Vita Scene hacker MrGas surfaced today with a screenshot of what appears to be a decrypted (then re-encrypted) Save Data for PS vita game Final Fantasy X HD remaster on the PS Vita. This has several big implications for the PS Vita scene.

Mr Gas confirmed this breakthrough was made possible thanks to the recent release of Henkaku, the native PS Vita 3.60 hack from team molecule. The possibility to decrypt and reencrypt PS Vita games could allow for a few interesting things.

SaveData decryption to lead to local cheats in Vita games

Decrypted savedata could lead to editors for cheatcodes on the PS Vita. With a bit of hex-edit magic, people could be able to trick their games. The typical stuff to get infinite lives, better gear, more coins, you name it.

Arguably, this might even be used to trick things such as online features. Could you trick a game that would in return trick Sony’s servers and give you all trophies for a given game? Although this might sound appealing to some gamers, be warned that Sony does not respond kindly to people who use hacks/cheats to trick their online system (including, but not restricted to, the trophies)

SaveData decryption/encryption could help find more exploits in Vita games

Being able to peek and poke inside video games savedata is how lots of console hacking has happened historically. Savedata exploits were the main vector of usermode exploits on the PSP, including on the Vita’s PSP emulator, which is how things such as VHBL are typically enabled (except in a few occasions including the recent VHBL bubble trick). On the 3DS, game-based exploits are also pretty frequent, such as SuperMysteryChunkhax and other game exploits.

It’s worth noting however that such things were easier in the days of the PSP, where savedata was generally not encrypted uniquely per console. As such, sharing game exploits was easy, but nowadays a reencrypted save game would only work on the console it was created with. So a way to “inject” the savedata on other people’s Vita would be needed, which requires another exploit. On the 3DS, such chicken-egg situation led to the concept of “secondary exploit”: you need another, primary,  exploit before you can install this game exploit. On the 3DS, action replay powersaves are typically used to reencrypt the Data for one’s console.

It will be interesting to see where this takes us to. Mr gas hasn’t stated any release data, nor has he said he would ever release his work. It’s nevertheless interesting here to see that HENkaku is sparkling interest in the Vita scene at a rarely seen rate, and to see that some veterans of the scene are still actively engaged. In the meantime, you can feast your eyes on the screenshot from MrGas:

PS Vita save decrypted

source: Mr Gas