PS2 security chip firmware dumped after 4-year reverse engineering effort

Canadian reverse engineer DiscoStarslayer has successfully extracted the firmware from the early PlayStation 2 MechaCon security chip, a feat achieved after four years of work. The chip, which manages optical disc verification and memory card encryption, had remained uncracked for 26 years. The team released a list of 22 firmware versions on GitHub, though the original 2000 launch model firmware remains unrecovered. The exploit, dubbed Mecha-LIBeration, follows the 2021 breakthrough on later 'Dragon' series chips by the MechaResearch team.