Sometimes, it’s just that simple…

July 12, 2012 in PS Vita, security, VHBL by wololo | 71 comments

Neur0n has been kind enough to share with me the details of his latest user mode exploit, so that I could help porting VHBL to his game on the EU and US versions (yes, the game seems to be available on all stores, and don’t stop reading here, it gets better).

Sometimes porting VHBL to a new game can be a pain in the A**. Many times, as I discovered the hard way, we hit a wall and have to give up after dozens of hours of investigation.

Related Read: Bumps in the road to VHBL

On this exploit too, had I been alone working on it, I would have given up. It seemed impossible to free most of the ram (VHBL basically needs to cleanly remove the game from the ram, in order to load homebrews instead), and the exploit ended up with about 2MB of free ram, instead of the 24MB that we usually expect.

But hey, that’s where comes the joy of working with talented people like Neur0n: he figured out, within 24hours, how to free the additional 22MB. I am not sure really how he found out, and why it works, but it damn works.

So I can proudly show you a picture of my work in progress on the EU version of the game. But honestly, neur0n did all the hard work on this one

This is running on a PSP with Pro CFW, which is were all the initial development always happen for VHBL. I haven’t tried to run anything else than the menu yet, but getting to the menu is usually a very good sign.

There’s still lots of work to be done: confirm it works on the vita (which should not be a problem since neur0n already confirmed it on the Japanese version), code cleanup, homebrews tests and bug fixes, port to the US version of the game, ….

As far as a release is concerned, I’ll synchronize with neur0n, but I think it’s clear to most people that we’re all eagerly waiting for ps1 classics support before a new VHBL version is released. As you know, each VHBL release is quickly followed by a patch from Sony, so I’m sure everybody wants the next VHBL release to happen on a “useful” firmware. In this case, I’m sure everybody’s ready to wait for firmware 1.80.

Related Read: Vita Firmware 1.80 announced for this summer, will have PS1 games support

As usual, don’t ask for hints on the game, or its price, or anything like that, as I won’t answer these questions.

Stay tuned.

71 comments

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V2 on July 12, 2012 at 11:15 am

Please make a enail newsletter. xD

Reply
1. wololo on July 12, 2012 at 11:29 am
  
  please subscribe to my rss feed or my twitter account
  
  Reply
  1. V2 on July 12, 2012 at 3:36 pm
    
    i have
    to both
    but i cant find any app for iphone that work oO
    
    dont know why
    
    email works very well ;D
    
    Reply
    1. StepS on July 12, 2012 at 4:56 pm
      
      would the email notifications from twitter be a good compromise?
      
      Reply
2. zach on July 13, 2012 at 7:56 pm
  
  Should I buy a 20 dollar PSN card before release? Just wondering and i’m not asking for the price of the game, i just want to know if a PSN card will be needed.
  
  Reply
TheStxrm on July 12, 2012 at 11:54 am

that frustrates me the VHBL because I have never had one of it and I know not so I have to buy a 20€ card or 50€ because you say the price at the same time as the name of the game and I do not have time to road to my supermarket to pay me the card that the game has already disappeared from the PSN

TheStxrm , French , sorry for the bad translation.

Reply
1. wololo on July 12, 2012 at 12:06 pm
  
  It means you still haven’t understood how the releases happen.
  
  Reply
  1. TheStxrm on July 12, 2012 at 12:15 pm
    
    Well, yes was communicated are made via the forum, why, you publish at first on twitter?
    
    Reply
    1. wololo on July 12, 2012 at 1:51 pm
      
      Trusted members get the information long enough in advance that they don’t have to “rush” to buy a PSN card, in theory.
      
      Reply
      1. TheStxrm on July 12, 2012 at 4:47 pm
        
        I did not try to annoy you or to irritate you I just asked the question, how can we obtain your trust ?
      2. wololo on July 13, 2012 at 12:59 am
        
        It depends on many factors, mostly your join date on the forum, but also warnings, attitude on the forums, etc… In the end all members of the forums get the information before the public release, but some get the information way before others.
      3. StepS on July 12, 2012 at 4:58 pm
        
        TheStxrm, automatically from top to bottom.
      4. TheSpillmonkey on July 12, 2012 at 6:40 pm
        
        TheStxrm, if you are so worried, just go get a card NOW and don’t spend it. Not too hard to do.
      5. lunalilo on July 14, 2012 at 7:39 am
        
        i just hope your blacklisting rather than whitelisting, it seems like a pain to not be on some kind of notifier, but I’m not a programmer so i guess i can’t complain…
      6. Gilga156 on July 21, 2012 at 2:28 pm
        
        I don’t think it’s the best idea for every member of the forum to receive the information in the end, it wouldn’t be very hard for Sony to have snitches signed up on the forums, I think the release should be extremely secretive, Sony will find out eventually and them finding out only moments after the release I think they are catching on far too easily….
Green Ranger on July 12, 2012 at 12:58 pm

Hey Wololo. don’t get me wrong but there’s still some points to check for.

1. You should get in contact with Davee or even “Tony”..i think you have your way’s to get in contact with them, because if it was able to port the kxploit to the new Usermode exploit. If not, then People using the new exploit are out of luck when the SCFW will be released. (If it’s ever happend ^^)

2. Thanks for compatibility testing it would be good, if some People test the new Exploit which Homebrew works and which not to avoid things like happend after the SC3-Exploit release. The whole “This Emulator doesn’t work and that would crash”-Stuff

I know, you haven’t got the time to do this all, but it will be still take some time until Sony release it’s 1.80 FW

And i think, you would find trustworthy testers for the exploit really quick.

That’s just my two cents :3 hope it wouldn’t sound to harsh.

Reply
1. wololo on July 12, 2012 at 1:58 pm
  
  Hey Green ranger.
  
  About 1), let’s just say that the people who need to know about the exploit in advance will, as usual, know about it. I am not too worried about Davee, Tony, or the other guys working on the kernel side. They *do* have many user exploits available, some of them not suitable for VHBL. If a PSP kernel exploit ever gets released, I’m pretty sure it will be backported to as many known VHBL exploits as possible, within days. That being said, there’s of course a *strong* risk that whatever kernel exploit comes out, it will probably come out first with a completely new user mode exploit, one that has not been patched. Of course I can’t predict the future, but this is how I see it. So when this happens, either people will stick to whatever firmware + exploit they have, waiting for a port of the kernel exploit to their user mode exploit, or they will update, buy the new exploited game, and get the release asap. I *know* it sucks to buy a game just for the sake of hacking the console, but if I had access to better solutions I would release them
  
  About 2) testers… hmmm, this is a good point. When comes the time for a release, I’ll check with Neur0n about that. It is true that the SC3 release was a bit lacking on that part.
  
  Reply
  1. Green Ranger on July 12, 2012 at 3:38 pm
    
    1.) It’s because of the needed syscalls to write to kernelmemory ^^ thats why i’ve said it could be possible that a Usermode-Exploit could be not usable in this point. And it won’t suck to buy a game just for the sake of hacking a console. It sucks more that Sony give us Backwartscompatibility on their Vita and:
    
    - we have to pay a much higher price for downloadable games than the retail one would cost at amazon ect.
    
    - theirs no way to get my UMD-Games as a digital copy like it can be done with the App in Japan. (And i have a lot of games i really would enjoy on the Vita Screen and with the dual Analog Sticks)
    
    - a lot of games not even available through the Vita PSN…nor on the PS3 PSN because their are incompatible to the Vita.
    
    - just your VHBL let me enjoy my vita because of all the Nes/Snes Games i’ve played during my childhood <3.
    
    Because of this, i really like to see a SCFW on my Vita. I want to play my PS1 Games (as Resident Evil 2 or some other Games wouldn't hit the PSN Store in Europe ever…)And because of missing PSP-Games like FF Crisis Core
    
    Thanks to your Site, jigsaw's Tutorials and moskitos tut's (and some other sources on the internet) i try to learn step by step MIPS Assambly and Instructions, C and later then C++ and how exploits working.(In the Future maybe more about C# and ARM Assambly if it will be useful in finding exploits on the Vita).
    As you said "Give a man a exploit, he could play his games till sony say's 'It's tme to Update'-Give a man the knowlege to find his own exploit, he could share it or play his games as long as sony won't have found the exploit by themselves" (what means Sony would never find any exploit without serving it to them on a silver plate )
    
    And to 2) yeah, but thanks to you, Thecobra and others, the compatibility is still improving and i have good hopes for the new exploit :3 Take your time and we will see when sony releases the FW 1.80.
    
    Reply
derekotsu on July 12, 2012 at 1:37 pm

PSX support AND an upcoming VHBL release?… yeah. i can live with that lol

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Peleep on July 12, 2012 at 1:43 pm

thanks for the encouraging news. Sensible to hold off until a useful FW version live……

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thecobra on July 12, 2012 at 3:50 pm

Wow, Nice. Wololo can you PM me the result/strategy of how he free the rest of memory with only 2 mb? i have something similar to that which i haven’t even try to solve due to that limitation.

Thank you,
Thecobra

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1. WolfRamiO on July 13, 2012 at 9:34 pm
  
  very nice, if you can bring this notice to the SC3 exploit would be great!!! best regards and thanks for your hard work!
  
  Reply
bobachilles on July 12, 2012 at 4:19 pm

So good to hear this news. Keep up the nice work because you are doing a great favour for the forum.

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psp411 on July 12, 2012 at 4:34 pm

tnx so much for the news, and the wait for a new firmware in the vita is so much practic as pragmatic.
good for you
we we´l be patients and be gratefull

long live to scene
free your mind and the body follows
chers

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Rafael707 on July 12, 2012 at 6:14 pm

congrats neur0n and wololo, hope too see the “ninjas” real soon hehe.. good luck and god bless

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Lion_Amongst_Men on July 12, 2012 at 6:35 pm

Congratulations wololo and neurOn! Haha thats pretty amazing nowi will be able to play lamecraft soon >.< i hope at least…..

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TheSpillmonkey on July 12, 2012 at 6:44 pm

Thanks guys We do appreciate all the hard work.

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Lion_Amongst_Men on July 12, 2012 at 6:50 pm

I was working on your VHBL alot these past weeks… haha and i also happened to buy some games from psn for the the sole purpose of vulnerabilities testing haha hopefull i already bought it unknowingly. Thank you for all your hard work Wololo and neurOn!

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oscar on July 12, 2012 at 7:03 pm

What’s your Twitter account wololo so I could follow you so I could know what’s the game gonna be for vhbl

Reply
1. wololo on July 13, 2012 at 12:57 am
  
  https://twitter.com/#!/frwololo
  
  Reply
gamehacker2000 on July 12, 2012 at 9:13 pm

It’s my birthday coming up here and I usually get a lot of cash. Whatever game it is to get VHBL on my Vita, I can get it. So thanks wololo for the news I’m quite excited now!

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SteveLeo on July 12, 2012 at 9:44 pm

Quick question, when the game is announced that can run the vHBL, is it required to have a PS3 to purchase it than transfer it over, or will we be fun doing everything form the Vita?

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1. wololo on July 13, 2012 at 12:55 am
  
  You won’t need a ps3
  
  Reply
fruitydz on July 12, 2012 at 10:46 pm

Glad to see the news on vita exploit these days.And wololo,I’m wondering when the time has come(maybe fw1.80 release),will you also enable the VBHL to run with a psp game on Hongkong(Asia) PSN store?You’ve said that the game is available on european ,japan and US PSN store,so don’t forget asia users please….

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Clarkalel on July 13, 2012 at 1:11 am

Thanks for the hard work and time you put in to let the community enjoy some great old hombrew. Waiting for 1.80 Firmware will be like a cat and mouse game the way Sony deals with exploits.No matter what homebrew wins in the end .

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WolfRamiO on July 13, 2012 at 1:15 am

maybe i am wrong but… more ram = n64 emulator working better? regards!

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1. fate6 on July 13, 2012 at 1:23 am
  
  no its more like More RAM = homebrew actually loading right
  for better N64 you will need a better CPU
  
  Reply
  1. wololo on July 13, 2012 at 1:35 am
    
    Well actually, more ram for the n64 emulator could mean some effective caching that works, which would mean faster N64 emulation, to some extent.
    
    Reply
    1. WolfRamiO on July 13, 2012 at 9:14 pm
      
      “fate6″ just look at pc or an android device, more free ram avaible mean more smoothers apps, because the app can enter and sit more comfortable on the system because has more room…
      
      Reply
Peter on July 13, 2012 at 1:19 am

Ill give you 5USD if you tell me which game it is!!!

Im so hanging…

Reply
1. wololo on July 13, 2012 at 1:36 am
  
  Thanks but no thanks.
  
  Reply
  1. z3r01 on July 13, 2012 at 4:51 pm
    
    lmfao
    
    Reply
    1. z3r01 on July 13, 2012 at 4:52 pm
      
      how about 5 dollars, the letter “S” for scrabble, two slim jims and a left shoe? lol
      
      Reply
      1. z3r01 on July 13, 2012 at 4:53 pm
        
        just kidding wololo, I’m bored and needed a cheap laugh
bb on July 13, 2012 at 1:47 am

This is excellent news BUT why wait until the new FW is released since you need PSN access to download PS1 games and you know a new FW will be released that will block the exploit correct? Hasn’t that happened in the past so is the trick to get the new FW, download as many PS1 games as you can and then say goodbye to PSN so you can have VHBL?

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1. wololo on July 13, 2012 at 1:50 am
  
  Yeah, you make a good point, but we have to draw the line somewhere. If we had to wait until all ps1 games are available on the PSN, we’d never release
  
  Reply
  1. devilmarx on July 13, 2012 at 5:29 pm
    
    wololo does this new firmware update all the setting on our ps vita?… i have a hard time on my 3g network because 3g network have a limit for downloading and i think that sony must add a selection on network settings for gprs/egds & umts network. what do you think…
    
    ohh thanks for the info’s
    
    Reply
2. Hizaki on July 13, 2012 at 5:29 am
  
  As long as we use a PS3 to transfer the games we wont have to update. Just updating the Vitas once to get ps1 support should be fine. So I don’t mind the wait (:
  
  Reply
bb on July 13, 2012 at 1:54 am

OK – thanks. Just wanted to make sure I didn’t miss something. I’m def someone who doesn’t care for PS1 emu and would rather get it now b/c retro gaming is what I’m looking to do. But I understand why you would hold off. Seems to me though that these exploits come along frequent enough that you would be able to have another ready after Sony patches. So maybe release now and wait for the inevitable next hack to come along? Just a thought.

You guys are truly talented btw and enable a guy like me to play retro on his vita. Thanks again and I can’t wait for the release.

Btw – didn’t “Tony” say he hated when people put an exploit out to the public but never released it? Isn’t that what he’s doing up to this point? It seems his exploit would be a major advancement in the vita scene.

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1. Lion_Amongst_Men on July 13, 2012 at 3:17 am
  
  “It seems his exploit would be a major advancement in the vita scene.” i agree with you it would be a nice step forward the only concerning matter with developers is the fact that if somehow someone can enable iso games the vita will most likely die right than and there. the only thing i want for the vita on VHBL is to run indie games and fan made games.
  
  Reply
Vinnie on July 13, 2012 at 4:24 am

I know this question is something far from news and others might say to buy NDS but I’m curious about bringing the NDS Emulator to Vita since the Vita is touchscreen enabled and the psp is not, Sir Wololo is it possible to run NDS emulator on Vita? just like on the psp? thanks

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1. fate6 on July 13, 2012 at 4:53 am
  
  VHBL = PSP
  a very limited PSP at that
  
  now if we had access to the Vita’s hardware then I think that a NDS emu could work
  
  Reply
  1. Vinnie on July 13, 2012 at 5:02 am
    
    Good to hear that maybe there’s hope thanks and cheers
    
    Reply
  2. Rafael707 on July 13, 2012 at 7:14 am
    
    how could a nds emu work without 2 screens?
    
    Reply
    1. fate6 on July 13, 2012 at 8:00 am
      
      well I would think the same way it did with the PSP
      just use half the screen
      
      Reply
      1. ??? on July 13, 2012 at 6:17 pm
        
        @fate6
        
        Or you can swipe the vita’s back touch panel to change screens
    2. Vinnie on July 13, 2012 at 8:33 am
      
      Yup agreed with fate6 just like the psp it used half-screen and it is better for vita that has a 5 inch screen
      
      Reply
auron on July 13, 2012 at 6:55 am

This is awesome news!, I hope the PSP CFW exploit to be released soon.

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thekamikazepr on July 13, 2012 at 9:10 am

one of ky best anniversaries girfts ever. i check blog every friday since i found the site

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Sauyron on July 13, 2012 at 10:27 am

And then Sony found out which exploit was used by reading this post. And OFW 6.61 was released on games, PSN and remaining consoles on the market. Not to mention that it was patched on Vita as well.

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1. Lion_Amongst_Men on July 13, 2012 at 11:19 am
  
  for that to work they would need to do more updates on the ps3 to contain the transfer of the ofw on to the vita otherwise it can be extracted with no problem so it was kind of pointless to assume that
  
  Reply
2. z3r01 on July 13, 2012 at 4:56 pm
  
  how did they find out with no information?
  
  Reply
Multiboy2k on July 13, 2012 at 6:24 pm

This is GREAT news Wololo!
I have literally bought my Vita for this. Please remember me this time.
All I really need to do is run Bookr on my Vita.

Could you please confirm that Bookr is working in this exploit?

Thank you!

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ZeRo on July 13, 2012 at 8:05 pm

I want to test that, have a US account =]

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GS1Azul on July 14, 2012 at 3:08 am

Fucking shit, I have the fucking error code “NP-2244-2″ and I can not add funds to my wallet …… Shit!!

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Nova on July 14, 2012 at 3:41 am

I’m about to buy a Vita because I’m in the US for a few weeks.
So if you release the name of the game and I’m lucky enough to buy it I am able to start and use the VHBL. So, the game got removed fromthe store, I’m still able to use the game/the homebrew? Can Sony force me to upgrade my FW that I’m not longer able to use the homebrew?

Would be awesome if you let me know that
Greetigs

Reply
payforaday on July 14, 2012 at 9:17 am

Can’t wait for this! The PSP homebrew scene was pretty awesome so I’m excited to see you guys kickstart the PSvitas like this. I hope everything goes smoothly. Keep up the awesome work!

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OMightyBuggy on July 14, 2012 at 11:45 am

Wololo does this mean that the Super Collapse 3 version of VHBL will have this update of freeing more RAM or only this new game exploit?

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1. wololo on July 14, 2012 at 1:08 pm
  
  Only this new game. The super collapse 3 exploit had no such problem.
  
  Reply
  1. OMightyBuggy on July 14, 2012 at 1:54 pm
    
    Oh now I get what you mean, lol. Feel kinda silly now.
    
    Reply
kevin on July 18, 2012 at 10:37 am

we trust you,come on!lets do it!

Reply

Sometimes, it’s just that simple…

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