taiHEN and taiHENkaku released: dawn of the CFW dream for the PS Vita
The day has come everyone! The KOTH challenge has been broken and so Team Molecule have finally updated HENkaku to the last stage… and what a stage it is. This is possibly not only Yifan Lu’s dream, but everyone else’s dream as well. TaiHEN (a custom firmware framework) and taiHENkaku have been announced and released for users on PS Vita firmware 3.60, however they are still in beta stage so be wary that not everything might be working until they go for a stable release. As of now, Yifan recommends that normal users stay on HENkaku R6 and I can confirm that stuff like PSN Spoofing isn’t working yet. But now let’s take a look a what taiHEN and taiHENkaku are, shall we?
What is taiHEN?
taiHEN is the name given by Team Molecule to their framework on which the new version of HENkaku runs. It is built to be a way for developers to create system patches to modify functions on the PS Vita or, in layman’s terms, it is a way to load plugins at the system level like you were used to on the PSP allowing you to change/add function to your console. taiHEN is NOT a new exploit and the entire system of HENkaku has been ported to this new taiHEN which is why the new version is named taiHENkaku. The other great thing about taiHEN is that it is firmware agnostic, as Yifan Lu explains on his blog, meaning that it is not dependent on any specific firmware version allowing it to be ported to other firmware versions should anyone find an exploit on newer firmware versions. I need to reiterate that this does not mean that taiHEN/taiHENkaku run on newer firmwares, you need to stay on 3.60 for now. It just makes it easier to get taiHENkaku to run on those firmware if someone finds an entry point. According to Yifan Lu the possibilies that taiHEN allows for are endless:
In addition to adding hooks to the kernel, taiHEN also allows hooking system applications and games. Add elements to LiveArea? Enable more options in Settings? Cheats in games? The possibilities are endless.(…)
What is taiHENkaku?
Now we get to the fun part (and the one you guys care about the most) which is the next version of HENkaku, taiHENkaku. As stated in the last paragraph, taiHENkaku is the new version of our favorite “homebrew loader” ported to this new framework that Team Molecule have been working on since the original HENkaku release. While it does turn HENkaku into a fully-fledged custom firmware, currently it is in beta state and I said in the opening paragraph of this article, I do not recommend that you update right away since stuff like PSN Spoofing does not work… yet. Yifan has promised that it will be fixed in the coming days, but in his own words, this is the reason for the beta release of taiHENkaku:
It is currently in an unstable state. Some features such as PSN spoofing do not currently work. I hope to resolve the issues in the upcoming days. Meanwhile, I hope that developers can start writing plugins immediately while I iron out the issues. Again, the beta is only recommended for developers making plugins and is of no benefit currently for regular users.
This is mostly a developer release so that people like Rinnegatamante and BeatPlay can looking into the porting of their popular works rinCheat and Better Amphetamin Plugin onto this new framework so that we can get rid of that pesky limitation that plugins had of only running on dumped games. Everyone will be getting plugins now! I personally can’t wait to blast some overclocking on my legit PSN games. Here are the major changes that come with the introduction of taiHENkaku:
- Loading compressed FSELFs are supported now
- VitaShell is updated to 1.42 with a brand new HENkaku configuration menu that allows user configuration of PSN version spoofing. (Note at the time of writing, VitaShell has not been updated yet. I will push an update as soon as it is out.)
- Unsafe homebrew is disabled by default This change means that some of your homebrew will not launch immediately. Before you panic, go into molecularShell, press Start, enter the HENkaku configuration menu and choose to enable unsafe homebrew. You also need to do this to use system and kernel plugins. More information on this change can be found here. (Note, this feature is disabled in the beta currently because the VitaShell configuration options is not out yet. It will be enabled as soon as that’s done.)
The last bit is my favorite. I have been on record pushing for some security on these hacks/homebrew applications to stop people from going around bricking other people’s PS Vita consoles for fun and hopefully this will also help. In theory, with the plugin system in place, you shouldn’t ever need to turn on unsafe homebrew since most changes at the system level can be done from that, so if an application asks you for unsafe mode, read carefully what it does so that you don’t brick your own console.
Vita Development Wiki and the Plugin SDK
With the release of taiHEN and taiHENkaku also come two new things: the plugin SDK and the Vita Development Wiki. I’m gonna let Yifan Lu speak for me on this one, since he can put it better than I could ever paraphrase:
Plugin SDK
Davee did a wonderful job implementing SDK support for user and kernel plugins. The changes are not in the mainline yet, so please help us test it. You need the new toolchain updates to build taiHEN and your own plugins.
Development Wiki
This brings me to the last point. For the kernel, there needs to be a lot of reverse engineering to figure out all the functionalities exported by the kernel. We at molecule have done a lot of work in the past few years but we have not even covered 10% of what the kernel exports. This was the prize given to those who completed the KOTH challenge and now it is released for the public. It contains just about everything that molecule has discovered and reversed about the Vita since 2012 and includes a lot of low level information about the system. It is a good place to start for anyone who wishes to get into Vita hacking: wiki.henkaku.xyz.
What’s next for HENkaku?
This is the sad part of the announcement, but honestly the one I was expecting: there is no next. With this major breakthrough release, Team Molecule is retiring from the PS Vita scene. They will continue to support taiHENkaku with bugfixes but expect no more updates, this is the final version. They will continue to look into hacking the lowest levels of the Vita hardware, but there will be no more user-focused content made by them. I want to quote a few things Yifan had to say:
All this is due to the gracious work done by my friends in molecule: Davee, Proxima, and xyz. I am extremely lucky to have worked with such talented individuals and they have my sincere thanks. All our releases have been made with a level of polish and professionalism unparalleled by anyone else in the console hacking scene because of them.
I want to thank the community for the encouragement and support and I want to thank Sony for building the Vita and making it secure. Finally, I want to thank everyone who participated in the KOTH challenge and proved to me that there is indeed still interest in hacking the Vita. I know that we leave the scene in good hands!
What else can I say? Without these guys, we would not have a Vita scene. They have done more than we could ever have asked of them, they have given us all we could ever want and dream of. I want to use this last paragraph to ask something of you guys, the readers:
I want to ask you guys is to tweet Yifan and Davee (unfortunately xyz and proxima do not have a Twitter that I know of) and thank them for all they have done. I am going to do just that as soon as I’m done publishing this and I would be grateful if all of you did the same. I won’t point a gun at your head and tell you to do it, but remember that without these guys, there would be no Vita scene. If you do not know their handles, they are @yifanlu @DaveeFTW.
Download taiHENkaku
If you want you are a user looking to beta test HENkaku or a developer that wants to start working on the new framework all you need to do to update your version of HENkaku is visit http://beta.henkaku.xyz. Rememeber that for now taiHENkaku is mostly only for developers and we will report when the final, user-friendly version is released. If you are a developer you should also visit this page where Team Molecule gets you up to speed on everything about developing for taiHENkaku.
NOT FIRST
Ok so last update from them =( someone else need to find new exploit for anything above 3.60 it seem if possible
Things are getting better all the time!!!
first
guess not
I thought there was going to be a “permanent” type solution for HENkaku. You still need to run the exploit every time you turn off the console…
Of course not, be happy with what you have. A lot more work needs to be done first before a permanent CFW is released. Hence the “HEN” part in Henkaku.
The best part about this hack is if someone, anyone ever comes up with an exploit that runs every cold boot that this new framework can be easily ported.
On the other hand, getting henkaku running from a coldboot doesn’t usually take more than a minute if one’s stranded in the middle of nowhere so I’m not complaining haha.
What im using is the offline email henkaku so i don’t need to connect to the internet each time i reset my vita.
P.s great work guys…thanks for giving us a vita scene … much love
taiHENkaku works with 3.63 update? Or what does that screenshot mean?
That’s a screenshot of taiHENkaku running, spoofing the firmware version (which may allows us to hopefully play 3.61+ locked games) but as of now, that is not working.
It will not allow you to play 3.61+ games, they are encrypted with a different key that lies above the kernel and is thus inaccessible from 3.60.
I actually meant ‘may’ not ‘will’. I’ve fixed that in the comment. Thanks for the explanation tho.
It still will not allow you to play 3.61+ games, for that to happen either a new kernel exploit has to be found in 3.61+, or a higher-than-kernel exploit found in either firmware.
Do I need to give you the dictionary definition of ‘may/might’? Plus I did not talk in such definitive terms because we don’t know what lies ahead. Most of this stuff now was “not going to happen ever” a little more than a year ago. I used the term ‘may’ exactly because unlike you, I don’t know the future and what may come. So yes, it may happen. It won’t right now, from everything that we know about the system, but that may change a few months/a year from now.
What I meant to say was that the *specific* version string spoofer you mentioned *will never* allow 3.61+ games to be played. Because that’s what your first comment implied. A different one will, of course. But the one mentioned is just a minor trick that doesn’t really do anything useful.
It’d be interesting to get a writeup on this, perhaps on that Wiki, but I’m assuming 3.61 fixed the HENkaku bug (and enabled that key), and 3.63 fixes the KOTH-bugs. But I don’t think there were any new functions added that might break a retail game. In that case, once ‘we’ (more likely: our Chinese friends) obtain this key, can we then theoretically decrypt these games once the crypto is fully known?
the 3.63 is fake when you run the taihenkaku I believe you still physically on 3.6
great news! Already working on my new youtube video 🙂
good luck
Am I the only one who actually considered henkaku to be a lite cfw (install after every reboot like some psp cfw) and knew this is what their intentions were? It wasn’t hard to figure out that henkaku is/would be a full cfw.
Personally, I would love to see the horrid bubbles UI traded for the XMB. Being the bubbles UI supports 3D icons (the actual bubbles) , we could even see the retro icons done as 3D models and animated 😀
If someone is willing to do this, I am willing to make the models and animations for such. While I may be learning to dev video games,the coding knowledge required for this is beyond my knowledge.
Anyone interested in this should contact me regarding naming conventions, as I already have a standard in mind, namely for the animations.
For those curious, imagine the music icon spouting out notes towards the top right when the section is selected, and the memory card icon bounces when hilighted. Movie icon will look like scrolling film, etc.
the “Bubble” shape appears to be hard-coded, otherwise games with custom Icon shapes would already be out. so if anything XMB-related comes, its doubtless going to be a outright replacement of the current UI. Be that as it may, I doubt any outright replacements are going to be around for any less than ANOTHER 4 years. its a really cool Idea though.
Molecule team leaves the PSVita Scene but released their finest work ever!
Let’s hope the devs use and bring some powerfull plugins. Maybe i can still program some #LOL i really neead to #RTFM
Thanks again for all your effort
I <3 Team Molecule
So there is no Possibility to fake a 3.60 Update file to be an 3.63 Update, so the Vita actually downgrade, instead of update itself?
I don’t get it. So this version is the last version? and will be forever a Beta?
It is the last version but updates/bugfixes are coming. I stated that towards the end. But that’s the last thing we’ll ever get.
Team Molecule – you made Vita scene greater than ever. Thank you all for this hours of your hard work!
It won’t work with firmware above 3.60, ok. But what about below 3.60?
What Yifan Lu said about “firmware-agnostic” part in his blog:
“This also means that when someone ports over the HENkaku exploit to lower system versions, they do not have to re-build every patch from scratch.”
Someone needs to find the correct offsets and such to run HENkaku on, say firmware 3.18, and everything coded for taiHEN afterwards will work on that older firmware.
Which is the amazing part about this 😀
Thank you Team Molecule for all your hard work on the Vita, all your efforts have elevated the Vita far beyond anything we ever could have hoped for. with Sony largely abandoning the Vita we thought it was all over, but you’ve made the Vita rise once again like a Phoenix from the ashes, and now with the renewed official and unofficial backing we may see it flourish once more like DarkAleX and Co. did for the PSP.
Looking forward to the stable release of taiHENkaku! 😀
xyz nd yifenlu are on irc freenode. yo ushould go on there and offer our thanks 🙂 channel #pspcommunity. xyz is great at tutorials as well
Owe a great gratitude to this talented and resourcive individuals for sure.
yeah but can it play ps1 games?
PSVITA ALREADY PLAYS PS1 THROUGH RETROARCH! People like you are the reason why I made this vid:
No actual gameplay. That isn’t going to make me or anyone think retroarch can stand up to sony’s built in PSP (great for others though). Even so the native one still only runs 222mhz – the speed of the PSP1000. Adrenaline is going to be better than retroarch or native vita.
Team molecule just claps for all your work!
estoy tan feliz, que llegaré a pahearme con mi Vita.
La wea sexy
Yo tambien. Saludos de NY.
VERY exciting, i cannot thank them enough for this and i plan to tweet them asap, im so looking forward to the concept of cfw themes that chsnge the entire look and feel of the menu like in the old psp days, ability to modify system settings such as permanently disabling that stupid alvs volume bull ***! Shoot the only other things I could ever dream of is psp emulator hack support on vita (which I know theflow is working on, bless his soul) and the ability to run the hack from cold boot, but hey, its not like launching the email app offline is a big desl, just wish it didnt throw up errors half the time haha.
yay
long live hentaikaku !!
Wow. Feels like someone just busted the bank vault wide open and are now letting the public loot the spoils. I dont know if i mean this as compliment or not. When i read that they only got less than 10% of the vita’s kernal’s calls made sense of with 4 years of work, I can kinda understand how much work actually went into a Vita. I now feel kinda bad for sony.
Installing this made me get to version 3.63 >.<
I tried it , and Im on 3.63-&7, spoofed CFW, also it is not a permanet CFW, every time I have to reinstall molecule whenenver i turn offf muy ps vita, but I love the taihenkaku, i can download and save money playing back up dumps!!!
Porting of BAP started. v3.5-beta3 will allready be the first ported version!
That’s what I wanted to hear 😛 Thanks!
i dont have twiteer or any thing like that so i am going to tanx here 😀
tanx guys you make my dream come to true
Thanks so much for all the work, time, patience and all to the Team Molecule… ( n_n)
Great news. Waiting for official release. Hoping something in the pipeline for PS4
What’s up, this weekend is nice for me, because this occasion i am
reading this wonderful educational paragraph here at my residence.