How does one obtain all the knowledge necessary to...

[CPUzX]

• become a Vita exploiter, a "modder" in that term
• create native Vita applications for the new Henkaku exploit
• study the coding language required for Vita application development - (what is the most common coding language for the vita)?
• understanding what the most vital files are inside the vita filesystem and what they do?
• which SDK is most suitable for Henkaku?
and lastly, something I've really been annoyed at for the past few days for being too dumb to figure out:
In general • how does one crack save encryption to decrypt a file, and then how do they reincrypt/rehash it - I mean without a program that does everything for you, but how do you actually do it barebones, how do you decrypt & reincrypt a file without any scripted programs, does a hex editor give you the opportunity, and although there is an "id" file in "ux0_" I'm unsure if it contains anything important to decryption and even if it did, how do you use a hexadecimal key to decrypt a file?

This maybe way too much to ask, and also forbidden information that cannot be released yet or ever, but I'd appreciate it if anything in this list can be explained and broken down.

I personally feel like ssssnot very good for being such an unknowledgable idiot when it comes to stuff like this, and I just don't know where to start or how to start when it comes to researching and learning on this topic. Maybe you have to be an experienced veteran to begin with in order to comprehend such advanced programming skills and make your way up from the beginning, but please can someone clarify that too, or is this topic way above the comprehension of someone like me or an intermediate tinker?
Thanks


Update: http://wololo.net/2016/08/03/psvita-dig ... -majortom/
by wololo · August 3, 2016

PS Vita Hacker Major_Tom just posted a full explanation of how he recently managed to do Savedata decryption and game modding on the PS Vita 3.60, via HENkaku.
The explanation is lengthy and detailed, and relies on MrGas’s trick to bypass pfs protection.

Thanks Major_Tom! That's one down.

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[purplepanda]

This post motivated me to start to answer these questions myself. (I've always been peripherally interested in homebrew coding, but never got around to much except way after the PSP SDK was out.)

C is the language you'd be working with most of the time from the looks of it, or C++ and potentially C#? Here's one interesting (and thick) document about how executable files on the Vita work. Understanding that apparently requires knowledge of ELF (executable and linking format). There's a Github which has a link to the toolchain you'd use to actually compile code (this would be easier to do using Linux), then some very simple sample programs (source code), and header files, which contain lists of Vita-specific functions like reading the camera or back touchscreen state.

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[TheOmegaFire]

• study the coding language required for Vita application development - (what is the most common coding language for the vita)?

C and C++ are the only languages that Vita natively supports, although there is a LUA interpreter as far as I'm aware, too.

• which SDK is most suitable for Henkaku?

Everything a developer needs to use is in the HENkaku webpage. Unfortunely, right now it's offline for some reason.

• create native Vita applications for the new Henkaku exploit

There's no easy way to do this. If you're beginning with programming, or lack total knowledge of that, then you're going to have a hard time trying to understand how to make everything work, compile, etc. Apparently, this is also on the developer's Toolchain for Vita, available on HENkaku

[wololo]

The following page hasn't been updated in years, but this is where I had a list of articles dedicated to "teaching" people how hacking works on the PSP. The PSP was a much easier system to hack than modern consoles, but I think some of my articles help understanding the basics.

http://wololo.net/hacking-portal/

In particular this one I think is pretty straightforward:
http://wololo.net/2009/03/11/finding-ga ... n-the-psp/

Modern console hacking requires much more skills nowadays, including ROP, ways to bypass ASLR, NX and other seecurity that's included in most OSes nowadays.

Also one point that I never really addressed in my articles is how to exploit when you don't have access to a debugger in the first place, i.e. how do you write the very first exploit for a device that's essentially a black box?

For the PSP I think this happened because unsigned code ran on the device from Day 1, allowing people to basically run homebrew very easily, which let people create a debugger for the device early on.
For the PS4, CTurt wrote a series of articles explaining how he basically compiled FreeBSD to be as close as possible to the PS4 version and work from there.
For the Vita,... I'm not sure actually. A series of small steps? (ePSP access, then the first webkit exploit, then... ?)

[NullMan]

• become a Vita exploiter, a "modder" in that term

Learn all the below+much more.

• create native Vita applications for the new Henkaku exploit

Learn the ins and outs of the Open Vita SDK.

• study the coding language required for Vita application development - (what is the most common coding language for the vita)?

As an official developer, if you can build apps for another platform you can also build them for the Vita. Sony provides a developer portal to talk about game-dev and access to all vita 3rd party software documentation.

For homebrew?
Learn ARM(to read vita code instructions), Open Vita SDK so you don't reinvent the wheel, and a higher level language (C/C++) if you want to make apps with a rich feature set.

• understanding what the most vital files are inside the vita filesystem and what they do?

Reverse engineer the kernel with RE tools/ARM knowledge.

• which SDK is most suitable for Henkaku?

The one it is designed for: Open Vita SDK

• how does one crack save encryption to decrypt a file, and then how do they reincrypt/rehash it - I mean without a program that does everything for you, but how do you actually do it barebones, how do you decrypt & reincrypt a file without any scripted programs

Reverse engineer how f() produces result X from Y . Simple analogy. X=f(Y) and Y=f(X)? Figure out what f() is doing.