LIC.DAT

Description

• Checked within Level 2 Kernel and possible via lv2syscall476
• File size is always 0x10000 Bytes.
• Paths
  • dev_bdvd/PS3_GAME/LICDIR/LIC.DAT
  • dev_bdvd/PS3_GM01/LICDIR/LIC.DAT
  • dev_bdvd/PS3_GM02/LICDIR/LIC.DAT
  • etc...

Example

Example: Dead or Alive 5

00000000 50 53 33 4C 49 43 44 41 00 00 00 01 80 00 00 00 PS3LICDA........
00000010 00 00 09 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 01 ................
00000020 8C D3 A9 D8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
...
00000800 01 42 4C 45 53 30 31 36 32 33 00 00 00 00 00 00 .BLES01623......
...

Structure

Offset	Length	Description
0x0	~0x200	Header
~0x200	0x600	Padding
0x800	Varies	License Table
Varies	up to 0x10000	Padding

The structure is a consequence of how the file is generated in PC and validated by the PS3.

• CRC32 generation (in PC)
  • A temporal file is created composed by: header + license table. The crc32 value stored at header offset 0x20 is filled with zeroes and works as a placeholder
  • Now is calculated the crc32 of the temporal file
  • The crc32 calculated in previous step is stored at header offset 0x20 replacing the zeroes placeholder
  • A padding is added after the lic_table_end offset to increase the final size of LIC.DAT up to 0x10000

• CRC32 validation (in PS3)
  • LIC.DAT is readed from disc, and copyed to a different location excluding the padding at the end of the file (cropped from first byte of file up to lic_table_end offset)
  • The crc32 value stored at header offset 0x20 is replaced by zeroes
  • Now is calculated the crc32 of the edited file
  • The crc32 calculated in previous step is validated against the crc32 value stored at header offset 0x20 of the original LIC.DAT

Header

Offset	Length	Example	Name	Description
0x0	0x8	'PS3LICDA'	magic	LIC.DAT identifyer
0x8	0x4	0x00000001	version	DAT structure version
0xC	0x4	0x80000000	flag	0x80000000 = Retail (used in LIC.DAT under directory PS3_GAME) 0x00000000 = Debug (used in LIC.DAT under directory PS3_GM01, PS3_GM02, etc...)
0x10	0x4	0x00000900	lic_table_end	License table absolute end offset. Calculated by: lic_table_start + (lic_num * lic_size)
0x14	0x4	0x00000800	lic_table_start	License table absolute start offset. Always found 0x800 (static)
0x18	0x4	0x00000100	lic_size	The size of a license entry inside the license table. Always found 0x100 (static)
0x1C	0x4	0x00000001	lic_num	The number of licenses entries inside the license table. 0x1 = Single boot disc 0x2 = Dual boot disc 0x3 = Triple boot disc Etc...
0x20	0x4	0x8CD3A9D8	crc32	CRC32 of an area starting form absolute offset 0x0 up to the lic_table_end (including the CRC32 placeholder filled with zeroes)
0x24	?	0x0000...	padding	The header length is unknown, probablly is aligned to 0x200 but there are lot of zeroes up to 0x800

License table

Composed by one or more license entries.

License entry

Relative Offset	Length	Example	Name	Description
0x0	0x1	0x1	id_type	0x01 = Title ID 0x02 = SKU ID 0x03 = Content ID
0x1	0x0A (if id_type = 0x01) 0x2A (if id_type = 0x02) 0x25 (if id_type = 0x03)	'BLES01623'	id	Bootable content identifyer (EBOOT.BIN related)
0x0B (if id_type = 0x01) 0x2B (if id_type = 0x02) 0x26 (if id_type = 0x03)	up to 0x100	0x0000....	padding	padding to fill the entry with zeroes up to the lic_size specifyed in the header

Explanation: The first byte indicates type and size of following text:

• 0x01 means 0xA bytes, a regular TitleID (ex. BLES01623) with \0 terminating
• 0x02 means 0x2A bytes, a regular SKU ID (ex. UP0002-BLES01623_00-0000111122223333-E001) with \0 terminating
• 0x03 means 0x25 bytes, a regular npdrm ContentID (ex. UP0002-BLES01623_00-0000111122223333) with \0 terminating

Padding

The padding added at the bottom of the LIC.DAT file seems to be intended to increase size to a multiplier of bluray disc sectors and to protect the laser lens because otherway it is too tiny and so stressing for the laser.

This padding is added in the last step when the file is generated in PC, and removed in the first step before the crc32 hash is validated by the PS3.

Multiboot PS3 Game Discs

There is a special type of PS3 game disc that contains several EBOOT.BIN with several LIC.DAT files. These LIC.DAT files are a bit special because contains the TITLE_ID of all the EBOOT.BIN files of the disc. Some examples of games using this multiboot disc structure are: Metal Gear Solid The Legacy Collection (BLJM-91001 on PS3_DISC.SFB), and Fighting edition (BLES-02129 on PS3_DISC.SFB).

The path names (PS3_GM01, PS3_GM02, etc...) only allows for 2 digits in decimal format... so up to PS3_GM99 + main bootable content in PS3_GAME makes a total of 100.

Example of Dualboot: Metal Gear Solid The Legacy Collection (BLJM-91001)

Dual boot disc structure, using folders PS3_GAME, and PS3_GM01.

• dev_bdvd/PS3_GAME/LICDIR/LIC.DAT
  • Header
    • magic "PS3LICDA"
    • version 1
    • flag 0x80000000 (retail)
    • lic_table_end 0x0A00
    • lic_table_start 0x0800
    • lic_size 0x0100
    • lic_num 2
    • crc32 01 0F 95 0E
  • First License (located at offset 0x800, for the EBOOT.BIN under directory PS3_GAME)
    • id_type = 0x01
    • id = BLJM61001
  • Second License (located at offset 0x900, for EBOOT.BIN under directory PS3_GM01)
    • id_type = 0x01
    • id = BLJM60351



00000000  50 53 33 4C 49 43 44 41 00 00 00 01 80 00 00 00  PS3LICDA....€...
00000010  00 00 0A 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 02  ................
00000020  01 0F 95 0E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ..•.............
...
00000800  01 42 4C 4A 4D 36 31 30 30 31 00 00 00 00 00 00  .BLJM61001......
...
00000900  01 42 4C 4A 4D 36 30 33 35 31 00 00 00 00 00 00  .BLJM60351......
...
0000FFF0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................

• dev_bdvd/PS3_GM01/LICDIR/LIC.DAT:
  • The only diffrence is the flag, set to debug = 0x00000000 (and the crc32, because the flag is included when the crc32 is calculated)
  • This means the file LIC.DAT under directory PS3_GAME is different than any of the others under paths PS3_GM01, PS3_GM_02, etc... Because the flag used in the LIC.DAT under the main PS3_GAME folder is set to retail, and the flag for the other LIC.DAT files (under PS3_GM01, PS3_GM02, etc...) is set as debug
  • All the others LIC.DAT files (under PS3_GM01, PS3_GM02, etc...) are identical because have the flag set as debug

Example of Tripleboot: Fighting edition (BLES-02129)

Triple boot disc structure, using folders PS3_GAME, PS3_GM01, and PS3_GM02