuff?

 

[psykosis]

Most of it is not pissing off the other people. If you are using this or that, don't make it apparent. Don't be rude, or a dumbass. Be respectful and I've even ran cheats online and told the people I was running them to test and would not use them against any of them. They gave me a corner to test in and let me do my business. The more attention you bring to yourself, the more of a chance you will get banned. You can dance with the devil for only so long before he sidesteps you and you get burned.

The only way to truly not get banned is to not play online or to only play online with ofw and retail discs. As you add cfw it adds a layer of risk, on top of that, when you add any homebrew, its another layer of risk, then modded menus or eboots are another layer, and debugging memory like ccapi and tmapi are another possible layer of risk, not to mention firmware versions, game history and other things. The least amount of things you have different from a regular person with a retail disc in the disc drive of an ofw console, the safer you are.

 

[Cypher_CG89]

That's what I was thinking too. Maybe because the game was mounted the legit way (through a Blu-Ray disc inserted into the BDD), he was avoiding the CFW check. Or maybe other reasons like having a OFW installed or idk. But it's good to know he's not the only one to play BO2 with mods inside of the PS3 and still being unbanned.

Also, I'm really impressed by the fact you never got banned. By your description, you should be top 1 priority on the ban mechanism (if there is one). What is your methodology on going online? PSNPatch and all that stuff?

I don't mod in public matches, that's just not right on other people and not fair. But when it come to hosting Private custom matches then I mod the crap out of the game, and let other use the mods with co-host so its fair, can get upto crazy stuff from alternate game types to the standard, I used RTM Tools , BO2 GSC Injector and all sorts.

Plus one of the other big no no's on CFW is use DEX online, which I also have been doing for 5 years + as I don't ever use CEX ever. REBUG CFW.

Methods - PSN Patch, CCAPI to use the PSID and IDPS from one of my other PS3's I don't use online anymore so if I do get a ban it will be an account I don't care about and the PS3 i don't use online and not the one am using,. Just delete the PSID and IDPS thats being used, make a new account and it back online in less than 30mins. Plus I use an anti ban eboot and thats about it for methods. Oh and enabled patched the eboot to block my IP while online and anti-freeze as the amount of people who think its funny to crash you ps3 for beating them is unreal. they call you a cheater then prove they are the one by doing this, just show how crap they are if i can thrash them without mods and they are using them and get beat lol. plus an anti-modder tool, no mods will work on me, not red box or anything.

So I really should be banned in all honesty, some people have been banned for less.

Most of it is not pissing off the other people.

I piss people off all the time, especially the one that think they are better than everyone else. You should see my inbox..... modder this and cheater that..... just because i thrashed them with out mods.... one who calls me cheater a least once a match said that I had no IP??? how the hell does he know if am blocking my IP if he's not using mods? the hypocrite and he sits in a corner camping with a target finder??

 

[STLcardsWS]

They do not scan HDD... (or if they do they do not use any of it to ban you, but i am going to say they do not.)

I did stress test on the XMB and had 100's of custom installation folder with unique IDs.

I never been banned on that console and i was always connecting from CFW. so this post does not surprises me a bit and is another example to confirm my own theories that HDD is never scanned and the "Stealthing" of apps hidden under an official folder is never needed (in my opinion).