Hacking the PSP Blog

Goofy exploit by Noobz - Hello World on firmwares 2.0-3.03!

Just a little while back, Fanjita wrote a small article on the people with non-homebrew-able PSPs should do. Waiting for an exploit was the only sensible thing to do in my opinion. And boy! You guys didn't have to wait very long; the Noobz team has just come out with a new exploit which works on all firmwares up to v3.03, which is all that Sony has been able to come up with.

As of now, the only homebrew which runs through the exploit is a simple Hello World application, but we all know what the PSP scene can come up with in a short while. And that's exactly what's gonna happen since I've heard from Mathieulh that a 3.03 Downgrader might be coming soon!

Here's what Fanjita had to say:

"You remember that the only thing holding us back from a downgrader for v3.03 was the lack of a user-mode exploit?

Well, we don't like to be held back from anything, so we went back to basics and looked over some of the old exploits. And what do you know? We found one!

We did a little digging into the old GTA exploit, and discovered that it hadn't been properly patched after all. We'll leave it as an exercise for the interested reader to figure out exactly how we got past the patch (and to give Sony a little while longer before the head-slapping "Doh!" moment :P)"

Read the full article here...


Download Goofy exploit & Hello World Proof of Concept




Source: PSPUpdates

On-duty Copy Caught Playing PSP

psphome.com posted a photo snapped of an on-duty police officer in East London playing a PSP. Apparently the officers were supposed to be guarding a wall that was at risk to collapse. The Metropolitan Police stated that "the use of the games console was inappropriate and unprofessional. Senior officers are dealing with the matter.”




Source: psphome.com

Dark_AleX's 3.03 OE-C Released

Out of the blue, Dark_AleX has once again released the latest update to his 3.03 Open Edition custom firmware. And this one's a major upgrade, which means that you will have to install it the long way. And yes, the feature list has been beefed up again, with a lot of new things and updates. Without further ado, here's what's changed in the latest version:

• AVC videos bitrate limit patched. The firmware limited the bitrate of avc videos to only 768 Kbps. OE now forces the limit to be 16384 Kbps. (Note: this doesn't mean than the psp can handle such a high bitrate, this means than they won't show error. I don't know which is the real maximum bitrate than the psp can handle at full speed)
• Speed of OE boot is now ~3 seconds faster than previous versions. (without plugins)
• CPU speed of XMB can now be changed.
• Wifi can now work at 333 Mhz!
• Added access to flash 0 and 1 via usb in the recovery menu, based on the great idea of USBSSS by Booster. Note that writing is enabled, so this is intended only for advanced users that know what they are doing in each moment.(It is not a great idea to change anything from the kd folder). Because of this addition, the rest of flashing options were removed.
• PSP isos can now be deleted as any normal memstick games. (also the size of the iso now shows fine when you press triangle->information).
• When formatting memory stick, GAME150, GAME303 and ISO directories will be automatically created!
• Changes in internal HEN core:
• If a EBOOT.PBP with a plain DATA.PSP had a data.psar, modulemgr took as size of the executable the size of data.psp+data.psar. Fixed. (this fix enables psx games to have plain data.psp without causing a memory error).
• Added a couple of patches found by Tyranid. One allows syscalls instructions to be used in kernel mode without causing a crash. The other allows sceKernelQueryModuleInfo to work with sceInit and previous modules.

And this is just the stuff in the actual firmware. Dark_AleX has also updated the popstation with the following things:

• The writing is now a bit different. This will avoid "Memory stick blinking too much" bug when using the plugin to load the 3.02 pops.
• popstation now lets the use of non-encrypted DATA.PSP. If data.psp is in the same directory as the app, popstation will use that as the DATA.PSP of the eboot.pbp. Otherwise, it will use the one from BASE.PBP. A DATA.PSP that imitates the original sony one is included.
• EBOOT.PBP generated with a non encrypted data.psp won't need the file KEYS.BIN at all. (Note: these EBOOT.PBP cannot work in versions prior to 3.03 OE-C due to a bug that those versions had.)

Since this is a major update, you have to do the full update by generating a DATA.DXAR using the OEUPDMAKER and then using that DXAR and flashing it using the 303oeflasher in the archive. Please refer to the readme for the full instructions. As always, please be careful with this mod.

WARNING: Firmware modifications can potentially damage your PSP beyong repair. Use this at your own risk.

Download Custom Firmware 3.03 OE-C

Source: PSPUpdates

Original PSP Faceplates @ Divineo

Divineo now carries OEM PSP faceplates in black, blue, silver, white, and pink for US $28.50. Click on the images below for links to their respective colors on Divineo's site.



Via DCEmu

Sony's Harrison to keynote GDC

President of Sony's Worldwide Studios, Phil Harrison, to address attendees with "Game 3.0: Developing and Creating for the 3rd Age of Video Games."

CMP Media, the organizers of the Game Developers Conference, today announced that Phil Harrison, president of worldwide studios at Sony Computer Entertainment, will give the opening keynote address to this year's conference.

Harrison will give a lecture titled "Game 3.0: Developing and Creating for the 3rd Age of Video Games." The talk will focus on "the entertainment, creative, and commercial opportunities presented by connected communities of players and developers."

GDC 2007 takes place March 5-9 at San Francisco's Moscone Center. Harrison's speech will take place on Wednesday, March 7, at 10:30 a.m. Earlier this week, GDC 07 announced that Nintendo's game guru, Shigeru Miyamoto, will present a keynote address, titled "A Creative Vision," on Thursday, March 8.

For more information on GDC 07, head over to the event's official Web site.

Tim Surette
January 25, 2007

Source: Gamespot