Apparently we're on twitter too
There’s lots of things to be said about what just happened over the past couple days, and sadly I don’t have much time right now, but answers will be given asap to all of you. What matters for now is that a PSP Kernel exploit, as well as a CFW relying on it, fully working on the PS Vita, was leaked 2 days ago by a “Sam Jordam” guy on Youtube (download links below). One of the main persons behind this work (which wasn’t supposed to be released now), famous PSP developer Coldbird, decided to leave the scene today, after this leak happened.
I will give as much details as I can in the days to come, but for now let me just say that the files that were leaked have been confirmed by Coldbird to contain a Kernel exploit, but these files are encrypted, and potentially useless for anybody who does not have strong reverse engineering skills. Coldbird has confirmed to me (and in his blog) he has no plan anymore to release this CFW, so what we have here is a Kernel exploit that will most likely be wasted since I expect Sony to patch the vulnerability in a firmware update.
In addition to the Kernel exploit leak, the name of a game with a usermode exploit (as well as the user mode exploit) was also leaked. That game is the PSP Mini Urbanix, which, if you can read between the lines, readers of this blog already knew was vulnerable. If you are on 1.81, I recommend you get this game before it gets removed from the PSN, fully knowing that as of now, I personally don’t have anything running on this exploit (in particular no VHBL release is ready for this yet).
People who are running on 1.80 with the Monster Hunter exploits might want to stay on 1.80. If anything useful ever comes out of the kernel exploit, I am sure it will run fine on Monster Hunter as well.
At this point I think a bit more info is required about the leaker and how all of this was leaked. A private group of beta testers existed for this exploit, and in a sad chain of events, this person (who goes by the names of Sam Jordam, Batman:beyond, or ipadboy, among other of his identities) got his hands on these files through some basic social engineering, and decided to publish them.
It needs to be emphasized that all people involved were aware of the legal risk of publicly releasing such a tool, but this person seems to not be afraid of that (good for him, I guess, he probably thinks he can succeed where geohot and graf_chokolo failed). The hackers even went as far as encrypting the files to limit the damage in case those files were stolen, which is why, in their current state, the files are useless.
I also need to insist on the fact that, in unrelated events, this person had threatened the security of my site several times in the past, involving threats of hacking this site, attempts at stealing information, illegal port and vulnerability scanning, as well as threats to some members of our community and some of our moderators. This person also insists on his video that hackers were trying to hide this hack from the scene in order to enjoy the hack for themselves, which is not true. Simply, most hackers working on that type of thing are realistic about the legal risks of enabling piracy on Sony’s latest device, which doesn’t seem to have crossed that individual’s mind. In other words, a truly great person, who doesn’t seem to worry he is doing illegal stuff.
Some of you might question the decision from Coldbird to leave the scene and not release his work after this. Please understand that it was not an easy decision for him, but there is way too much risk in releasing a Kernel exploit on the PS Vita right now, from a legal point of view. Sam Jordam took the risk of being the first person to release a tool that could easily enable PSP piracy on the PS Vita, while reasonable hackers were all clever enough to avoid these dangerous waters until know, and keep their work for themselves. Will this lead to Sony taking legal action against this guy? I can’t tell for sure, but other hackers didn’t want to be the ones testing the waters for that. Their files were stolen, so legally everything is on this guy’s shoulders, and I understand that nobody else would want to share the legal burden with a leaker, so there is a huge risk nobody will ever even try to touch these files.
There is also the feeling in the community right now that this person should not be helped. He decided to leak some files? Good for him, now let’s let him reverse engineer the files, and figure out a way to get it to work for everybody else. And if some of you disagree with this and think he could use some help, for the good of the community, then knock yourself out, the files are out in the open, I won’t judge (I’m sure most users would be happy with a PSP Kernel exploit on the vita right now).
As far as I’m concerned, I will try to get at least VHBL to run on the Game exploit, in order for this to not go to waste, and some people have already offered some help on that (they will be named in time).
Keep in mind that all that’s happening today is the result of the actions of one single person, and that is the only person to blame.
TL,DR: Some files containing a User mode exploit in Urbanix, as well as a Kernel exploit (that still has to be reverse engineered) were leaked by a youtube user named Sam Jordam. This guy was a known a##hole for some time already, and has proven to be up to his reputation. The files he stole then leaked are encrypted and not usable for anybody in their current state. One of the only persons who could have helped with this, famous hacker Coldbird, decided to leave the scene after this. There is so far one can go for the love of homebrews.
Bye Coldbird, and thanks for everything !
Download
The leaked files can be downloaded here
Details and source: Coldbird, Sam Jordam
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Thanks Coldbird for everything you have done for the psp
I know I am not the only one who will miss youStay away from s**theads like Sam Jordam that seems to take more then give to all
Good luck and stay safe:)
PS hope you come back but understand why you had to take leave
PPS hope Sam Jordam Sony gets this person for F’ing with a good person and coder
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This is really sad… Coldbird was a good hacker…
Thanks for everything Coldbird!#fucksamjordam
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I’m agree with relasing a Kernel exploit I must say. After all I am forced to pay for the PSP games that I already have to play them on my Vita.
What I can’t respect is the way that this tard have taken to do this.
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He’s right in both ways. The Vita doesn’t need this so early in its life when it’s struggling so hard, and the gaggle of blithering idiots that make up most of the scene’s leeches don’t deserve the exploit. Just reading the comments on that Youtube video (and even most blog replies on this site) with the masses that want every aspect of the exploit spoon-fed and explained to them like they’re children is enough to piss me off myself.
Best of luck to him in his future endeavors; hopefully they will involve people who appreciate his work a bit more.
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While this turn of events is a little unfortunate, I honestly do not see a reason to leave this scene. People take things too personally these days… I really hope this scene does not turn into another PS3 scene where people are in it only for the efame or money.
So because one tester decided to leak, this means the whole community is rotten? No, it means this guy was just a dick. Perhaps leave this project in the dust, but it’s no reason to leave a scene.
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There was lots of work involved, by many people. It is difficult to explain how bad this is, but some people spent months on this, including planning how this could be released in a safe way. That’s lots of work down the toilet. Sure it took only one guy to ruin it, and not everybody should suffer from this, but hackers will always find at least one guy like this one to ruin their work, and in that type of situation, it’s not worth the work, the stress, and in general it feels like it’s not worth fighting for the scene.
It’s also not the first time Coldbird runs into that type of situation, it was the last one he could bear, I guess.
Finally, there’s enough legal potential trouble with this that I understand if a guy just wants to completely dissociate from whatever is going to happen next. Really can’t blame Coldbird for that. The legal risk is not worth the Fame that this Sam Jordam is trying to get.
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I understand this, I read Coldbird’s blog, but abandoning 99% of the scene because of the 1% seems a bit much.
I respect his decision, but at the same time really hope that he comes back, he is an awesome and talented dev. What is especially rare is he took part in the forums here and interacted with Joe Blow.
I don’t think Sony will go after anyone in this. Reason being that the files are not really usable by the public (can’t sue for damages as no damage occurred), can be patched by them easily, and the people who created it are unknown/unreachable. The leaker is nothing but that sadly, he did not touch Sony’s code and modified it. Well, I do hope Sony does manage to ram this leaker a new on in court, but I do not have any expectations.
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“and the people who created it are unknown/unreachable.”
That’s the problem, though, the people who have worked on this are not unknown or unreachable. And if it ever gets to the point where Sony sends a subpoena about your involvement, you can’t really lie.
And I really wouldn’t wish a wasteful lawsuit upon “Sam,” even if he did really fuck us over for his own greed. He’s just some idiot who couldn’t properly weigh the risks and possible benefits of his actions, and took no consideration for the feelings of the people who had actually spent much of their time working on this stuff. And, lucky him, he can get his fame, but as a pariah. Well deserved, since he managed to piss off a developer with some of the most promising work thus far.
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this sucks
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Hopefully no one else gets tied in with him if Sony decides to take action. I hope they slam him hard.
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Thank you Coldbird for your efforts in the scene. We will miss you and most of us understand why you made the decision to leave. I for one do not blame you for leaving seeing as how Sony may want to take legal action as they did on Geohot.
It’s really a shame that all of that work basically went to waste because of one leaker. But I suppose it won’t go to waste. Thanks for the help, Wololo, earlier.
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I hope sony will get Sam Jordam and blame him for this.. he should be blocked from every homepage which has something to do with homebrew on psp or psvita to prevent him to do something like this again-.-
hopefully Coldbird then comes back.
btw. if you like the psvita page on facebook you will receive two games for free.. one of them is PSP Mini Urbanix
but i dont know if this still works.-
no it does not work any more but that was why we stressed people to get them, a release was planed and frankly it was not to far off but thats all gone now =__=
BTW it sure would have made a nice Christmas present wouldn’t it :3
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Would have been a great christmas present
fortunately i already own the game and i’m still on 1.8 with monsterhunter exploit
hope someone is able to reverseengineer those files and work on it.
i start thinking about learning to code for the vita.. i’m sure it will be difficult but i already program in C,C++,Java, Assembler and AutoIt. so maybe in a few months/years i’ll be able to make my own exploits^^-
it sounds like you already know a fair amount ^__^
well I suggest starting with finding a user mode exploit and porting HBl then start learning some MIPS cause you are going to need to be good with it to find kernel exploits
also kxploits a few and far between so yea the loss of one is a very big deal >__<
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i think i will start by trying to understand how the hbl for monsterhunter works and as soon as i have enough knowledge to make one myself i will try to port it to urbanix. and if i get it to work perfectly i will also search for my own exploitable game so i can upgrade my vita without losing hbl
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Is it possible to buy it from PSn on my PSP, transfer it to the PC with Media Go (or something, never actually used that with my Go) and then use open CMA to get it on my PS Vita?
Don’t mind buying the game if I can get it over, but don’t want to lose my MHFU obtained VHBL at the moment.Thanks
Mike..
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as i know it only works if you buy it on the ps3 and transfer it via proxy to your vita.. I didnt hear anything about a tool that could transfer from psp to vita
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Well, im happy to be able to be “in the light”, but unhappy with the way this happened. Im one of those users that pretty much have to be spoon fed, i have the knowledge to use tools given to me, but given is the important word in that sentence. I add nothing to the scene except my own opinions which are rather useless. I would have been willing to wait had it meant a greater chance for sucess for the vita albeit the loss of someone who knew what they were doing with the device.
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So sorry to see you cold bird but as it has been said in the past, we appreciate all of your work and will greatly miss you. Thank your everything and sorry that one goober ruined it for the future of all users. At this point I will be staying on 1.80 and not bothering with the pick up of this new game. I will be waiting for a legit release and the better of the community has been this entire time.
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Coldbird isn’t leaving, hes hiding. (who can blame him) Its stupid, but we knew it was gonne happen. There is so much talent, we knew there where kexploits around, just not publicly and that was good, let the hackers enjoy, and let game company’s still make profit.
Sad thing is, that the PSP is now also kinda dead
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ohhh
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Wololo, now that everybody knows that Urbanix exploitable will we see VHBL port soon? Unfortunately I missed Monster Hunter ninja release but i’m on 1.80 and i already have Urbanix…
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I learned about this leak at the same time as everybody else, 2 days ago. I did try to port VHBL to this exploit on 1.81 but for now it doesn’t work. Since the exploit is now open, *everybody* can try to port VHBL and fix it, not only me.
I’ll do my best either way, but I’m just saying, I’m not any more clever than anybody else out there -
Thank you. I’ll wait then
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but, what will happen with the ProOnline? will it now go dead?
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I don’t know for sure yet
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No, PRO Online will be the only homebrew I will keep supporting.
Its too important of a project in keeping the bit of PSP that still breathes – alive.
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thanks, you’re great (i can imagine how can it feel like to throw everything away in an instant…i used to be a modder in the GTA community, and when my hdd malfunctioned and i had to format my disk, i left the scene…it was my main freetime activity)
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awesome.
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Thank you
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Thank you Coldbird, Hold your head high sir, you are a legend!
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It really is a shame to see you go :’( we do all understand why but it still sux. Take care and stop by here and there
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Haha, I just watched the video of the cfw and realized that Sam didnt even block his mac address. LMao, Sony is going to have a field day with him and they should.
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it’s not his mac address…
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Goodbye Coldbird ;_;7
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Hah! I’m glad to see all this leaker got was internet hatred.
Though I must note, It’s sad to see bonds of trust get smashed for oh so stupid reasons. I wish Coldbird nothing but the best in whatever he does next.
Dammit, it’s just a sad day in homebrew for the Vita
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What does the leak files do? running a iso loader or just showing us that a kernel exploit is possible?
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The files are locked to one specific Vita, they will not be useful to anybody until somebody decrypts them.
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Thanks!
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I’m totally for Piracy and reason is to hard to explain in text but this guy seems like no good as a person, i’ll just keep watching your “blog” for more news about the vita, thanks for the VHBL its awesome<3
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I’m a bit confused… I’d urbanix only got a user mode exploit? we don’t need it for this kernel exploit? if I stick with monster hunter vhbl will I still be able to use the kernel exploit or cfw of anyone manages to decrypt it.
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Yes, I believe if the kernel exploit gets reversed, it will work on Monster Hunter as well
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I don’t understand though. I thought kernel exploits were within games themselfs. like the monterhunter exploit is a user mode one. I thought someone had to find a exploit in a game that gave kernel access or is a kernel exploit something completely different entirely? so urbanix isn’t a kernel exploit will have no benefit for me if I’m still on 1.80 monster hunter freedom unite exploit?? so how does loading a kernel exploit via a user mode exploit work? sorry to bombard you with all these question, I’m not really that clued up in all this.
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Google for “privilege escalation”
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So basically, you need a usermode exploit to access to kexploit, but the kexploit is not related to theoriginal games usermode exploit, it is in the firmware, would that explain it Wololo?
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Yes, that is a good explanation
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lol I read down to the name of the game then bought it with my ps3 but obviously I can’t transfer it without updating the PS vita. I should have read the full article before I rushed into it. atleast I’ve only wasted £1.74. has anyone ever played this mini, is it any good?
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$ony made the game free, do you really think it would be a good game???
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Kids everywhere… Why can’t the hacking scene be limited to grown-ups only?
It isn’t the first time Coldbird leaves the scene, though. Or is it?
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Kids… Some kids are talented, like TN. So yeah… some kids could be blocked.
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On the one hand, it’s really sad that such a mess has happened. We lost a excellent scene member, 4 months of collaboration work, a good amount of scene trust and other stuff.
On the other hand, I can understand coldbird’s reason to leave the scene, I might do the same thing in his place. I just hope that it will be a lesson to people who think (I wonder if they really think anything) that leaking doesn’t hurt anybody.
Anyway, thank you coldbird for everything you did for the scene. -
has this kernel exploit all been coldbirds work? of the files are encrypted and nothing is actually working then surly Sony can’t patch anything except this new user mode exploit. so why does he need to leave, does this not mean that his work is still safe at the moment.
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It will only take somebody skilled enough to reverse the encryption, from what I understand, it was just here to “delay” skilled people, and “stop” people with no technical skills. I assume people at Sony will find the exploit if they look for it. I am not even sure the exploit itself is encrypted.
The only question is, will they waste time reverse engineering these files…As far as Colbird leaving the scene is concerned, that is a personal decision, with lots of parameters involved. It is difficult to explain without digressing too much into various personal stuff.
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that’s such a shame for the guy. he must be absolutely fuming right now. does anyone know how long he’s been working on this?
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Four months. And it was a group work.
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no, sony can decrypt anything, remember, they made the security and they can open the security on their files, so when sony gets their hands on this files it will get patched in a matter of days, maybe hours…
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Well, no. Sony didn’t make this security, coldbird and the team made this and all the security.
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Coldbird could not encrypt into what Sony uses to encrypt. Its a different encryption system, depending on the way it could take hours to years.
I suppose it won’t be to hard to break. But then again its like blood diamonds, not cause its nice to have, you really want them as your center piece.
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so theres no point in geting the mini Urbanix anymore is there?
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you can get it and wait for the unencrypted version to be released, but you must not at any circumstances update your vita if you want this exploit to work…
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Poor coldbird…
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i knew it! i knew there was something good coming up, but thanks to this piece of shit, will probably never happen, and to Coldbird best wishes man!
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Hadn’t Coldbird already quit the scene?
He is LiquidZigong, also known as Team Promotheus and is VirtuosFlame is well.
Mark my words, he’ll come back xD
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he is not VF but they are good friends ^__^
last time some troll threw a cheap shot at him so he left in a fit-o-ragebut this time its a bit different
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Will Goodluck to this swiper and Goodluck to him if he ever reverse engineered the code. Hope this will not be the last of all hackers ending their scene in PSvita earlier.
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Thanks for everything Coldbird! I will never forget you!
Goodbye
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can somebody please give me a link of a tutorial on how to use Charles proxy to transfer games from my ps3 to Vita on 1.80
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h t t p : / / w o l o l o . n e t / t a l k / v i e w t o p i c . p h p ? p = 1 7 2 2 2 1 # p 1 7 2 2 2 1
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i got urbanix almost since i bought ps vita, for free even…
along with jewel keepers.. thats maybe the only 2 gifts i ever received from sony
good to know that one of these was a great game (jk) and the other one is xploitablepoint now is: i can’t manage anymore files with opencma
could this be related to this new leak?
it’s since it came out 2 days ago that it wont work anymore with me..
..i want to give the files a try, and suddenly it stops working, in 2 different pc
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All good things shall be released in good time.
It only takes one person to screw it all up for everyone else.
A lot of us would want to see that exploit released when the time is right. Now it is ultimately useless thanks to this guy.Thank you Coldbird for everything you have worked for. May you return someday with good news.
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Now this is a big hit in the face, I been around
enough to say that this is not good news for anyone,
CB has been a very strong coder If i may say one of the
best the scene has to give and now gone because one little
MF throw his work in the trash, what “Jordan Trash” did was
not Only destroy month of work he manage to take are best
Soldier on the scene,Is like ur building a house with lots of
Details and after 4 month of hard work someone just come
from no where and says demolish it i dont like the idea plus
U are no longer the contractor. Iam not very happy with this
The Psvita is not strong enough to have a CFW yet,as much
Asi like playing homebrews this leak is just plain wrong,i under
stand CB for taking this decision,iam still hoping one day he
Can come back until then good luck,hope this jordan dude gets
taking apart little by little by Sony. I’M SO MAD Right now ,dude
jordan u dont even know what u did to the Scene/Psvita.the funny part of all this,is that the scene must pay the price of not
having CB work,we will never get it,so by leaking it u did nothing but
to hurt the Scene. -
damn shame, Sam is an idiot!!
Can’t believe we were this close to a CFW and some idiot trashed it, I have no problem in buying my PSP games BUT the games I want aren’t on PSN and unfortunately look like they won’t be (Kingdom Hearts, Star Ocean to name a few). This was possibly the only way we were ever going to see them on the Vita, and they deserve to be on the Vita.
Good luck Coldbird, hopefully Sony take out there wrath on this idiot and not a dedicated hacker like you.
I hate the PS 3 and Vita scene there is way to much drama, how come the Xbox scene just seem to get on with it release hack after hack and enjoy a great scene whereas the PS scene is a nightmare. They must laugh and point at all of this!
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i got urbanix almost since i bought ps vita, for free even…
along with jewel keepers.. thats maybe the only 2 gifts i ever received from sony
good to know that one of these was a great game (jk) and the other one is xploitablepoint now is: i can’t manage anymore files with opencma
could this be related to this new leak?
it’s since it came out 2 days ago that it wont work anymore with me..
..i want to give the files a try, and suddenly it stops working, in 2 different pc -
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WOW!!!! Thanks!!! I can not wait to try it! Thanks for the New Wololo!
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I’m gonna cry… I about to get the Vita and then this?
( -
dark alex can dycrpt these files probly take care coolbird and thank you for all you done
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wot
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OMGZ… What a retard… I have seen this vid a while back with all this huff-n-puff about hackers hiding their work but all he did was steal a work-in-progress version which doesn’t actually work in its current state? That is so dumb… Coldbird – I love you since your work on the PSP Go ;***** . Don’t leave darling. We need You
.PS. Wololo or someone else – I have a 1.81 Vita and OpenCMA won’t allow the copy of these PBP files onto the Vita. How do You currently copy such files onto the memory stick? This info may be useful for me in the future. THX in advance.
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You’ve said that 1.80 monsterhunter people will likely have a shot if anything comes from this kernel exploit, what about the previous firmwares and vhbl releases? I assume due to how it all works that it probably wouldn’t be possible on the older versions; but I was just curious because I’m still enjoying vhbl on 1.67 super collapse.
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it might be possible so dont update just yet
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If this can be reversed(now that it’s leaked) and only enable 100% homebrew compatibility I’ll be happy, but at the same time I hate this bleep bleep bleep for wrecking a potantially very important exploit, and the f’d thing is we’re all talking about him now which is probably what he wanted, f this f’er
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Confession: The Z gave me the PSP Kernel exploit on PS Vita
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0U6E63MIG8&feature=plcp -
You guys block IPs or MACs? You should because of fools like him. Even for the last release when the forums got it and people were still asking around here when the game’s name would come out. I held my tongue to respect the wishes of the devs and those making it possible. When the name was released here, I chimed in on it, but nothing until then. Odds are that the leaker has no dev knowledge as anyone with a quarter of a brain in what is being accomplished knows the repercussions of an early leak. Hell I’m no dev for VHBL and I know enough to keep my mouth shut.
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what a waist to loose a kernel mode exploit
well i am still on 1.61 with urbanix game and of course the vhbl i will wait until the files are decrypted or untill a cool game is released -
hi geht der AUCH für die deutsche version
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ja aber der bringt dir nichts! dieser muss erst entschlüsselt werden.
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I was not around till when i got my psp a few days after 6.31 was released. The scene blew up then with the patapon exploit. Then, Total_Noob’s hen. After that pro came in with their’s so coldbird to me was like the new dark alex. With the 6.20 permanent patch. Allowing me to still use my psp. (“My screen is broke now. So i have to use remote joy lite.”) No matter how much hate i get for saying this. This is actually good not coldbird leaving but, the cfw never getting released. I am sorry but, a kernal exploit allows piracy. So in return if the device gets a load of it, no devolopers will be interested. I am happy on the vita with simple vhbl and eventually UVloader. Coldbird thanks, for all the hard work you put in. For real bro, after all the hate saying you just use other people’s kernal exploits and shit, was false. Whether people like to admit it it is not like it was easy to use, tn’s exploit on 6.35+. There was a lot more then i ever will know that went into it. Thanks, though and thanks again for deciding to continue on supporting pro online i will be using that, i just simply got to busy. But, yea thanks your hard work is something that, i will always appreciate as i could never do it. I am out.
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Hey everybody as many of you may know i left the scene a long time ago and have decided to come back and give the vita ago and see if i can crack it and also please forgive me for storming out on the scene like i did
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I call fakes on this……Although i do hope its true!
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Right…. This is how he would come back…
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Welcome back, Total_Noob
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Total_Noob this can’t be real if it is it big plz be real
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