PS Vita exploit releases: the new way of the Ninja?
I stopped counting how many exploits have been released over the past 2 years to run either VHBL (Homebrew loader) or TN-V (Custom Firmware) on our Vitas. I think we’re close to 20 by now. As we discovered several years ago, releasing an exploit for the always-connected PS vita would never be as easy as it used to be for the PSP.
Back in 2012, I introduced the concept of “Ninja releases“, where we secretly announce the name of an exploited game to our community (members of /talk) in a progressive way, in order to avoid Sony from removing it from their stores. Eventually, we do announce the name of the exploited game publicly, which usually leaves a few days for people “not in the list” to get the exploit before Sony removes the game from their store.
This release mechanism has shown its strengths over the past 2 years, but also weaknesses. There’s so much trust we can put in a “small” community of 50’000 people, and recently we’ve seen that the information tends to leak before we could do a proper public announce. A few times, Sony was made aware of the exploit before we could announce it.
Overall this means today that it is extremely difficult for “new” people on the scene to get access to the exploits, and the lack of trust also frustrates the devs who put hundreds of hours in these hacks, just to see them pulled by Sony because a handful of people can’t seem to hold their tongue.
As a result of this frustration, hackers are trying new techniques to release their hacks. Recently, both Acid_snake and Mathew_wi have taken upon themselves to release their own exploits in a different way: by releasing them secretly to a handful of people, and never make a public announcement. Of course, this means the exploit never makes it to the masses, but it dramatically decreases the risk of a leak, as all the winners of the “secret” have personal interest in not revealing the exploit.
Does this mean there will not be any more Ninja releases in the future? Honestly, I can’t tell, but I think it will depend on the next Vita Firmware, a lot. We’re all a bit surprised that Sony hasn’t released a new PS Vita firmware yet, and with 4 public exploits announced so far for the latest firmware 3.01, I think hackers are willing to try a few new things until the next firmware. But I am hearing feedback that these random giveaways do not feel any more “fair” than the old school ninja releases. What are your thoughts on that?
The 10 winners for Acid_Snake’s giveaway have already been selected, but in order to not get them harassed, their names have been kept a secret. Mathew_wi’s giveaway is still ongoing, and you can still participate.
Some ideais for future concepts of ninja releases:
1-Create a php page protected by forum username and password, that only show the name of the game when the persons open the page with a ps vita (based on useragent) (maybe the best idea)
2-Diffuse the name of the game via video or via audio private live stream on the forum, at a marked hour.
3-Put the name of the exploit in a 3rd party private network or protocol page, such a tor
4-Create (and announce) a private group somewere on the web that the person should join some time before the release of exploit. After, release the exploit on the private group.
It would to great to see if this actually jump started work on a native vita hack
What’s the point of this site anyways?
If exploits aren’t going to be released to anybody but to 1 or 2 people in a giveaway then why bother.
Devs should just keep the exploits to themselves. If people want to play a PSP game they can 1. Buy a PSP they are cheap or 2. buy the PSP game in the sony store.
Well, im disappointed, yet i understand it completely.
For someone that is fairly new, not to say completely new to community, who recently, like less than a month or so bought Vita im devastated, and that is to be said like “At least.” To collect not so little sum of money, at least not so little where i live, to end up with pretty much unusable Vita is.. well sad. I somehow hoped in next exploit to grab it as fast as i can, but by reading this.. my heard broke a part, simply just by thinking about the odds of a win in those private giveaways.
As for a normal human.. i understand the fustration about putting so much hours into something just to be destroyed before its even released.
Well.. its understandable, it must be from a logic point, but from a personal point.. i really feel let down and well, bad.. i really counted on next exploit, to actually make my Vita usable.
I guess that i can only keep silent and really hope that you will release another public exploit, even against logic and better judgement.
Im shocked they dont just do a donate only option at this point, if people really want an exploit they shouldnt have a problem helping the developers probably be a little bit nicer, assuming that they wont get leaked and still it should only be a small selection of people. but oh well seems like if you dont have a exploit at this point it might not come again to bad for people like me who got rid of the psps for the vita just to see a lack of games on the vita lol oh well it happens
private releases will never be fair.
only a few random users on the message board will get it? lol.
one of the stupidest methods ever.
atleast with ninja everyone gets it eventually an isn’t left out.
好吧，那我就老老实实玩正版游戏
wow…that sucks lol, but i understand and it sucks for new users like me that now have to “win” an exploit instead of patiently waiting for it. The people who leaked it should have their ip address banned lol
Why not release the name of the exploit to people group by group secretly, like by 10s?
And release the name to 7-10 groups?
I agree, I think there should be groups of people that we can form on the forum itself and then by group these exploits would be revealed to them so that a few number of people can enjoy an exploit release. For example 10 people X 25 = 250, 100 X 25 = 2500 which is not a bad number.
i am glad to see a few ppl chosen this is a good idea wether im in or not, it’s no use getting sour over something this important besides i already have an exploit! =)
In my opinion it’s a pretty terrible idea. Both of these exploits will eventually be leaked, and a total of 30 people plus devs will have ever gotten them. Even a ninja release that is immediately sc*** up goes to more than ~50 people.
That^ lots of that^
But only time will tell I suppose
I Do not agree. It’s unfair to the masses. 🙁
i agree if picking on we all random all the time there might be a chance that somebody might get twice but on ninja release you , wololo why don’t youwait for like three days before making a public realease would be more resonable
To be fair, the exploits could be released publicly once Sony patches them. (whether due to a leak or simply an effort on Sony’s part to patch some more holes)
But even OpenCMA/PS3 limits the number of potential users, and this is *assuming* that Sony never patches that technique. Sony has waited so long on this next firmware update that, if not for the PS4 as an excuse, I wouldn’t be surprised if they patched a fair number of PSPemu vulnerabilities.
But the whole ninja release idea kind of won me over once it became obvious that it actually did work much better than a sudden public release, and I don’t think tiny limited releases will necessarily prevent Sony from patching exploits. (or leaks… it just takes one person mentioning it in passing to a friend or someone they trust, and that friend not understanding the “importance” of it being kept entirely secret)
I like how Sony clearly allows the psp emu the be hack… Yet upgradding only the ps vita side of the psvita.
Well it doesn’t matters if you stop Ninja releases they will also get the game once it is publicly announced so its a better thing actually. This way the game wont be removed from the stores before it was even announced.
There is no public release
I wonder what the result would be, if those many hours spent on a thing that can be emulated on PC anyway, would have been dedicated to actually making a CFW for PS Vita.
Imagine if instead of driving to work everyday, you were spending the same amount of time improving your car to change it into a rocket that would take you to Mars. Surely you would have reached it by now.
Or imagine if you had thought about what you typed, before typing it… The possibilities are mind blowing 🙂
So like wen vita fist came out it was more posiible but then there was an upgrade so yea been harder fo the one that upgrade to well get to the dolphin screen so best that been working fo now is able to hack the psp side of the vita well if they jus hacked the ps4 thing be easier but hardware hacks r doing real good…
Please don’t use this method. It’s bad enough I never got a release in time, but now I have absolutely 0% chance of ever, ever getting a exploitable game. :/
What? You have a .0001 to .0005 chance, depending upon the number of winners. ;P
We’d probably have a better chance of finding the exploit on our own with the aid of the tutorials, haha.
lol. this guy. but true tho Ü
*** leakers damn i might stay for a long time in 3.01 and finish first my psp backlogs before updating .. megamix for a long time
i hope somebody just report those *** leakers,,
No biggy with the leaker i was jus if I could realy hack iwould have made every fing game on psn free and already puchesed by every one with a psn acccount but I think I would have to change a 0 to a one on the psn 2 do that.. but they be jus defacing website and canging word like Russian to Nazi wich is still kinduf funny…
I figured this would happen. Those of us with some knowledge should maybe look further into these exploits and make our own. Is this a possibility????. I have done a little research into this, and i think that it would be possible if you have spare time. 🙂
What a pity way! “Save it for yourself”! So what the *** is this site all about!? Crazy *** things from Dr.***!? Shut it down or make it for your own ***!
For the people saying that this method sucks or that it shouldn’t be done, just remember that the exploit is NOT yours, developers decide to release it however they feel like. One thing is to give ideas and tips, but another is just blatantly criticize the dev that is bringing you the exploit for no money at all.
It is an objectively worse method than ninja releases.
I also read some skepticism in wololo’s post, though it is not blatant so it could certainly be my bias.
The entire idea of “it’s free and it belongs to the dev” still means that the dev is intentionally “helping” fewer people than if it were released via the ninja method. This could be mitigated to some extent if these exploits are ultimately released for PS3/OpenCMA users once they are (inevitably) patched, but “this is beyond criticism” is an absurd stance.
Also, the “dev” or “devs” brought these exploits to 25 + 5 people total. So I guess everyone other than those 30 people can criticize the method, yeah? ;P
You suck because you deleted my comment!
Only I have the admin rights to delete comments on the blog. And I did not delete your comment, it just didn’t make it through the spam filter (and I decided it wasn’t worth salvation), that’s slightly different.
Oh, I get it. You mean you suck then! ^^ ADMIN ^^
I think this will clears it out and WORTH SALVATION!
LMAO Wololo! You coward! You really suck! You deleted my post x2! Or say worthen salvationinged it! That was the *** quotes of yours, right!?
@Mosi, honey, why don’t you go play somewhere else and let the grownups talk?
GROWNUP!? Don’t make me laugh kiddo! OK, keep barkin’, I wont bother…
Ah, apologies Mosi, based on your vocabulary and writing skills, I wrongly assumed you were 12.
Could you please go back to spamming YouTube? This is a site for mature discussions about consoles and mods. Thank you.
The people whinging about this are those that are at fault in the 1st place, and to be honest i truly feel that they have joined just to troll *** and harm anything vita related either due to them being fanboys of other consoles or just butthurt they’re not the ones finding these exploits, it is really immature and has over the past 2 years made this scene look a joke. I remember when most if not all exploits were kept relatively down low and everyone had a chance to use them no its just become a complete waste of time for the developers that work the butts off to make these things available to the people who actually would like to do more then just the stock sony firmware allows. The fact they do it for nothing is a true testament to the guys working hard to find these exploits, i just wish people would grow up and see the bigger picture.
To Acid_Snake and Mathew_wi thanks for all the hard work you have done for the scene and hope you find many more exploits that you can use to the full extent.
The same thing happened with Coldbird which was a truly sad time for the scene.
All the best guys and may your futures be bright 🙂
haha, yes, every critique is faked by a hater.
Good boy!!! Here’s your snack! Just bend over!
Meh. Obviously this doesn’t solve anything, but it’s up to the exploiters to decide what they’ll do with their exploits. Good on them. At this point, I’m pretty sure Sony’s working to patch any and all vulnerabilities concerning the Vita’s PSP exploit. That’s probably why they’re holding off the update (I hope I’m wrong, but it always good to be cautious). In any case, it’s been what, three years now since the Vita’s come out? The homebrew community is still as tiny as ever, which makes me doubt if there will ever be Vita CFW. If there is, there’s a good chance it’ll need an external R4-type card.
Are Vita sales even going up these days? Not sure, but it seems to be a dying console if anything. Meanwhile, the 3DS continues sells like hot cakes because of the awesome game library and the ability to exploit it fully.
I think the random giveaways are a great idea for releasing exploits, they keep a low number of people with the exploit and also give those people a reason to to share for fear of it becoming mass knowledge and Sony removing the game altogether. It would be nice though to see these giveaways being sent out to multiple hundreds of people at a time, but considering the developers have to make the exploit, judge the entries then personally send a message to the winners and also trust these members will not share it I can see how they would be reluctant on doing such things. Anyway great work Acid_Snake and Mathew_Wi for all your hard work on these exploits and giving some users who missed the opportunity for previous exploits a second chance to jump on board.
I feel sorry for the one’s that didn’t get the exploit in time. Hopefully the vita will be fully hacked soon or Sony allows a dev mode . I don’t see why not more people would develop game and app if they had full control.
Create a simple mobile app – push notify everybody at once. People can all hit the download at once and people who miss it, miss it. At least everybody gets a fair shot?
No. This would give away the name of the game to Sony within minutes because of the unusual traffic to the game’s PSN entry. Ninja releases are made to avoid that, so this doesn’t solve that problem
have chance to win:D
I just wish there was a way for those of us who were actually trying to get the exploit to get a hold of it be 4 it has been leaked I was away with the army when it got leaked and came back to find that it had been pulled you can imagine my surprise and frustration I got my vita 2 months ago and missed the exploits I honestly didn’t even no about this site I just wish people knew how to keep there mouths closed your ruining it for everyone who actually would enjoy the exploits
Thanks Acid_Snake and Mathew_wi for all the work you have done for the scene, you merited a donation for your work.
I was just thinking a thing of these… a lot of people don’t care about hacking so there is no reason to tell them when a new hack arrives. I think to tell it secretly and let the news spread around slowly passing through interested people only is the right path. In this maner we can ensure the hacks reach as many people is possible. Another way is to pay the developers in ordere to registering their copy of the hack… this should protect the work of the programmers and our desires.
what i believe? is that and exploit should be announce in secret only
to the old members of wololo.net so they can have there own private
exploit not for the exploit to be release to random people. its funny
when old members don’t have and opportunity to have a private
exploit and some one that register 3 days away gets the chance to
have a private exploit.
In the past 24 months we’ve publicly released dozens of exploits from those devs you call “selfish”. Where were you when we released the 20 previous exploits? You’re right, you might as well find your own, with that kind of attitude.
I didnt mean to come off as a *** im just a little *** about how i missed the exploits but it doesnt really matter now chances are i wont get one especially cuz im new and psn doesnt accept my credit card so disregard what i said cuz im *** out of luck. good luck
Like wololo said, there’s been nearly two FREAKING BLOODY DOZEN exploits released already. So yeah find your own damn exploit and kwitcherbichen. It’s no ones fault but your own if you’re 2 years late to the party chief.
Well still missed the 3.01 exploits don’t mind not realy a big thing don’t think iam in a ps4 titan falls only on Xbox one online gaming shity to me now days so no rush to get the 3.01 exploit but lucky us Sony has yet to update the psvita firm even since after the secound one or third exploit was leak. Nice on the effort of messing with Sony and Microsoft accounts on the online gaming shity now days… Thks I had a few good Lough about that.. but kids got injustice god anint us and it won’t me to update after 2-06 was like wy 2-06 wy not the new 3.01 then I remember in 2.06 then added the merry card upgrade and was thing then it be hard transfer sumthing from the vita meet card to the game cartrigr then was can only download add on that go from left card to game card then was wy not jus transfer from the psp emu to the game card to load the hack of the game card then tough Sony tought of that after the game add on inspection wear in 1.80 there the first security measure from that and upgrade around that after that… With the upgrade to the system setting funny with all theses skilled spammers now days and hacks that let one remote a phone with a txt that fully hacking the vita still hard I can see wear was more posiible before.Sony lock the the vita browser cheat… But they wear jus small patches would think if u jus hit the patches with simple reves enginering that u can easyly by pass them patches..
Well wy not jus public realise ninjah realises and secret realses jus random every outher exploit or sumthing that way with a public realises people still have a fifty fifty chance to get the game same as ninjah releases a public realese people can acutly all get the news the same time and well I be facebooking thing if I could tell my facebook ppl an not worry try to keep it a secret but ninjah realises been working good so far even with the lleacks there still wad a large number of people that did get the game.
When’s the next exploit gonna be announced? I am so itching to play super mario world on my vita >_<
Well, this method kinda sucks, since those who don’t win are stuck without a way to get homebrew, but I’m not concerned, since even when there were ninja releases, the only people who could take advantage of it were people who could buy games freely instead of having a limited amount of time and money, and thus are unable to buy a game that would never see use after the exploit was patched anyway. I stick to my PSP for PSP homebrew, but I do await the day when we can access the Vita itself.