[The Faceless Master]

Japanese PSP scener Mamosuke announced today on his blog that he was able to confirm a “Hello World” running on the PS Vita through the embedded PSP emulator. The exploit was made by developer teck4, and most likely relies on one of our good buffer overflow friends. and for those who are wondering “is it real?”, my current answer is that I haven’t tried it yet, but knowing Mamosuke fairly well I can tell you it’s true. Technically, the idea behind the hack is simple but brilliant: the PS Vita has a PSP emulator, and we have plenty of PSP game exploits lying around… can we assume they will work on the emulator? That’s what teck4 tried, and the answer is yes, so he managed to run unsigned code on the PS Vita. ... That’s the theory. Practically, although this is good news, there are a bunch of obstacles which will probably not make the exploit so interesting for most users (at least not yet): First of all, the exploit happens within the PSP emulator on the Vita, and will not directly give access to the Vita hardware or features. So this can theoretically only allow to run PSP homebrews on the vita (which, to me, is already fairly nice), and also, only User-mode ones ( a game exploit does not give access to the PSP kernel mode, so some tools and functionality is missing, which prevents emulators such as Daedalusx64 for example to run at full speed).

Full Story: http://wololo.net/wagic/2011/12/18/d...lready-hacked/

[Grinchy]

So you could run emulators through the emulator? Yo dawg...

[The Faceless Master]

So you could run emulators through the emulator? Yo dawg...

:lol :lol :lol

[UnluckyKate]

Well, that was unexpected. I really though Sony would have learned...

[Jinfash]

Sounds good, if everything is indeed sandboxed.

[Tryckser]

Well, that was unexpected. I really though Sony would have learned...

you mean next Vita model without PSP Emulator? ;)

[Chuck Norris]

Seems like a very limited way to do things

[trinest]

I remember in school everyone has PSPs cause you could hack them.

[cw_sasuke]

Hope the vita doesn't get hacked that soon, 3rd partys will bail out faster than wario64 can create a bomba thread.

[StoppedInTracks]

Wow, 1st day hack.

So much for Sony learning their lesson with geohot's PS3 attack.

Also, Sony must be blind to let such trivial thing (unprotected PSP emulator) through.

[JonStark]

It's a feature.

[slaughterking]

DS flashcards worked on the 3DS, too, for the same reason and that has nothing to do with hacking the new hardware.

[UnluckyKate]

you mean next Vita model without PSP Emulator? ;)

Of course. What else can be done to protect system from hacking, right ?!

[Bomber Bob]

DS flashcards worked on the 3DS, too, for the same reason and that has nothing to do with hacking the new hardware.

This.

You guys are aware that the PSP emulator should actually not break any compatibility with the real hardware? exploits included.

[Chuck Norris]

[SappYoda]

Thanks to those fine gentlemen, now we can expect US/EU Vita not to be backwards compatible.

[Galactic Fork]

technically, the Vita wasn't hacked, the PSP was hacked... again.

The PSP just can't catch a break.

[Durante]

That's not Vita being hacked, that's PSP (still) being hacked.

Shouldn't have any impact one way or the other on the security of Vita itself.

[Jockel]

How is that a surprise? The "scene" has been able to sign PSP-apps for months. There is probably no hack going on, I'd guess that it's just a validly signed homebrew app.

[Wazzim]

DS flashcards worked on the 3DS, too, for the same reason and that has nothing to do with hacking the new hardware.

This. Many already predicted this, there was no real way for Sony to prevent this from happening.

[kadotsu]

You could also do "Hello World" processes on other OS on PS3 but that didn't lead to the final hack (that was way dumber). I have no doubt the VITA OS will be hacked at some point but I doubt it will be through the PSP application.

Best case we'll get full BC for PSP and PS1 worst case we'll get no forwards compatibility.

[Frost_Ace]

So you could run emulators through the emulator? Yo dawg...

Amazing.

[wsippel]

DS flashcards worked on the 3DS, too, for the same reason and that has nothing to do with hacking the new hardware.

It worked for the same reason but it isn't the same thing. As the 3DS doesn't use emulation, you're locked to DS legacy mode. The firmware is unloaded and the system needs a full reset to go back to native mode. The Vita on the other hand is always running in native mode, so if you manage to break out, you could theoretically get access to the real thing.

[wrowa]

That's a useless hack.

[Azure Dream]

Emulate a SNES running the Super Game Boy.

[The Faceless Master]

That's not Vita being hacked, that's PSP (still) being hacked. Shouldn't have any impact one way or the other on the security of Vita itself.

shouldn't is the right word indeed. there shouldn't be a way to escalate privileges past the psp game sandbox.

[StoppedInTracks]

That's a useless hack.

So far yes, like every Hello World! app out there.

But this is day 1, let's wait for month 1...

[gofreak]

Kind of brave to claim this as a Vita hack...(or maybe he wasn't but others are)

[DieH@rd]

I wonder how much Vita hardware is dedicated to PSP1 emulation. If that emulator can harness the power of 2 cores and a lot of ram, future psp1 homebrew programs can use that power for awesome things [maybe video player that plays all codecs].

[Wazzim]

It worked for the same reason but it isn't the same thing. As the 3DS doesn't use emulation, you're locked to DS legacy mode. The firmware is unloaded and the system needs a full reset to go back to native mode. The Vita on the other hand is always running in native mode, so if you manage to break out, you could theoretically get access to the real thing.

'Manage to break out' sounds way easier than it is. It can not access PSP kernel mode, let alone touch the native Vita OS..

[Sye d'Burns]

If history (OtherOS) is any indication, that PSP emulation is a goner.


Ah, who am I kidding?

[StoppedInTracks]

Heh imagine if Sony removed the PSP emu in some future Vita firmware update.

[DieH@rd]

Name of the thread needs to be changed to reflect real status... This works only inside psp emulator, and with no unlimited power inside of it.

[zerokoolpsx]

Firmware to remove psp emulator incoming?

[bobbytkc]

The PSP coming back to fuck them in the ass.

[Wazzim]

Name of the thread needs to be changed to reflect real status... This works only inside psp emulator, and with no unlimited power inside of it.

It isn't even a custom hack, he just used an old PSP hello world save file lol.

[Gravijah]

Emulate a SNES running the Super Game Boy.

dude why don't snes emulators do that

[Drkirby]

So, it all depends on just how much access the PSP Emulator has to the system. Current bets is a string of buffer overloads, once to overload the emulated game to allow for unsigned code, a second to overload a buffer in the emulator its self (Which is likely running pretty low level), which could then possibly give access to boot up any homebrew.

So now they just need to find an exploitable part of the emulator.

[Luigiv]

It worked for the same reason but it isn't the same thing. As the 3DS doesn't use emulation, you're locked to DS legacy mode. The firmware is unloaded and the system needs a full reset to go back to native mode. The Vita on the other hand is always running in native mode, so if you manage to break out, you could theoretically get access to the real thing.

Are we sure about this. If this were true, wouldn't the Circle Pad and the Home Button be completely disabled during DS mode? I would think there is some software emulation going on.

[StoppedInTracks]

Imagine if a friggin PSP emulator would spell the downfall of PS Vita.

There isn't a LOL big enough.

[Wazzim]

Imagine if a friggin PSP emulator would spell the downfall of PS Vita. There isn't a LOL big enough.

Depends on what you think is funny.

[Why would you do that?]

Yeah, since the PSP has more or less been forever homebrew capable due to the release of the signing keys, this isn't too surprising or groundbreaking.

Withiut Kernel Mode, we won't get a lot of the best homebrew unfortunately, but there's already a good amount of quality homebrew that doesn't require Kernel Mode. Plus, maybe it's possible someone can find a Kernel Mode exploit through this?

[wsippel]

Are we sure about this. If this were true, wouldn't the Circle Pad and the Home Button be completely disabled during DS mode? I would think there is some software emulation going on.

I'm close to 100% sure it isn't emulation. There's probably some extremely basic and stripped down IOS running in DS mode, to deal with stuff like the shutdown message and mapping the circle pad, and that's it.

[LowEndTorque]

Man, Sony is not going to like this. Especially given their history of going absolutely bonkers when it comes to anything to do with piracy, hacking etc.

[Anasui Kishibe]

I say, this a real shocker

[Rolf NB]

So this can theoretically only allow to run PSP homebrews on the vita

This is a great solution for everyone. Except pirates. Fuck pirates.

[demigod]

It worked for the same reason but it isn't the same thing. As the 3DS doesn't use emulation, you're locked to DS legacy mode. The firmware is unloaded and the system needs a full reset to go back to native mode. The Vita on the other hand is always running in native mode, so if you manage to break out, you could theoretically get access to the real thing.

Hey genius, if it's so easy, why don't you be the first to hack the Vita?

Also they won't be getting rid of PSP Emulation because it makes them money via PSN.

[FantasticMrFoxdie]

SHOCKING NEWS!

Emulate a SNES running the Super Game Boy on an iPad.

Fixed.

[Rising_Hei]

Vita isn't hacked, i knew this misinformation was going to happen... hah

[Jockel]

dude why don't snes emulators do that

They do.