Hacking PS4 OfflineAccount Activator

[godreborn]

Here are the test account details seanp2500 used: (it's in the video he made so its OK to show it here)

The account id in decimal is: 333758381760163642
This converted to hex is: 4A1BF7AD99FAF3A
The problem with this is it is ony 15 digits not the needed 16.

Adding 0 to the start of the hex works.

the decimal of 4A1BF7AD99FAF3A is 333758381760163642
the decimal of 04A1BF7AD99FAF3A is also 333758381760163642

if you enter 333758381760163642 here https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/decimal-to-hex.html
the Hex signed 2's complement: is 16 digits but the normal hex is only 15.

I have no idea what signed 2's complement is, Ive tried to understand it but I cant get my head around it.

When I use my own given decimal account id it converts to a 16 digit hex and the Hex signed 2's complement is also 16 digits.

The big question is, is the Hex signed 2's complement number the correct one to use.

you can get the id from the cma folder alphanumeric, but I discovered it's byte reversed, so 0 would be the last number. that may be why it works there or has to work anyway.

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btw, the aid is in the system.dreg (registry) as well, but it's byte reversed in there as well. modifying it will force a format as I tried it. I was able to make a folder with only 0s.

 

[godreborn]

@Leeful , @KiiWii do I need to bridge the connections of wifi and lan in order to connect both the pc and the ps4 via ethernet? I've been doing that with the ps3, and sometimes the pstv, with my normal router and wifi. it works, but it can be unstable, so I'm not sure if it's the setup or if it just sucks. it's very fast, but if it's unstable, it may not be worth using.

 

[Leeful]

I have updated/fixed my original script to get your correct PSN Account ID to use with PS4OfflineAccountActivator.

This should fix the issue that some people have when their given accound Id is only 15 digits long. This should always give you your correct 16 digit Account ID.

You need to have python 3 installed to run this script.
1. Run this script and sign into your PSN account in the page that it opens in your browser.
2. After you have signed in you will see a 'redirect' page.
3. Copy the URL from the 'redirect' page and paste it into the script window to get your Account ID to use with PS4OfflineAccountActivator.

If anyone who already has their correct Account ID could please test this and confirm that it gives you the same Account ID, that would be great. Thanks.

 

[godreborn]

I have updated/fixed my original script to get your correct PSN Account ID to use with PS4OfflineAccountActivator.

This should fix the issue that some people have when their given accound Id is only 15 digits long. This should always give you your correct 16 digit Account ID.

You need to have python 3 installed to run this script.
1. Run this script and sign into your PSN account in the page that it opens in your browser.
2. After you have signed in you will see a 'redirect' page.
3. Copy the URL from the 'redirect' page and paste it into the script window to get your Account ID to use with PS4OfflineAccountActivator.

If anyone who already has their correct Account ID could please test this and confirm that it gives you the same Account ID, that would be great. Thanks.

I tested it with my ps3, ps4, and ps vita/tv. I have three separate accounts after the one I was using was banned. now, that won't screw me over if I get banned on one of them. anyway, it worked. however, I found a bug where after exiting, opening up the python script again caused the same account id to appear after posting the redirect. I had to exit out a second time. I thought I had made a mistake, but it happened each time I tried putting in a new redirect.

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all 3 verified I mean, but none has a 0 as the first alphanumeric, so I couldn't verify that.

 

[Deleted User]

yes this placed 0 in front of my account id

 

[Leeful]

@godreborn Thanks for testing.
Yeah, I had the same issue about the previous account info being carried over. The browser probably keeps the last user logged in. I might be able to solve it by making it open in a private window instead but I dont know if that will be possible or if it will be different for different browsers.

It's not really a big problem because 99% of people will only use it on the one account. either way I'll look into it. thanks again.

@seanp2500 good to hear. I think the problem was that the original conversion would ignore the first digit if it started with a 0.
Now it calculates the Hex signed 2's complement insted of just the hex which includes the 0.

 

[godreborn]

@Leeful , that's what I was thinking the problem was or that copy and paste was left in the clipboard for some reason. however, I never had to log out in order to test a new one, just exit the script twice.

 

[Leeful]

@Leeful , that's what I was thinking the problem was or that copy and paste was left in the clipboard for some reason. however, I never had to log out in order to test a new one, just exit the script twice.

Yeah, I've narrowed the problem down to a cookie being stored on sonyentertainmentnetwork.com.
If I clear cookies for just that address when the login page opens it works correctly ever time for whatever login account you use.
I dont think I'll be able to add it to the script because not everyone uses the same type of browser.

As I said before it is not really a problem because the end user will only use there own PSN login account.
It's only an issue while testing with many different accounts.

 

[ItsmeAJ]

I have updated/fixed my original script to get your correct PSN Account ID to use with PS4OfflineAccountActivator.

This should fix the issue that some people have when their given accound Id is only 15 digits long. This should always give you your correct 16 digit Account ID.

You need to have python 3 installed to run this script.
1. Run this script and sign into your PSN account in the page that it opens in your browser.
2. After you have signed in you will see a 'redirect' page.
3. Copy the URL from the 'redirect' page and paste it into the script window to get your Account ID to use with PS4OfflineAccountActivator.

If anyone who already has their correct Account ID could please test this and confirm that it gives you the same Account ID, that would be great. Thanks.

Hi, just ran this script and followed your instruction, it gave me same PSN account ID that I had retrieved from both PS4 and PS3 saves on usb before.

 

[godreborn]

@Leeful , I was having a conversation here: https://www.psx-place.com/threads/get-account-id-without-ever-signing-in.28356/

we're wondering which file is modified for the account activator. I was thinking it was something like myprofile.dat, which I think is for that on the vita. it's exactly 328 bytes, and the generator for a fake one just needs your account name, then it's padded with 0s. I also thought it might be the act.dat, but that would likely be deleted at reboot, since it was fake signed.

 

[Leeful]

@ItsmeAJ Thanks for the confirmation.

@godreborn I have no idea what files are changed. I had a quick look through the source code but I could not find anything.

RE activated account and the warning not to use on your main profile:

I did some tests on my main profile that had saves and trophys and when I activated the profile the saves still worked and I was still able to earn trophys for the games. I read on psxhax that someone else also used their main profile and everthing still worked for them too.

Maybe its because I used a real PSN id and not just a random id, maybe its because the console was once officially on PSN with the same account.

Here are some details:
The console I tested this on has been initialised many times and it has a different HDD from when it was officially connected to PSN.
The mac addresses of both the wifi and lan are blocked in my router so I know that there is no possible way that it is communicating with sony servers in any way.
I only had 3 games installed when I did the test and all 3 of them still worked.

I'll do some more tests later today, I'll use one of my other consoles that I know was never connected to PSN with my Account. I'll also activate it with a random 16 digit hex id instead of my official one.

 

[godreborn]

@ItsmeAJ Thanks for the confirmation.

@godreborn I have no idea what files are changed. I had a quick look through the source code but I could not find anything.

RE activated account and the warning not to use on your main profile:

I did some tests on my main profile that had saves and trophys and when I activated the profile the saves still worked and I was still able to earn trophys for the games. I read on psxhax that someone else also used their main profile and everthing still worked for them too.

Maybe its because I used a real PSN id and not just a random id, maybe its because the console was once officially on PSN with the same account.

Here are some details:
The console I tested this on has been initialised many times and it has a different HDD from when it was officially connected to PSN.
The mac addresses of both the wifi and lan are blocked in my router so I know that there is no possible way that it is communicating with sony servers in any way.
I only had 3 games installed when I did the test and all 3 of them still worked.

I'll do some more tests later today, I'll use one of my other consoles that I know was never connected to PSN with my Account. I'll also activate it with a random 16 digit hex id instead of my official one.

I'm not sure if there's anything associated with the profile to confirm or deny an id. is that what you're trying to find out? there doesn't seem to be on the vita. as I mentioned, the account id is reverse byte in the registry, but the id.dat, which I think is what tells the system the account goes with this memory card, contains the aid, but it's the normal sequence. I think it's tied to the registry, because you can change the account id in there, but it won't pair with the id.dat, forcing you to format since it thinks it's a different account id. there may be something like that on the ps4. it wouldn't really surprise me. the same lead engineer is responsible for both systems, which is probably why there are so many similarities.

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btw @Leeful , it works that way on the ps3 I think too. the account id is in the xregistry.sys. if an account has not signed in (possibly activated), the id is all 0s. I wonder if that's what's happening.

 

[Leeful]

What I'm trying to find out is why I had no problems with the saves and trophys working.
In the release notes for PS4OfflineAccountActivator it says:

Notes & Warnings
It's better to use this program on a new account. If you use it on an old account (with saves and trophies) you'll encounter these problems:
You won't be able to use your old save files easily (the ones created before activation). They'll show as broken. Maybe you can recover them with Playstation-4-Save-Mounter.
You'll have to delete your trophies (via FTP) because they will be signed with the unactivated account and all the games you try to launch will error out.

I repeat, I recommend to use a fresh console account for the activation, but do as you wish...

I had none of these problems, everything still worked for me.

Hopefully I'll know more after I've done some more tests.

 

[godreborn]

hmm...I'll use a new account, since my current one is banned. I don't really care about the saves and trophies. I've played the system for a grand total of about 10 hours. I was playing star ocean 5, but I don't even remember what's going on.

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@Leeful , I just thought of this. on the ps3, if you were to inject your account id into a different save or even one with all 0s or hasn't been on psn or activated, it will become corrupted due to pfd I think. that's supposed to protect the file from tampering. maybe that's what the dev was referring to. no idea why it works for you, but you know a lot more about the ps4 than I do. I think saves are protected by pfs like on the vita.

 

[godreborn]

also, same lead engineer, Mark Cerny, for the ps5. I would've thought sony would've blamed him for the flop that is the ps vita. some idiot at sony in the top brass must've signed off on all those restrictions though.

 

[Leeful]

Well I did some tests and everything worked. No save corruption or trophy problems like it mentions in the warning.

Tried with my official PSN account ID and also tried with a couple of random ID's and it worked without a problem for everthing I tried.
I even disabled my mac filtering and connected my PS4 directly to the internet without AlAzifs DNS. (Make sure you have run an update blocker FIRST if you try this or you will end up downloading an update!!!)

Just because it worked for me, I do not suggest that anyone else tries it on their main profile unless they are willing to take the risk of loosing their saves like it says in the warning.

 

[xYuunax]

Just because it worked for me, I do not suggest that anyone else tries it on their main profile unless they are willing to take the risk of loosing their saves like it says in the warning.

I didn't mention this, as I wasn't sure if this was an isolated situation, or I just don't have the time to test this extensively. I activated my main account with my PSN ID and trophies,saves still work.

 

[Leeful]

I didn't mention this, as I wasn't sure if this was an isolated situation, or I just don't have the time to test this extensively. I activated my main account with my PSN ID and trophies,saves still work.

Good to know its not just me. Thanks for the confirmation.

 

[godreborn]

@Leeful , @KiiWii I got sandungas' thoughts on this activator. he's one of the editors for psdevwiki:

Get Account ID Without Ever Signing In

 

[Leeful]

Just did a test by running PS4OfflineAccountActivator on an already activated account and now I cannot start any games.
It gives me the error 'User will be logged out of the PS4 because an error has occured (NP-32038-6)'

Finally I got the negative results I was looking for.