SKFU got his hands on a Vita devkit…says it has vulnerabilities that could help hacking it
Following up to the news on SKFU, some additional information has been discovered with what could be the very first public glimpse at a developer model PlayStation Vita.
If you just currently read Wololo’s article about SKFU and his progress on Vita hacking then you would know there wasn’t a lot of confirmation on things, until now. It appears that SKFU has successfully got his hands on a PlayStation Dev Kit, and that might be how he made progress on his hacking research.
After some extensive research it was discovered (thanks to reader Maccle!) that he does indeed have a dev kit. SKFU posted a thread over at Assembler Games trying to sell his dev kit for unknown reasons, however, giving out some surprising information.
“So, what might it be worth to collectors?
A bit background information about PS VITA DevKits:
The official SONY price for devkit models which are sent to third party developers is 1.900€.
There is no fix price for internal models known.
The prices you are going to submit are for an internal model based on newest hardware revision.
Surprise me :)”
SKFU went as far as posting clear images of the top and back sides of this “new model”. Developers do get access to hardware better than the normal Vita with usually double the RAM, but it’s possible other upgrades and enhancements exist in those Vitas. In particular, the pictures give us some good insight of what a developer device looks like compared to the normal consumer Vita. The pictures show noticeable physical changes such as matte buttons, a USB port (2.0 for Faster transfer?) and a HDMI port. This dev Vita is dubbed the “Vita PDEL-1001” which is supposedly ” the first one in the wild.” Definitely some exciting discoveries here.
Notice the addition of a “real” mini USB port and an HDMI port
Compared to the retail version under it
However, that’s not the only information that was revealed when one user asked about the every 90 day activation of the dev kit Vita license that has to be done to keep the developer special features working. SKFU responded with the following information on the subject…
“Partly correct. the activation is just required to run unsigned self’s.
all other functions are fully active like any pc tool to connect or mess with, debugging functions, file system access etc etc.
running unsigned selfs can be achieved other way. aswell there’s several vulnerabilities in devkits up to newest firmwares which
might lead to bypass the activation soon :)”
It seems that not only has SKFU gotten into the Vita’s OS with full access but he has also found exploits within the dev kit firmware. This is huge news as it could mean we are closing in on more developments towards a Vita exploit. SKFU has not made any other type of public announcement regarding such so that could mean he is holding on to it for a later date or still working.
It is still unclear at this point if he used a regular developer license (in association with the devkit) to get access to the information he posted last week in his blog (as implied by some of you in our comments section, some tools made available to developers by Sony could allow to read what’s on the Vita Stick without a need for any hack)
This is a huge discovery and definitely one that will be constantly developing, so stay tuned. One other question that needs to be answered is, why would SKFU need to sell this unit, if he’s making progress with it?
What do you think about this? Are you ready for a Vita hack? Let me know in the comments!
Collect donated money, then sell it off. Scammer ?
^ this. Everybody seems to forget it. I still see no contributions to any project from him either.
Hooo Yeah Davee Have Right Friend !
we are honored to have you here davee and you are absoulutly right
This news is really amazing. Pretty damn happy about this and I can’t wait to see what comes of it.
Maybe SKFU (or anyone that has good hardware knowledge and a devkit) should look on the feature of HDMI output. I did not find any information about this, but i think there is no other hardware needed to output video through HDMI, there should be the possibility to output it from already available hardware components, as long as it is only hardware controlled meaning it is not controlled by the special devkit firmware ( sony did plan native hdmi output for retail vita, but later they decided to cancel this feature, but i think the connections still have to be on the board).
i look forward to whatever skfu found and hope he shares more with us 🙂
How are you going to connect a HDMI cable to a standard Vita?
there may be an issue putting the connector somewhere, but i think there won’t be an issue tracing down the connection on the devkit and finding these connections on the retail device 😉 but only speculation by me as i haven’t found any information about the hdmi connector on the devkit.
Even if you find those connection, i wonder how it can be used. A standard Vita doesnt output video through the “USB” port, and you need to make some custom contact/wire to be able to connect a HDMI cable to the Vita.
If you people forgot, there is a second port on the top right of the Vita 😉
Ah yes, i actually forgot about that completely hehe 🙂 But i’m not that this is a port that is set for video out, i think it is an input port, not output. But that is just my guess though.
nice read, very interesting. im guessing that will be what our 2nd gen vita, a so called slim will look like, and finally features i thought would be in the unit from day 1, ie. usb 2.0, HDMI is my number one wish it had that complaint. i still cant believe that sony hasnt released a video out cable yet. but it took the psp till the slims to come to the scene for that ability. good luck bud hope you glean the scene with whatever knowledge you have recieved from your dev kit. thank you.
I doubt that HDMI will be included, same with USB. Sony needs to get the price of the Vita down, then they can add more stuff to it. USB will not be included mostly because of security issues, and they also want people to use the official Vita cable instead.
“then they can’t add more stuff to it” i ment to say.
Is it just me or is the dev unit smaller than the retail one (despite having extra bling like an hdmi and usb port?
Friends friends,if he is selling that is cuz he knows something what to discovered and seem be what need of here in forward if he dont need that hardware is cuz be fine with our vita if dont only dont selling and used more you know think.
I could not decipher your comment. Are you being sneaky :} ??
stay tuned more ps3 hacks to come which will be more exciting than the current ……………THELOSTHACKER
I think…. scrap the vita os ASAP and awesome job ps sceners.
anyone tried to hack mabey Recuier to play with the Acess of that code, I.E a used copy of the
Purchased software. And Can Be A Start, say with a “newer” name or changed name under that Councle ID, (Mabey IP Adress And Or Area Location. With A Used Copy, Will Recuier Fakeing To Notify Sony
Of There Ever Rapid None Stoping/Changeing License Agreement With Out Our Concent!,
like I am tierd of reading about a working poblic 1.1 Licence, ( mabey sony should always
Contact the law of mellinum act, or the government and get a version 1.2 lisence and notify
us about that! And tell us about the license not pubizie a newer lisence like the cfw ban ***, *** is that?
it’s like there own Walmart lol, but I see a change just playing with Sonys database of machines Listed under that name xD and due support this 😀
If SKFU sells this at a small loss or profit, he should really make an effort to return the donations he received. Not that I would have donated money to some random guy online, but it’s pretty shady for him to solicit donations to buy something and then turn around and sell it relatively quickly.
I want one, I might start saving money and raise some money to get one, because I have the know how but not what I need to start developing and that would be a great lea
p forward.
FOR THE RECORD:
SKFU led the way in PSP xmb hacking and was the first to release a POC that allowed the XMB icons to be changed. Eventually that ended up leading to ZiNgA BuRgA releasing rcoMage which led to animated PSP themes. And honestly, PSP themes are a large part of what kept the scene going so strong for so long. So ppl need to get their facts straight before making outrageous insults to this guy 😉
xmb modification and exploiting a console are 2 completely different things
i realize they are two different things… My point is that you are doing either if you are not knowledgeable. SKFU is no script kiddie. And he certainly has made noteworthy contributions to the hacking scene.
What are these note worthy contributions?
Changing XMB icons dont mean *** to me.
He’s never contributed anything, but is quick to tell people how close he is to hacking ps3 or psp, now vita, just an attention ***. Trust me, you’ll see.
agreed agreed agreed
everyone who was there at the start of the ps3 hacks knows that
Source?
I’ve seen it before, probably
because I have devVita at work =D
but that one is slimer then ours =`
maybe ps vita slim is coming.
Where do you work @ power bi
If he’s under contact he isn’t at liberty to say unless he want’s his *** handed to him. For the last ten years i worked for Nintendo but i can only say now that i did ( when it comes to being on hacking , homebrew sites i mean). I was recently offered a job at Sandlot and as soon as i sign that contract i will no longer be able to say that i do, especially if i continue to contribute to hb scenes.
yea it does seems slimmer then the normal version but i thought i herd that the dev kits dident have the game port idk… i want one vita dev now starthing to get sdk working..would be fun. n wats with sony nasne waithing for a american realse so i can get uniktone for the vita…
this is great I hope to see a full CFW on the vita on full access on psp and vita sections on the system.
sonys gonna be ***
Hello guys, i have a revelation to tell you all. First, i am sorry to offend the donators who helped me get a dev. Kit. All of your efforts have not gone to waste as i have successfully hacked the psvita and run a cfw on it. As much as i want to release it in public, we are facing a huge problem, the 2.0 update that will be released on the 19th. It would not be ideal to release the cfw as of now for 2 reasons. #1 vita cfw isn’t stable as of now. Some games dosen’t run on the vita cfw and crashes randomly
#2 if i release the vita now, all work will go to waste as sony will definitely patch and fix this exploit. Please be patient guys, a cfw for vita will come sooner or later.
Considering that name can be easily faked on here, if it really is you then you should make an official announcement on your blog 😉
Euh… *** is that ? i’m confused now… SKFU would normally put his name on CAPS <.<
dont believe the above post by skfu, it’s obviously fake
Go download all the old AR games and keep them safe
Please stay polite next time, so I don’t have to salvage your message from the spam folder, I won’t do it again 🙂
so true
I would like to see ps vita hack a working one… All i wanted to get cheats for vita games. Keep up the good work!! 🙂
Holy *** !! so the dev kit is basically a future PS Vita Slim. Why the heck Sony didnt provided a HDMI port for retail too?
cuz they was probly going have compasit cables like they did the psp go
I think they did, there’s another port on the top right of the Vita under the flap. They’ve never confirmed what it actually does but I’m pretty sure that’s a special video out cable that Sony hasn’t used yet.
If you don’t like homebrew than why are you on this site?? …idiot. GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR PROGRESS SKFU!
Would you scream that the people who take their cars to a mechanics garage for a bigger motor are *** scum too?
As you have to right to modify your car, you should too, have the right to modify your consoles as long as its not used to steal software.
and i wana add a hard drive n 3d camera n a subwofer to my vita…
if you can find a way, good luck to you.
if that was sarcasm, you failed.
I would like to add a 12mp cell phone camera and a micro sd card slot to my Vita think it’s possible?
I have hacked the vita , send donations to release.
xeueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee im going to buy a vita now if felix just hacked the vita =D
I want it but not for hacking, I would use it for legit developing :-), $1900 is a bit steep for a test device though. I wish Sony would make a Dev SDK that was more affordable but you could use your personal Vita with, (not the mobile suite ***)
What a ***
Actually, it’s not $1900, it’s closer to $2600 USD after conversion. I looked into buying it myself, but who has $2600 just lying around for a gaming device lol. We can only hope the unused port will be for video out, or that the next Vita will have a standard miniHDMI or something.
Anyways, keep it up SKFU! Take all the time you need to make a polished product!
Did anyone try to braze a hdmi or usb solder terminal to the consumer vita? Do you think it will be recognized without a modified firmware?
and after 3 years, is there any progress made on these so called devkit psvita’s ?
i imagine they’re waiting for sony to completely abandon the vita