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New Hacking discovery could open up remote play for Vita  

January 28, 2012 in Gaming, PS Vita, PS3, security | 12 comments

Note by Wololo: Thanks to guest blogger Justin Taylor for this article. This is the first time an article in this blog is not written directly by me, if you guys like this it might happen again :)

When the PlayStation Vita came out, everyone was excited about the remote play option. Who wouldn’t like being able to play Mortal Kombat on the Vita anywhere in the house? But, Sony blew it on this feature. The Vita has remote play, but it can only be used on some less than exciting games, like Bejeweled. However, a recent series of Youtube videos and some other players online have found a way to hack the Vita, opening it up to many other PS3 games. No one is sure if the hack is real[Note by wololo: between the time this article was written and the time it was published, the hack was proven to be real, and tutorials can easily be found to test it by yourself], but this can mean a lot for the hacker community if it’s real.

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HBL confirmed to run fine on Vita’s firmware 1.52  

January 21, 2012 in HBL, PS Vita, security | 23 comments

Today developer SKFU was able to confirm that my port of HBL to Teck4′s exploit is still working on 1.52 (this also means that Teck4′s exploit is still here on 1.52, which had been confirmed by mamosuke a few days ago). He also confirmed that the potential vulnerabilities and other stuff he’s found so far are still available in vita 1.52, so it’s relatively safe to upgrade to 1.52 if you own a Vita (I am myself still on 1.51). On Twitter he also posted a picture of a homebrew running through HBL.

I want once again to thank Teck4 for the trust he put in me with this exploit, and for agreeing with the idea of making this exploit available to trusted people like SKFU before we attempt any public release.

source SKFU

Vita hack: SKFU finds new vulnerabilities?  

January 20, 2012 in PS Vita, security | 19 comments

A Few hours ago, developer SKFU (known for his work on the PS3, but also recently for some investigations on the Vita security) posted a screenshot of his Vita showing some HTML in what is supposed to usually show official messages from Sony’s updates or packages. Read the rest of this entry »

Vita firmware 1.52 does *not* patch Teck4′s exploit  

January 17, 2012 in HBL, PS Vita, security | 42 comments

Mamosuke confirmed to me today that Teck4′s exploit for the PSP Emulator in the vita is still working on 1.52. Note that it doesn’t guarantee 100% that some of the techniques used to get HBL to work on top of this exploit haven’t been patched, as I haven’t tested myself. But for now I’m confident. I might update to test that, at some point.

The 1.52 Vita firmware can be downloaded here

Forced Firmware Update 1.52 for the PS Vita  

January 16, 2012 in PS Vita, release, security | 35 comments

I just got contacted by Virtuous Flame who informed me that PS Vita update 1.52 is available (which is confirmed on the official site), and as for version 1.51 back in December, this update is compulsory if you want to use some services such as the PSN (which makes sense) or the possibility to copy files to your Vita with the Content Manager (which doesn’t).

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Virtuous Flame’s Open CMA r3 released  

January 10, 2012 in PS Vita, release, security | 31 comments

Virtuous Flame released an update to his Open CMA tool a few days ago. Open CMA allows you to connect your playstation Vita to your PC through the Content Manager without needing to be connected to the internet. This is useful if you need to transfer some files while away from your network, or simply if like me you don’t see why it should be required to be connected to the internet when you transfer files between two pieces of hardware you own.

This update (revision 3) patches the PC side of the content manager further, preventing it from auto updating. Without this patch, Sony’s driver is silently updating itself whenever it’s connected to the internet even if you were using open CMA so far, which makes this r3 an important update.

Download here

The hidden system menu of the PS Vita  

January 4, 2012 in PS Vita, security | 68 comments

Japanese site emuonpsp reported today that a combination of keys was found in the settings menu to display some hidden information about the firmware installed on your Playstation vita. Read the rest of this entry »

Open CMA by Virtuous Flame: Prevent the Vita content Manager from connecting to the internet  

January 1, 2012 in PS Vita, release, security | 19 comments

A few days ago we discovered that it is compulsory to be connected to the internet in order to use the Content Manager Assistant. Although I found out later that this tool is not necessary for media files, it is still compulsory to use it if you want to copy games and savedata from and to your PS Vita. Having to be connected to the internet while you copy files between two pieces of hardware you own is inconvenient, unsafe, and technically not necessary. It is therefore an unnecessary “feature” of the Content Manager Assistant that was put here by Sony for no other good reason than force people to update their console to the latest firmware on a regular basis.

Famous PSP Dev Virtuous Flame released today a tool called OpenCMA, which is basically a patch to the Content Manager Assistant (on the PC side) that will prevent it to connect to the internet.

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Another Hello world on the Vita  

December 31, 2011 in PS Vita, security | 12 comments

Mike at exophase is showcasing yet another Hello World running in the PSP emulator of the Vita. Read the rest of this entry »

SKFU Finds a flaw in the PS Vita encryption mechanism  

December 31, 2011 in PS Vita, security | 8 comments

Developer SKFU says today he found a problem in the PS Vita’s encryption functions which allowed him to decrypt some test files, “directly via the system” (hu, does he mean that the Vita decrypts the files for him, and he manages to retrieve the decrypted version???). His blog post doesn’t say anything technical about the flaw or how he found it, but he said he would update his blog when he has more info to share. Stay tuned.

Source SKFU, thanks to Omega Zero for the tip

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