Bunny's Girl

An article posted on the BBC news website today. I know that some people (Dillon) will be interested in this from an Emulator point of view as he'd like to play spectrum games (sigh!) on his PSP. For me, I think it'd be nice to have a broader range of films available other than what's regulated by the big film distributors. But who's to say Sony won't have a rethink of their firmware and clamp down on things again?!

I thought it was an interesting article and definately made me think about how things could be! What do you think?



Three hacker teams unlock the PSP

By Paul Rubens



Hackers break into Sony's PSP to install their own "homebrew" apps

Computer hackers have scored a victory in their battle against Sony and the way the company controls its PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld games console.
Sony sells its PSP with built-in software, known as firmware, which controls how the console operates.
The firmware locks many of the PSP's capabilities, preventing enthusiasts from writing their own programs, known as homebrew, and running them on the machine.
It also disables its ability to play some films which are not bought on special Sony PSP disks.
But last month three hacker teams - Noobz, Team C+D, and a group led by PSP hacker Dark Alex - co-ordinating their efforts over the internet, found a flaw in the most recently released version of the firmware - version 3.03.
See PSP firmware milestones

Unlocking PSPs
Using this flaw they devised a way to unlock all PSPs, regardless of their age or the firmware running on it.
This development has been a cause for celebration in the PSP homebrew community, but caused alarm at Sony because unlocked PSPs can be used to play pirated PSP games.
"The problem experienced here is not with homebrew applications, but with hackers who pirate commercial titles," a Sony spokesperson said. Sony have never been in touch with me, so I am confident that what we are doing is legal


Fanjita (David Court)
PSP Hacker


"Piracy is illegal and we strongly oppose any acts which either aide or profit from it."
But the hackers say piracy is not what motivates their teams to unlock the PSP.
"My aim is to enable as many people as possible to run homebrew programs," said Fanjita, a member of the Noobz team.
He added: "Everyone has the right to do what they want with their own hardware. Piracy does upset me, and because what we are doing opens the way to piracy it's harder to justify it morally.
"But our stance on piracy is clear, and we hope to be role models. Sony have never been in touch with me, so I am confident that what we are doing is legal."
Hackers unveiled
Fanjita - real name David Court - is very different from the popular hacker stereotype of the socially inept teenaged geek working all night in his bedroom.
A married man of 34, he is an accomplished professional programmer who writes server software for large telecommunications companies for a living. He spends an hour or two a night hacking PSP software in his Edinburgh home, and is also a martial arts enthusiast.
Dark Alex fits much more comfortably into the hacker mould.
A student from Spain, his hacker moniker derives from his real name, Alejandro, and a liking for all things gothic, he says. His interests are Japanese Manga comics and cats, but PSP hacking is his main hobby. I think it is up to users to make the correct decisions about how to use my software


Dark Alex
PSP Hacker


"It takes up a good part of my spare time, more or less what some other people may spend watching TV," he said.
"I mainly do it because it is fun to research the internals of the operating system of a machine made by a big company. I am also against DRM (digital rights management - a type of electronic copy protection) in any of its forms, and against restrictions that make a device unable to show its true potential."
Not just pirates
Dark Alex said that although his work makes piracy easier because it enabled PSP owners to play copied games, this was not his responsibility.
"I think it is up to users to make the correct decisions about how to use my software," he said.
"I believe in the presumption of innocence, unlike the media companies."
There were many quite legitimate reasons why you might want to copy a game you own from its original disk, Dark Alex said.
"You can transport a number of games on a single memory stick, which is very convenient, and the games actually load faster. And most important for me, these games can actually be modified, allowing users to customise their games," he said.
"I've seen great things done in this area, like people changing the music of games, or making full translations into their own language."
Breaking the code
Whenever Sony releases a new version of its PSP firmware, the three hacker teams compete to see who can decode and examine it first.
They then collaborate to see if they can find any way of unlocking it.
This task has been made harder in recent months as Sony has introduced a new and more secure motherboard in the latest PSPs, and because Sony's firmware has become increasingly sophisticated in response to the hackers' efforts.
"When each new version of the PSP firmware comes out we can see that Sony are putting in countermeasures against the things we have been doing," Court said.
In this case it turned out that a well known mistake in the way a PSP game called Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories was written provided the hackers with a suitable "exploit".
By loading the game it was possible to get access to a restricted part of the firmware called the kernel, and an oversight on the part of Sony's firmware writers then allowed the hackers to run a special program of their own devising.
An upgraded 'downgrade'
This "downgraded" the PSP to an earlier version of the firmware which allows homebrew to be used.
PSP FIRMWARE HISTORY
2.00 Added a web browser, 4:3 video playback, MP4/AAC playback, and photo transfer support
2.50 Added Locationfree streaming, copyright-protected video playback, and WPA wi-fi security
2.60 Added RSS support and WMA playback
2.70 Added support for Adobe Flash in the web browser
3.00 Added Playstation network/Playstation 3 support and camera support



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The drawback of this early firmware is that it won't run the latest games, but this problem was quickly overcome by Dark Alex, who wrote his own firmware, called Dark Alex's Open Edition, with the help of a fellow hacker known as Booster.
With this firmware installed, the PSP is completely unlocked, but also has all the features of the latest firmware. Within days of the release of the Noobz team's downgrader and Dark Alex's Open Edition firmware, Sony updated its firmware, fixing the flaw which makes unlocking possible. Anyone buying a new PSP with this firmware installed will be therefore be unable to unlock their console - at least until Noobz, Team C+D and Dark Alex and his crew find another exploit and the whole cat-and-mouse game played by Sony and the hacker teams repeats itself.

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dillonthebunny

scary! still.. if it means speccy games (un-sigh) on my psp.. hurrah!!

biggest thing though is emlators (for me)... to be able to pay GBA, MAME, PS1, Speccy, N64... PC Engine.. soo tempting.

BUT.. i dont want to brick my psp up!

mind you if i had two psps... (that was a message for BG )




Sony MUST start to give way somewhat to hackers, whats the problem on giving them a lil rope to play with?

they get far more Kudos for that than coming down hard on these guys.

and if they dont want the hackers doing it.. then maybe Sony should hire these guys to work for them, and make legal emu's and fun applications for the PSP like what theyre doing right now?

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Arnold K. (Admin)

Well...this isn't really news. The PSP was hacked two months after it came out in Japan.

Bunny's Girl

Thanks Arnold, I wasn't aware of that.

I must say though, that by the BBC running this story, it's allowed many PSP owners who don't ordinarily follow PSP news (i.e. me) to be aware of the fact that there is scope for a much wider catalogue of media than is available now.

I'd always been kinda happy with my psp but since having a think after reading the article it's made me think about a few 'nice to haves' such as recordable UMD's.

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PS3 Widow to a PS3 Weirdo

dillonthebunny

yeh, the most interesting point here is the fact that the firmware hacked was 3.03.. apparently unhackable.. cough cough.. yeh, right.

im running 3.11, so unless they do somthing with that, i will just watch from the side lines. but then when they do come out with something, i will be using the newest firmware..and so it goes on.

I have friends that use all these apps and Emu's, they love it.. but it means they cant play the new games too. with this hack it means that you can play the brand new spanking games that have just come out and Mario64.. lol

like the whole ripping of your old PS1 games to put on your psp.. why cant Sony give you some sort of ripping media that allows you to do this?

ive paid for GT, Soul Edge, Tekken3, Vib etc.. why should i pay again on the PS Store... and even then, what are the chances of the UK Playstation store having Vib Ribbon?? zero me thinks.

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Legend Edgemaster of the Unicorn. oh and nine thousand fake forum tokens, 3 real ones and 5 special tokens mysteriously protected by a blinding white aura.. known to some as the 'anti wife light'..

""Bombing for peace is like ****ing for virginity"

"NO OFFENCE" R.I.P @PS3

Mr. SunburnMan

I've done it and so should you.

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dillonthebunny

but im scared in case of bricking it.


but if i HAD TWO PSP's (still think if i shout loud BG will give me hers )

i have a 2 gig stick in my psp now, I really think i should look in to this, but its just that i dont know what im doing in regards to downgrading.

anythig else im fine with and more than competent at messing around with all sorts on the psp.. just downgrading firmware, ive never gone near it.

anyway, i will have to wait until they can downgrade 3.11 .. i dont think they can do that yet.

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Legend Edgemaster of the Unicorn. oh and nine thousand fake forum tokens, 3 real ones and 5 special tokens mysteriously protected by a blinding white aura.. known to some as the 'anti wife light'..

""Bombing for peace is like ****ing for virginity"

"NO OFFENCE" R.I.P @PS3

Mr. SunburnMan

actually, dark alex has been kind enough to hack it where the first thing that it executes in case of bricking is what is found in a recovery folder.

this is more than what sony does...

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@PS3

i cant wait for some hackers to hack the ps3

Gabriel013

Things like this should one day make companies think twice about the way they lock their systems. Just because some people may break the law and use it for pirate purposes, doesn't mean it's fair for them to restrict functionality which law abiding people could benefit from using.

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