Tired of all these useless PS Vita Firmware updates? You can blame us… partially
Nobody likes firmware updates. They usually happen on that evening when you just had a bit of free time to play, and you end up having to update instead. Counting the download and install time, it might sometimes even mean you won’t play today. We’d all love if there were less of them… or if at least they were meaningful.
In particular, nobody likes the “stability improvements” firmwares, which bring absolutely nothing. In case you’re not familiar with this blog, most “stability improvements” firmwares on the Vita are published in reaction to vulnerabilities we disclose on this site.
As a joke last week I tweeted : On my resume, I’ll write: “Responsible for more than half of PS Vita’s firmware updates”. Out of curiosity, I decided to check how true that statement is…
In the past 18 months, Sony released 16 firmware updates for the PS Vita. Half of them (8 exactly) had patches for exploits we revealed here at wololo.net:
- 2.61: patches the Arcade Darts exploit.
- 2.60: patches the Gamocracy one exploit.
- 2.10: Patches the Apache overkill exploit.
- 2.05: Patches the UNO exploit.
- 2.00: Patches the Urbanix, Mad blocker alpha, and Gravity crash exploits.
- 1.81: Patches the Monster hunter exploit.
- 1.69: Patches the Super collapse exploit.
- 1.66: Patches the Motorstorm and Everybody’s Tennis exploits.
(source wikipedia)
So I could pretend we are responsible for half of the Vita’s firmware updates in the past 18 months, but 4 of these also introduced actual useful features to the user (2.60, 2.10, 2.0, and 1.66), reducing our “exclusive share” to 25%.
I’m not proud or ashamed of that number, it’s just a fact: a significant share (between 25% and 50% depending on how you look at it) of the PS Vita’s firmware updates are in reply to the vulnerabilities we reveal regularly on this blog. As I’ve said before, our new catchphrase should be: “Wololo.net, making Sony nervous since 2008” (thanks to Tepoo who inspired this)
When I announced the first VHBL exploit back in 2011, I didn’t really think VHBL would still be around today. Probably like many other people, I thought the Vita would end up being fully hacked within a year or so. That turned out to be false, maybe for the best, but a side effect has been that VHBL is still going strong on the Vita. With 11 PSP user mode exploits released since 2012 and no plan to stop releasing more, VHBL is today the only way to run homebrews on the Vita (if you exclude the extremely rare psp kernel exploits that surface once in a while), and it also seems to be one of the main reason Sony releases firmware updates for the Vita.
There’s little to no reason for Sony to patch these exploits. They give users access to the PSP emulator at best, and do not impact Sony’s Vita business or games. Nevertheless, it seems they’re more in a hurry to patch those minor hacks than vulnerabilities that are actually dangerous for their customers.
Can you redo the website to make it fancy
wow, first comment is totally off-topic 😀
At least it wasn’t “first!!1!”. lol
That’s never going to happen. This website will stay crappy as it is.
Very true sir, I am not an artist, and I am too busy to take the time it would take to redesign this site.
not to mention down time on a site to make it look pretty and all lol!
I actuallt like the simplicity of the site…
It’s simple… but it does not need any advanced coding, scripting or whatever… the site works good… 😉
If there is such dangerous vulnerabilities, why hasn’t anyone done anything with them instead of giving access to a PSP emulator that doesn’t even support much stuff?
You give too much credits to Sony. Unless someone exploit something, they’re too stupid to figure out there is something to exploit.
This is why it doesn’t matter if what version you are on PS3 if you’re above 3.55, because if something is found for 3.56+, it’s gonna be there for anything 3.56 or above.
Its not exploitable for homebrew, if you just would read 3 lines of the link …
ya i think they are leaving it there to try and sell more of that bs “browser security software” like the ps3 had link to it is in one of the ps3 web browser menus think they had it for the psp as well trend micro if im not mistaking was the “software” 😆
It was fixed soon after 😐
well its not like that, I think that the exployts are the updates thet we all want, so we can use the devise for more than 1 purpase (not only play vita games,use skype and watch youtube ) and if more exployts ,then better 🙂 go on team ,you are the best and Im sure that one day you will be abel to fully open the full potential ot this devise 🙂
Personally i think they patch them so they dont get sued if someone found out us “hackers” could use vulnerabilities thinking its the same as when psn was offline for that long stretch of time (i dnt remember exactly how long)and that sony did nothing to stop it.
What is the exploit in Dissidia Duodecim? I don’t remember that one.
It says they patched that exploit on the Wikipedia page.
I believe it was an undisclosed exploit
I just wish the Vita’s homebreW/hack scene was up there with the android scene, I’m getting constant nightly ROM builds while my vita remains on 2.02 dust collecting xC
Maybe 2 more years before we see a native CFW
Android is open source….
^^ and? Sony chose to be closed source..
lol.. infamous article.. need more attention huh?
that exploit it’s a waste of time..
Wrote this before but this is appropriate.
And now we present to you… the Struggle.
User: Hey Sony I have a bug. Can you fix this for me?
Sony: Does it exploit the firmware?
User: No…
Sony: You can live with it then! It’s nothing dangerous!
A week later…
Wololo: Hey guys we got this ***’ new VHBL exploit!
Sony: Required Patch. NAOW.
Nothing wrong with keeping Sony busy … If at all it gives Sony some time to think about what to include in a new update besides patching the goods..every update just means we get a possibility to get something good out of it
Lol wololo, you have to admit it was pretty comical!(Well least for me.) 😀
hahahahahaha your cool
How do you know my hobbies don’t? Or that I care yours do?
In all seriousness, your post is a valid point, but one summed up in one tweet and extrapolated into an epeen *** here.
I know it’s your blog and I can choose to not read it, but humility is nicer to see, writing what people want to read and not just what you want to write.
I, quite frankly, have enjoyed this blog post. You should also note wololo’s usage of “we” in many key points, more-or-less implying he’s not only wanking his own epeen, but many of our epeens as well :).
Epeen wanks for everyone!
I think it wasn’t about bragging, it was just a funny observation and food for thought. Guess we have some mental anorexiacs here, tho 😛
We all have our views on it, ‘s okay.
Well, if you combine his use of “We” with his “worship me comment” We could assume he is more like a divine entity. You know a god-like creature that is one and many at the same time… This could be used another web show series, you know where we could use something like this for the intro.
He is one and many, he is here and there, always looking, searching and coding. None has actually seen him and rumours say that he is not alone. Sony fears him and hates him at the same time. Wololo his name is and VHBL his work… or something like that.
Then the anime style music will start and then an inspirational song with cuts of psps, vitas and many of the other things that happen in the website. In fact he could even start his posts with the phrase. “Previously in Wololomania!” Think about how epic that would be!
Or he might be Geno from Super Mario RPG… You know when he said “We know about you”
@Guy, you got a point, and I was just trying to make a joke in my reply to you, apparently several people didn’t understand that, so sorry for my poor attempt at humor
Maybe we should stop pubish the exploits until someone finds way to access more to vita thru the exploit. I’m not a hack. I know nothing about hacking the system. I can be wrong. But maybe, just maybe. One of the exploit is the key to everything. So, keep them away from Sony for now. I think most of us would wait for months for a kernel exploit than a few days for a user mode…
didn’t expect to be this long writing…
Wololo please
Ps vita features and bugs were improved/fixed in these updates
1.52
1.60
1.65
1.66
1.80
2.00
2.01
2.10
2.60
Source: wiki
not just 2.60, 2.10, 2.0, and 1.66
Those missing versions are (correct me if I’m wrong) are updates that Sony found and patched themselves.
Wololo,
All of the exploits that Sony tries to patch usually bring good thing with them. Update 2.00 for example, to patch the kernel exploits, brought us several improvements to the Vita.
2.60 to 2.61 ?
I love peanut butter and bannas for luch anyone else everbcombined the two?
I do, I have it for breakfast.
Wrap them with Bacon and you will be tasting Heaven first hand. Hmmm. Bacon.
I would like to say that is not important to play homebrews on vita. This is somehow releated with being free. If i paid for an electronic device i would like to use it most efficiently which mean i want to break the jails. (iphone users know more than everyone) well it’s good to have hackers at all.
any chance to kick off sonys firmware and bring on android on the vita?
It’s not really funny, but I think Sony is getting a huge amount of €/$/Y for every new exploit. Developing a new update which discloses the old exploit, sony has a new exploit game, probably with a higher price 😀 So the VHBL scene on the vita is useful for sony, but I think they really wouldn’t have to force us to every little senseless update like 2.61 without any ‘bugfixes’. They should only force us to update if we find a way to rip Vita games and vita data, but I won’t 😀
I agree with you on that, why can’t we find demo’s with exploits instead of paid games?
Think of those who bought almost every exploit since owning the device and multiply by a 100. Sony is making money out of this like you won’t believe. I only bought my device recently and one of the last exploits.
(no more online time for me though, this will have to wait till something more solid pops up)
sony is too preoccupied with blocking a harmless exploit rather than improve on the vita’s features. did they even fix the ps store download bug? they’ve known about it forever. do they even know how to fix it? it’d be pretty sad if they didn’t
Yeah honestly you should stop with VHBL, most of psv owners do not care at all, play psp isos ou old N64? What’s the point?
You should do usefull stuff with the skills you all have in programming like allow the vita to play mkvs, flac etc. Or even develop an application for the store, one of your choice or liking. Ask the community what they wish.
You are wasting so much time with a pointless thing, just to play cat and mouse with Sony?
You are talented guys, I’m sure you can way more interesting stuff.
Pointless thing? PSP Isos? First of all, this website doesn’t encourage piracy if that’s what you mean by Isos. As for the N64 stuff, some people do like it, but there’s more to homebrew than just that, you’ve got Download Managers, Web Servers, Wagic, CheatDevices, plugins, anaglyphic 3D gameplay!
I love the “matter of fact” tone I get from you ^__^
If you did a bit of research you would know nothing like that is possible at the moment and even if something was somehow magically made you can’t run it.
U mad? <3
These are just a bunch of kids who don’t understand the possibilities of our current exploit methods. They think anything can just happen. They mistake hard-working Devs who work for free, for a group of nerds in an elite club.
Typical response from a child. You got a lot of growing up today….seriously.
To do i mean….
i think a lot of people are.. especially due to the free playstation mobile license.. so yeah, instead of free psp homebrew we could have some $1 psm homebrew.. it is too expensive to make proper vita apps but psm is easy enough and a little bit more powerful than psp, although with limits.. but yeah, if someone made a good media player that played lots of formats, i’d buy that for a dollar.
At this point with everything the vita isn’t allowed to do because sony is trying really hard to keep it from being anything like a tablet, I’m just keeping my eyes peeled for another dual joysticked touchscreen that CAN at least more than the vita behave like a tablet. It’s a crying shame that tablets want to be more like a gaming platform than the gaming platform wants to be like them, apparently sony is allergic to money or something. Thanks for all the hard work and the exploits to all the devs : )
What about the Nvidia shield?
“Counting the download and install time, it might sometimes even mean you won’t play today.”
Maybe if you connect to the internet via telegraph…
If I intend to play something I usually plan with a little bit more than 5 minutes of time.
Good for you. I usually don’t have more than 30mins of “me” time a day, so an unexpected update can mean the end of my gaming session.
Nice one kid, that comment really hurt him in the emotional level
No, you go F yourself wololo.
@Wololo
Oh please you’re just a freaking sponsor nothing more, you don’t work on any of the hacks. Anyone who say’s there are important is delusional and stupid. Yet your replying to the comments whether it’s negative or not.
This *worship* me bullsh*it. You’re an idiotic little cun9t.
Ahem…i meant basement dweller.
I was obviously being sarcastic about the ‘worship me’ part, sorry if my divine sense of humor got lost on you.
About the ‘sponsor’ part, it’s easy to forget who spent hundreds of hours making hbl/vhbl portable so easily to any game exploit in the first place. And if I’m only a ‘sponsor’ today, that doesnt void my work from the past 5 years on wagic, hbl, and vhbl, does it?
Also enlighten me on whose tutorials most people use today to find these exploits, write binary loaders, and port VHBL.
Don’t get me wrong, finding exploits is time consuming and porting VHBL to them is not as easy as it could be. But if it weren’t for me, it wouldn’t be possible at all.
So before you criticize my current lack of technical involvement (which is mostly due to lack of time since I got a kid), how about you consider your own contributions to the scene and tell me how you’re contributing more than I did?
@Wololo
Don’t worry I will worship you any way and will do more if you pay attention to my ideas, you could be the internet’s next big thing and I will be your agent ready to take all the revenue… ehem I mean manage the calls… and the money.
Why this post doesn’t appear at the home of the site?
Caching.
You guys who are getting angry over wololos “worship me” comment do realize he said that to a random who thinks he’s on a p-rn site, right?!
Although I do not worship wololo, he is the sole reason why I have found so many of these exploits on this website. No, he didn’t actually do these exploits, but would you rather go to 5 seperate websites of the creators to see their exploits or a one-in-all website which has everything. Dude even has a link to the guys to contribute them when he creates an article on such exploits.
I see wololo getting put up with so much ish on this website, and he usually goes out of his way to apologize when one doesn’t deserve. At least thank the guy for this website, why are you here then?
Yes screw Sony! Well now to go buy more of there product’s!
I came here for Wagic. Your homebrew is the best of the best out there. Your work on this beats all the work on those exploits released. You gave us many was to play it with the exploits and Sony is too blind to see that in fact, these exploits helps them selling more Vitas.
I wonder how much money Sony spent to get those games patched…
they probably have a team that gets paid either way.. so probably not much money at all..
PS4. expect me. pardon me english. im spanish. friends i have DEVS for PS4 i has access to the root/ keys. expect to see no PUBLIC PS4 hacks. expect that it the keys wont be leaked. had a good day,. good bye. rip my previous work. PS: when ps4 comes out ill be realsiing OPEN SOURCE of all my PSP work. old stuff. intresting yes to those who know what to look at.
*** dark alex speaks better english then the poser above me.
if only devs can create an app that would copy the game to the vita memory stick like the umd dumper did for the psp….if only (._. )
I see they eventually fixed the browser spoof bug.. Since Sony actively moniters this site, perhaps we should use it as a form of public relations with them. Meaning publish articles about glaring issues concerning the Vita.
Vita is Dead… It is used for a Jukebox in my Game room. Where I have my PC, Laptop, and Dual Xbox360 setup that actually I have *** to play.
My PS3 is in the closet no need for it… Last of us was a short game..
Vita is dead… it never lived…
heads up
Good luck… But, did you ever seen someone doing it… possibly you was watching into a mirror, you did see yourself…
this site the best with out it I don’t know wat to do with my ps vita the only game I have is AC:retribution do have a psp 1000 hacked with Prometheus on it like others ps3 not being used but wololo and the z are like my game system heros ty to all 🙂
not your fault wooloo as long as the DMCA exists, as long as copyright infringement is considered an criminal offense, “friendly corporations” like Sony, Nintendo, and MS will always fight off the hackers. No one is buying the Vita anyway mainly because of the economic crisis (Americans are broke) and the Vita has lots of hidden fees, a lot of it is tied to the memory cards.
The only way people will be free to mod and hack the Vita however they will like is when copyright either abolished or drastically reduced. It’s not that I support piracy, but I believe without copyright more people would be buying games, and the costs would be much cheaper.