PS Vita 3.61 jailbreak – Should you expect a hack or Kernel exploit for PS Vita firmware 3.61?
Several people have been contacting me inquiring about the future possibility to exploit PS Vita firmware 3.61. The majority of the audience of this blog has been enjoying HENkaku on firmware 3.60, but a growing number of users are left in the cold, stuck on firmware 3.61. So I expect the questions related to a PS Vita 3.61 downgrader, or a PS Vita 3.61 jailbreak, or a PS Vita 3.61 hack to increase with time.
Is there, or will there be a PS Vita 3.61 Vita Jailbreak?
The short answer is no. You can however run VHBL on firmware 3.61.
The long answer is more nuanced, but still ends with a “no”. Think about it, it took about 5 years for the first “real” Vita hack to surface. And hopefully, the various explanations that have been posted by Team Molecule and others about the hack have proven that it was not a small achievement. HENkaku required several hacks and tricks to work.
It’s not clear to me how many of these vulnerabilities have been patched by Sony (the user Mode webkit exploit was definitely patched), but it’s safe to assume they did not only patch the webkit vulnerability.
Basically, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that a similar scope of work (as what happened for HENkaku) would be required for a new Vita exploit to be released. In other words, years.
With that being said, hackers now have access to more information about the Vita than Team molecule had. It is not a black box anymore, and with access to the system, I assume some groups are hard at work reverse-engineering the Firmware to find more vulnerabilities. But this is not the PSP days anymore, where the system had very limited protection. Here again, Yifan Lu and Xyz have made a point of showing how complex it is to fool the Vita securities.
Hacker Mike H. mentioned he did have access to a kernel exploit in one of his writeups of HENkaku. That doesn’t mean this will be released or used in a larger exploit sequence for a future Vita 3.61 exploit. He also hasn’t provided any proof of that statement so far.
Luckily for me, I already found a way to leak kernel memory while playing with the SceNet syscalls, so, stage 3 is on its way.
How about a PS Vita 3.61 downgrader then?
A downgrader would basically imply that Sony’s private keys are leaked or that their security is completely taken down. According to everyone I’ve asked, this scenario is highly unlikely.
Alternatively, it would mean a Kernel exploit with the ability to patch the system in Ram, which wouldn’t really be a downgrade anymore, just another kernel exploit for Firmware 3.61. So a downgrader is probably even more unlikely to happen than a 3.61 Jailbreak.
People have contacted me, offering to donate money to fund a “bounty” for a PS Vita 3.61 downgrader or exploit. I’d like to remind everyone that we have attempted this in the past, with a total bounty of about $2000. This gave us Rejuvenate, from the very same person who gave us HENkaku, Yifanlu. Nobody else ever even tried to suggest something else: Rejuvenate was literally the only entry for that bounty, despite it running for months.
So I don’t think money is the issue here, unless, as I’ve told to the people who have suggested it, unless you have somewhere between $10’000 and $50’000 to give away. That kind of money might motivate the people with the right skills who weren’t thinking of doing it for free in the first place.
What hacking options exist for Users on Vita 3.61?
The only viable option at this point on Vita firmware 3.61 is VHBL. Either you got it installed via HENkaku on 3.60 before upgrading to 3.61, or you’ll have to use the technique described here to install it on 3.61.
Do not trust websites that claim to have HENkaku or a PS Vita Jailbreak for 3.61 today. These sites are usually scamming you into answering surveys or clicking ads for which they get paid. HENkaku is not available for 3.61, and if it ever becomes available for those, trusted scene sites such as wololo.net will be the first ones to talk about it.
PS Vita 3.61 hack: The conclusion
Bottom line, a 3.61 Vita native hack is unlikely to happen in the months to come, and for now your only option is VHBL. So, if you have $100 to donate for the scene, either donate to the GekiHEN contest (through me, pm me on /talk), or get yourself a PS Vita running firmware 3.60.
I’m sure successful results from the KOTH challenge would open up doors right?
The idea is to show people what the Vita security is like. But the challenge is to reverse engineer HENkaku itself. Not write a new exploit. Ultimately it may get people interested and familiar enough to find new exploits, but who knows.
I wonder if anyone is working on a native ps1 loader. That would be the cherry on the cake.
What would really be awesome if we could run Henkaku on 3.18 then we would be good to go for vita backups and ps1 loader and tnv and Ark.
Would give out my left kidney for that. Been trying to play backups made from legitimate ps1 discs and have had very little success from long loading times to just unplayable games.
first
That *** clickbait title tho…
@wololo , Can you post in short or later on post similar article of what we can except on PS4? I hope that at least on 3.55 exploits are likely anytime soon….
This. Wasn’t there a reason to stay on 3.76 fw? Rather than updating to 4.00.
Rumors says that someone was working on a very big exploit (I can’t say which type of exploit), and it should be bigger than HENkaku…
cool story bro, i also heard other rumors of shyte coming out of your mouth (not saying how much shyte) but it should be bigger than the one i had last night
LOL
I’m just hoping we’ll be able to play PSP games on HENkaku. I really miss playing some of them. My PSP 2000 broke about 3 years ago… I still have it, along with a very selective library of games that I just can’t play without using an emulator, and I don’t want another second-hand PSP (Sony stopped making them in 2014 or something like that).
If you have those games legally… you can still use PPSSPP on your smartphone or PC..
same here. I want to use my ARK-CFW again.
Would anyone else like to see a PS1 exploit?
Then.. everyone should put it 10$ at least ,so that will be like 10000-30000$ in vault:D
First
From what I know, there seems a option for downgrading 3.61 to 3.60 by changing the motherboard. The price for the psi motherboard is fairly cheap 100 RMB/20USD. But the technique barrier and risk are definitely high.
Source: http://tieba.baidu.com/p/4764478012?pid=97250042795&cid=98117797243#98117797243
@Kaancem assuming we have about 1000-3000 people willing to donate the $10. At this point it is better to get a 3.60 vita rather than wait. Fingers crossed for a way to play my PSP & PSone games soon. Expecting great stuff from the ongoing contest!
It’s like people don’t read the Vita CFW page telling them they can’t :\.
I really don’t see any reason as of yet. Sony is almost certainly never going to add any real features in future updates and, outside of Japan, they’re extremely unlikely to release any new Vitas with 3.61 or higher out of the box.
So, the solution is simple: Deal with it late comers.
If you want it buy another Vita that is on a lower firmware and you should do it now before they get more expensive.
The only reason why hacks like these have resources spent on making them more accessible if it’s easy or if future firmwares add real function worth having. Even the 3DS is having fewer and fewer loopholes and the Vita already has so many fewer to begin with.
So, for a dead handheld it makes little sense to waste time on updating just so more idiots can not pay attention and update. Buy another vita
We all knew this would be patched I can understand new owners being on the newer 361 but anyone who updated its there own fault there was enough warnings on here and elsewhere as there exploits are few and far same with the 355 ps3 mine was updated and used my head not to lose my exploit
I was whining alot how henkaku would disable my ePSP if i would update from 3.18 but after some toughts and the repair of my sons old psp screen, purchase of a new battery and 128 gb sd cards. I have to say HENkaku FTW 😀
I normally dont say FTW but for HENkaku i make an exeption 🙂
I’m on 3.60 ofw and wondering is there a downgrader for that or still a no go? Also is there any vita CFW that can run psp back ups (iso)?
nope but given the fact henkaku has full access to the pspemu folder i think everything is just a matter of time
To all the filthy *** who were stupid enough to leave FW 3.6 for 3.61, stop complaining and buy yourself another Vita. THERE IS NO DOWNGRADER, THERE IS NO 3.61 EXPLOIT, SO STOP BEECHING AND GROW A PAIR. If Yifanlu himself said that he won’t invest on porting Henkaku on lower FW’s, why the heck would ya think someone would spoon feed you a 3.61 exploit. Smh
PS Vita 3.61 hack: The very short conclusion
– You’re sc*** bigtime
Cool 😀
Sorry wololo but I want to ask atreu Or whatever his name is, This is the guy who posted that he modded and resigned ps1 eboots to an existing ps1 game on his psvita. Explain what you did or delete your post, its only fair…
atreyu187 is who he meant
People are so ungrateful . I remember before henkaku, everyone was begging for a native psvita hack. now that we have one, some people who weren’t keeping up with the scene updated their vitas and now their asking for another native hack on another firmware. I kept track of wololo posts and hacked my vita . If you updated your vita and are now complaining because ” you didn’t know” f*** off. It took 5 years for henkaku to be released, now you wait like the rest of us did. You don’t just step hack into the scene with a fully updated vita and expect a native exploit to just so happen to match your fw. You people ask for too much.
IKR! These people think these devs owe them big time. It’s their own damn fault for updating in the first place. When Henkaku was first released, I’m sure many of us wasn’t sure what it was going to bring. Some of us may have thought that it was going to be another Rejuvenate. I was tempted to update since I already have VHBL installed and was already satisfied with what I had at the time. But then again, It wouldn’t have done any harm cuz I own other Vitas on lower FW. I’m grateful I held back cuz if we all knew what doors Henkaku was gonna open, there’d be less beeching around here. But hey, that’s reality. It is easier to find or trade in your vita for an older FW model than to find a new exploit. If these people want to enjoy Henkaku, they need to start tryna get their hands on one and stop crying like babies. We’re too lucky to have committed devs on the scene to open up the Vita like this. They’re commitment into this scene is far worth more than a new Vita. SMH
Don’t lose your faith…I know our messiah will fall down from sky that will bring our peace back
Uh… I migjt say something stupid here, but isn’t it possible to make the 3.60 update look like a 3.62 update or so using QCMA?
Tried by changing the values in XML file, did “download” but says the device isn’t compatible… But maybe if we mod the PUP file too it’ll work 😀
Hi,today i have try to change the xml file.i rename all version stated to 3.63.and vita recognise it.then input 3.60 pup file.and vitadid upload to itself but at the middle.this updtae cannot be used with this software.maybe 1
step closer to downgrade capability.yes
Last!
Forget about it…..lol As the OP said it took nearly 5 years to get a true Vita kernel hack. The Vita is now having a nice revival on the scene but to $ony and the rest of the corporate forces the Vita is dead. So with a now EOL product, that took 5yrs to crack and it has a 12mil user base, we are likely never going to see anything past the wonderful 3.60 hack. I would say rather than donating money to cracking 3.61 (which its always nice to donate to the peeps who do this ***) just go buy yourself a new Vita slim (had for less than $150) or a PSTV (had for less than $50) and upgrade it to 3.60 and get in the game. I have an OLED launch Vita as well as a PSTV and already planning to buy another PSTV and if I can come buy a slim cheap I would take one of those as well. Viva La Vita!
Having two Vitas is the way at the moment, unfortunately. I have a 3.51 model with Rejuvenate, TN-V and PS1 Loader. The 3.60 is for HENkaku, so it’s all my legally ripped games, RetroArch emulators and other fun home-brew. Both have 16GB memory cards.
If the PSP and PS1 sides are opened on 3.60 I’ll buy a 64GB one and just have the ultimate Vita, as I’m sure many of us would. Super Meat Boy, Zen Pinball 2, God Of War, Metal Gear Solid 3, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, Tearaway, Persona 4 GOLDEN, OutRun 2006, Burnout: Legends, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, ScummVM (Monkey Island 1-3, Beneath A Steel Sky) plenty of SNES/Genesis titles and more all on one Vita.
Glad I saw potential in HENkaku when he was released and not updated my PSVITA to 3.61. If by chance I had upgraded to 3.61, I would have put the screen of this device on my other device that has a broken display…
you have to be dumb to upgrade to 3.61 and not being able to hack your ps vita
Something I should have looked into before updating my vita to 3.61. Can you use HENkaku online? Like for getting trophies and stuff like that. I’m really into trophies and its one of the main reasons I use my vita.
Uh… Probably a stupid question, ut what happens if you make the 3.60 look like a 3.62 while updating with QCMA?
Don’w know if I got something or if i’m just stupid…
I found a way to downgrade! Just duplicate an old vita’s firmware onto a new one
Really? Well It’d be perfectly feasible for me 😀
Could you pleaaaaaase tell me how you did that? I’ve got an old deficient Vita with an ooold firmware on it, and a new vita with 3.61 :3
I would like to be a guest blogger :D!
pueden crear henkaku 3.63 wololo
pueden crear henkaku 3.63 si
This excellent website definitely has all of the information I wanted about this subject and didn’t know who to ask.