Security researcher Nick Breese used a PS3 to crack supposedly strong eight-character passwords in a matter of hours.
Typically, previous attempts to crack such passwords took days to get the same result.
Eight-character passwords are used to protect PDF and Zip files as well as those produced by Microsoft Office.
The work to turn the PS3 into a password cracker was carried out by Nick Breese, who works for Auckland-based Security Assessment.
The Cell processor at the heart of the PS3 is the key to speeding up the time it takes to crack a password.
In a presentation given at the Kiwicon security conference in mid-November, Mr Breese said a powerful Intel chip could crank through 10-15 million cycles per second.
The architecture of the Cell processor meant it could speed through 1.4 billion cycles per second.
[ Via BBC News ]
RELATED : A project that harnesses the spare processing power of Sony’s PlayStation 3 (PS3) to help understand the cause of diseases has entered the record books.
Well, isn’t that what we needed? More illegal functions for video games.
1If the processing speed of PS3 is so much hgher than powerful Intel chip, many such projects are possible.
2