George Hotz, aka Geohot, the 20-year-old hacker who successfully cracked the Apple iPhone, claimed in a Friday blog post that after working on the PlayStation3 for nearly five weeks, he has finally managed to hack Sony’s popular gaming console and run his own software on it.

The hacking of the PS3, which typically runs only the Sony-approved digitally signed software, is a noteworthy feat given the fact that it happens to the only console that, unlike its rivals - Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii, cannot be modified for pirated games.

Saying that he managed to hack the PS3 with the help of “very simple hardware, cleverly applied, and some not so simple software,” Geohot said in his post: “I have read/write access to the entire system memory and hypervisor level access to the processor.”

The PS3’s hacking code would enable the PS3 users to run new, unlawful software – including the Linux operating system and older PS2 games that don’t work on the PS3 – as well pirated software on their systems.

However, Geohot may not reveal the code for some time because Geohot is apprehensive that Sony might work out a way to disable his hacking technique, the way Apple did after the iPhone hack! Nonetheless, the hacker is trying to find and publish the PS3’s decryption keys so as to help ‘others’ develop and run unauthorized software.