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.
Its very frustrating yet I understand why your doing it that way. I just feel like I have little to no chance as a new user what so ever here in winning.
Because what is my word as a new guy that ill keep my mouth shut. I dont know. I check this web site and twitter everyday hoping to win. All I can do is keep trying.
good news
I think exploited game names should be much harder to get than the ninja release but not so hard that only 25 people get it. A new way to do mass releases should be developed to prevent future leaks.
I’m disappointed to read this article…
me too, from the sentence that saying their is no other ninja release…..
Congrats to the winners.. will have a vita soon.
hope my prayers are heard then
Its to bad things cant be kept a secret and slowly release to avoid detection at Sony.
I like the idea of the ninja releases, but if they Sony knows about them before we (the mass) know its worse for the developers, then if you just blindly releasing it to the public.
Although I already have KoP, I think the giveaway isn’t as fair as the ninja… I do however see the understanding after the multiple leaks that lead to them trying this… the way I see it, the VERY few ruin it for the many, or in other words, ‘it only takes one’… what ever ya decide, no matter how others may whine, its ya decision, ya exploits, ya rules… If they wanna keep whining, they can either continue to cry fowl at the ones giving away to the community what they have been working on WITHOUT CHARGING for the fruits of their work, or blame the leakers whom are solely responsible and perhaps try to find their own exploit…
I know someone is going to try to flame me for this, but for those with intelligence, they will understand my view point.
Well its sad to read that :/
I realy missed a bunch Of exploits and i understand why they are ging this way Of release but im kinda unlucky at winning stuff so there will be no way for me to get this exploit :/
So i need to stay at the normal way and buy stuff ?
Its kinda Unfair if you understand my point Of view
I guess it’s over then to keep trying to get homebrew for this device, the more great games come out the the more updated firmware, gone are the days of portable piracy now, Ys is the only game i rather play on this device, guess i just finish up my homebrew and go back the new way, since my mobile phone has the emulators now no need to for ps vita
Very sad news but completely understandable. However i think going forward this should be looked at from an IT perspective. Keep a “ninja release” but hand them out over sftp. Using usernames and passwords you can start building a rapport of who you consider to be trustworthy. Yea it will take some time to get going, but you will know every user that you are giving the exploit to. Is there a way to auto generate the users name into the code so if leaked you know who to kick out? Sadly I’ve missed most exploits but i dont want to watch the community die. I can help work on this project if needed. But there are many options to keep this alive and secure.
Good idea.If the handful chosen ones are the only ones to have a chance to get the exploit，a lot of people would lose their will to participate.This is almost equal to stopping releasing exploits.So a new method to release the exploit should be adopted.
Hey wololo you guys are doing great 🙂
I have an idea for keeping the ninja release a lil bit more on the downlow
I think if we had a psp homebrew application, one that uses our forum login and password to sign into it. This would require a PSP or an allready exploited vita sure, but it would be like a newb shield. People would actually need to know how to use a psp and how to load homebrew with it. The vitas bread and butter right now is all psp brew anyways. I belive this would cause ppl to appreciate what you guys do even more! Sure ppl will whine “ohh i dont have a psp” dude they are like 30$ or less now. The last exploit game fifa was this much……..
Just my quick idea, i think this would cause sony to take even longer to find out what the exploit game is aswell. Seeing as they would need a psp on CFW. hahaha
Dude that’s awesome!!! My PSP’s screen is broke but they’re like 10 doll hairs. I bet a TV out is cheaper though.
I am a newbie in the community and I’ve lost the exploit just for don’t have funds to buy the game and in the last case…Fifa 11 was toooo expensive… the last giveaways where kinda cool…but still for a few “lucky” winners…in any case…we…the users just have to wait… isn’t fair when someone “pushes” the exploiters to release… just keep the work…and for us… we do have many ways to notice about this…twitter is the one I use…and works good… !!!
meh i deleted my exploit i kinda got tired of playing iso but i hope this exploit keep coming for people who truly want it and all i am hoping for is update for sony i own a psvita tv and i cant remote play my ps4 its been 3 weeks now -_- but yeah congrats to the winners
How about making a public announcement that at a certain date, you’ll reveal the exploited game, and then make the reveal at that period? I think it will be faster for us all to download the game before Sony actually manages to pull the game from the Store. I’m not sure but how long does it usually take for Sony to pull a game from the store? If we can take advantage of the delay (say, an hour), we can make sure as many as possible get the game before Sony pulls the game. What do you think?
To me it seems the perfect idea.
I mean you can do your ninja release in the first time and then when comes the time you put a public service announcement with a precise date and hour of an exploit reveal. The all community will have at least 2 days before Sony remove the game from the store so a maximum of people will enjoy your work.
And everyone will be happy.
Not bad.But have you thought about the possibility that Sony also being here wating for the forecasted release？
I think it is a smart move to do these new kind of releasing the exploits as it makes the owner of the private exploit, be much more secretive on what he knows, and therefore, leaks will be minimized as his own game exploit will be at stake if he himself leaks it, on the other side, it is not that so good for this community (well maybe??) but think on the other side, what if you win?..then you, yourself will be responsible for the lost of your own game exploit (i dont know if they really gave, 1 exploit game to 1 winner, and then the next will have the other).
I’m agree with this method
Maybe is more difficult try the new ninja releases for newbie like me, but the leaks is too frustrating.
At last we are little away from the corrupted scene users and all those trying make money with the work from others.
I don’t know what is the point of all these releases,
* If you buy the ninja release, and enjoy your vita without online for many months, why you buy a vita, why you buy a vita, if you going to play only PSP games??
* If you buy many ninja releases, and enjoy your vita with online for many months updating the console, why you buy a vita, if you going to play only PSP games?
* A PSP can be found for $40Us, and you can enjoy too much games.
Better is avoid the ninja releases, not is working.
A psp where i can play persona 4, ps all-stars, and other games that are only on vita…
right,not everything is online gaming, in fact, most of the multiplayer/online games are ***
Amen to that brother. Multiplayer killed true, doesn’t matter about what other people think sort of gaming. Before on PS2 (most of us didn’t use ethernet) and previous consoles, gaming was just about us – about me. I didn’t care about anyone elses high score and what not. It was my own acheivements that was relevant to me.
I have nothing against this. Due to the past leaks, now they have to do something about that problem. I only want to win in the giveaway 🙂
I agree with you. Of course it’s not fair, but as long as there are people out there who have other interests and who aren’t able to hold their tongue it seems to be necessary in order to use the exploit as long as possible, even if this means only a handfull people can enjoy it.
wa reimt der allemaal op ajoin ?
I hate it when there’s such stupid people that leak tha game because of the ninja release, but even though it’s leaked more than 25 people will be able to get the game in time.
I don’t personally like the giveaway because the almost imposible possibilities to get the game, so I hope they find a different way to show us the exploits.
Indeed but its up to the dev to choose how they wish to release there exploits
I would prefer the old way since even if Sony pulls the game before release there are far more people that will know about it
Also, if someone leaks it out publicly [which is happening], just look on google for the exploit, not wololo (since he’ll only give you once he releases it publicly which won’t happen cos of sony pulling it down first because someone SOMEWHERE ELSE leaked it) so yeah, just find leaks (unless they’re leaking str8 to sony =/)
for most people who visits the site that doesnt make any sense
It is a shame. But then again I’m not surprised since there’s some Sony bots on here… My advice would be is to only announce the game exploits to VERY trusted people. But I’m not sure if that will work or not.
Or you can keep the exploit private just for yourselves. Since people can’t keep a secret. And besides, you can have emulators on your PC. So for those who are desperate for an exploit. Download Everything you need for your PC. You can even download a PSP Emulator.
Maybe a mass email, or chain mail. Although i hardly check mail.
I have this site on a rss feed, so far i haven’t missed an announcement. I can’t sit on the site whole day for ninja release.
I don’t know how many exploits have been discovered today and how many there will be in the’ future but I think everyone who has interest in the vita scene probably got one these past months.
But I really think you should keep giving exploit to the public. There will be leaks but it would seem unfair to keep the exploit for a limited amount of person (even though it isn’t since you probably worked a lot for these)
Maybe announcing a date for a ninja release could help people to get the exploit before any leak.
This way people would be aware of it and will be checking their mails for ninja release preventing them to miss it.
But anyway I do understand how people who work hard on the vita scene are annoyed seeing the past leaks but keep up the good job.
Sorry for the double post but I remember a system who was used on dreamzone an old french emulation forum which had a point systems.
The more you post, the more points you got. You could later spend these points to get access to different rom sections.
That keeped a huge activity on the forum and prevented bots or non members to access the roms.
This kind of system could be useful for ninja release. I mean rather than sending ninja release according to the time of inscription, it could be good to send it depending on number of posts on the forum. That should prevent the bot from getting the release and be fair to active forum members.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/aalst-tv-grote-markt-live
exploit this so it works in my private exploit from my private collection 😉
Acceptable, but I think ninja releases should stay – since 25 people have exploit sooner than other. Ninja releases is good thing – good mechanism is use ninja releases after for example one week
I think :
+ “Ninja Realise” is the best way for announcing “first time” the name of a Game in every “New firmware”. like 101 in 1 megamix, i think many people got the game thank’s to the awsome ninja realise trick
+ “The Giveaway” By Acid_Snake and Mathieu is good only for realising more than 2 games in the same firmware ;). as the exploit is kept “secret”
In Brief, Ninja Realise = first time announcing a game in a new firmware .
Giveaway = for the 2nd or 3rd announce of a Game
Thank’s guys for your awsome work :D!
i believe in psvitaturkie method, the admin of Psvitaturkie, talks to the users directly by facebook, and they can ward off untrusted members.
reason being that sony is taking so long on the next vita firmware is they have a team of people going threw the entire psp/psn catalog and prepatching all future possible exploits. the method of finding exploits has been known and sony will try and secure the psv/ps4 As hard as they can
@wololo Sony to implement drastic sales is thinking of releasing a development kit homebrew free, so exploits are no longer needed, and all users will be able to develop freely.
obviously only in usermode, so sony to understand that hackers are not very good with encryption on boot ahahahahha
goodbye !
r00t my shell !
Yea its called PSM
I want to tell you a help:
decrypt the firmware of sony is very simple, just a sniffer hardware that is created between the cpu and the boot sequence, to understand what are the access keys in that area and memory are saved, once you have found a dump access to the master level of the entire system will do the job very easily.
a greeting from a friend anonymous !
Sure it is and I have a Vita native kernel exploit
Lol, you guys make it look so easy. While yifan, katsu are doing their best to find “kernel”.
I know Fate6 is just kidding ;). And the informations given by Anonymous could be found easly on “Google”
the last 2 or 3 ninja releases were all leaked..that means someone new to the list must be the mole. i say, reset the mailing list to the one before the leaks came. or …
let’s go mole hunt! 🙂
sacrifice 1 exploited game and then… wait! i should not spill out the procedure here, the mole might be listening (well, technically, it should be ‘looking’).
IIRC, only 1 has been leaked, the FIFA one was a misunderstood
I don’t think its that easy. Sony has been aware of this site from the early ninja release, pulling games as they went public. In this case I don’t think it’s a huge stretch to imagine someone having an old trusted /talk account (although from my understanding it’s been users leaking the exploit game on other sites that has caused the most issues.)
With a user base of 50k members the number of combinations; each wasting an exploit to find a small number of leakers (possibly singular) is absurd.
We do have one saving grace though both for future releases and people who want the kernal exploit on 3.01. Wait for one of the exploit games to return after sony patches the fw (don’t update) and then transfer the game from a ps3 using the OpenCMA trick.
Please note that in any architecture there is’ a cpu That Interprets the code even though it is encrypted Within the NAND memory, to be Able to read the cpu with integrated encryption at boot time to read the keys, there is no cpu environments with encrypted integrated! So the keys are available at boot! It can be read sniffing startup commands cpu!
Have fun again, excuse the multiple posts
Thanks for the 101 guy that can use Google!
Hmmmm this is a good way of Ninja, but i still wonder if new ofw will be hackable..
in psvita, nearest to discover and reveal the CFW-ProB2 for psvita in this 2014. Good work ninja team boys
When this happened before, exploits not being patched, it was eventually patched by Sony very soon after source codes were released.
My thoughts are simple. It’s great for the winners, but i seam to never win anything anyway so i won’t bother getting disepointed. I know it’s a pessimistic thinking, but oh well.
This artical and the way it seems some people are responding, this almost sounds like it could be end of vita hacking. If its come to this, how many do you think will continue to try to keep up with the information on this? Like someone else said, if 25 people are the only ones to get it whats the point? Though i will probably check this site week to week just to see whats going on in The world of vita hacking i have all but givin up hope on doing it myself. Hacking was supposed to be outside the world of laws and convention, this is just catering to it. Best of luck guys, the dream for me is gone.