Swapless PSP Exploit Released

YDKCooKiE writes "According to psphacker.com, an updated exploit for PSP 1.5 has been released, allowing PSP 1.5 users to play homebrew software without requiring the swap trick."

Comments

Just tried it

[pjameson]

I just tried this yesterday, and finally I get to see what I was missing by having the 1.5 firmware. They really did a great job on this release, but it's going to suck when you have to update to play new commercial games

Methinks...

[systemic chaos]

It's about time to require a new firmware version for all new games

Exploit?

[moz25]

I'm not so sure the term "exploit" is the appropriate one. It's more often associates with programs with malicious intent or gaining higher privileges on another person's system. Surely, making full use of the hardware you own is not "exploiting" it?

Re:Exploit?

[linguae]

From dictionary.com:

1. To employ to the greatest possible advantage: exploit one's talents.
2. To make use of selfishly or unethically: a country that exploited peasant labor. See Synonyms at manipulate.
3. To advertise; promote.

Well, installing this exploit does employ the PSP to the greatest possible advantage, IMO, so that definition of the word works fine. Of course, exploit has ta negative definition, but I see nothing negative about using your PSP to play homebrew games, Linux, and other "unsupported" stuff, so I guess the definition of exploit is relative to the speaker/listener.

Re:Exploit?

[David Gould]

He said "own", not "0wn". It makes a big difference, you know.

Heh

[Auckerman]

As was shown with the xbox, the secret to entering a new hardware/software market is to create a machine that allows piracy, but discourages it. While there are valid reasons to allowing homebrew software on the PSP, and hacks like this shouldn't be illegal, research like this will lead to hacked games (on to very expensive memory sticks).

Genious on Sony's part. Get an installed base at any price, while paying lip service to piracy. Even at $250, the PSP will be a hit.

Because the whole page is basically an ad...

[Tuxedo Jack]

Here's the text and the link it links to.

- - - - -

Just when your fingers are getting sore and your friends keep asking 'Why do you have to switch memory sticks?' Killer-X and the PSP-Dev team have answered our prayers with KXploit, a way to run homebrew on 1.5's... Minus the memory stick swap!

The predecessor of Swaploit, users will now enjoy no more jammed fingers or broken nails with the introduction of "Direct Loader", and 1.5 users can now pretend they own a 1.0.

One of our users, Gavin King (Thanks), posted a comment on how to do this in its simplest form:

"If any of this confused you.... just do the same thing you did with swaploit, but put both folders on the same memory.

Let's use your NES folder as an example.

Your MS1 folder name "NES%" and your MS2 folder leave it the same, naming it "NES".

And that's all you need to do... a simple rename and move."

(I myself tested and verified this to work.)

You can get it in our PSP Download section here.

- - - - -

The file they're referring to is here:

http://files.psphacker.com/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0, 0,0,38,469

Sony's really missing an opportunity here

[Dark Paladin]

Now, I know why they don't allow the homebrew software:

Less game sales
Loss of control (possibility of viruses, malware, etc)

But - I think they could really do something with the homebrew if done right. I had put out some of these in a column I wrote up a couple of weeks ago, and still feel its true.

Sony could:

1. Offer a homebrew kit to developers for $100 - $200 dollars to be used for non-commercial use only.
2. Include big ass disclaimers "You break-a yo' PSP, not our fault".
3. If an application starts getting big, add it to an online PSP App Center and charge for it. 75% of the profits go to the devs, 25% to Sony. Everybody wins, as Sony could built up a library of applications and make some money off of it.

Is this as good as, say, just developing Palm Pilot applications and not getting a developers hard work appropriated by Sony? Naturally not - but half a loaf, as they say, is better than none. In this scenario, more apps for the PSP make it a more attractive device, which means more sales, which means more developers develop for it. At the moment, the Nintendo DS is looking like a better system (I've got two PSP games that look interesting to me, and about 15 DS games on my list for the future).

Of course, this is all just my opinion. I could be wrong. If nothing else, I'm enjoying having a Genesis emulator on my PSP - and the irony that I can play Game Boy Color games on my PSP but not on my DS ;).

Re:Time

[mesach]

As much as people think that this is ONLY for pirating psp games, getting mame on the psp is the one thing that is keeping me from owning one. As soon as a good mame emulator for the psp is out, im all over it. In addition to using normal psp games.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[ThosLives]

...and you should be able to hack anything you own -- it's yours.

Hrm. It just struck me that the problem with this statement is that most people agree, if you modify it to read (emphasis added):

...and you should be able to hack anything you own as long as it doesn't endanger anyone, deprive them of privacy, deprive them of something else, etc. -- it's yours.

This is part of the issue that the technically savvy face in the modern world. For instance, I could probably hack my car to get better fuel economy and more power, but turn it into something that emits a lot more NOx and CO2. I own the vehicle (it's actually paid for, a 2002 model). Should I have the right to do this? I cannot say that I have an answer to that.

The problem arises because it's hard to define what "endanger someone" or "deprive someone of something" means in most contexts. It's not like everything is simple like murder, theft of physical property, or other 'physical' issues. Take, for instance, the issue of DVD regions. The only reason this exists is political, and it's really unclear as to what damage would result from not having region-coded DVDs. Yes, I know about piracy and the "loss" of revenue, and I can understand the industry arguments, but I don't know that I agree with them. (If 10,000 people pay $10 each for a CD and give me $100,000, and 30,000 other people made copies, listen to the music, what did those 30,000 people "steal" from me anyway? It didn't cost me anything to produce those extra 30,000 CDs, so I didn't lose anything. The extra 30,000 copies didn't deprive anyone else of having a copy either. If, perhaps, I didn't think that $100,000 was enough to make more music I'll do something else, so that original bit of music is the only bit that will ever be out there. It does not make economic sense to continue to derive income from a non-scarce commodity for a lifetime; revenue should be proportional to services rendered or wealth created, not "I gave society this thing once, so keep giving me money forever". But I digress.)

Mostly the reasons for all the "do not hack your own stuff" laws comes from, especially in the United States, the desire to push all liability onto the manufacturers; this necessarily takes away some freedom. If, as a public, we want the freedom to hack our stuff, we have to take the responsibility for the possible consequences back upon ourselves.

Re:Linux Inside?

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Can it run linux? I can then add all homebrewed software I like.

including this one. I wonder if you can run the exploit on the emulator too...

Lack of a network effect

[tepples]

As I understand it, the GP32 seems to fit the bill.

Unlike Game Boy Advance SP, Nintendo DS, and Sony PSP, How can I develop and share GP32 games if I can't find anybody else in town that has a GP32 to test on? Especially with multiplayer games, how can I test multiplayer gameplay if nobody else in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has a GP32?

OK, I'll modify my question. What portable game hardware:

1. is not crippled,
2. has decent controls for handheld gaming, and
3. has a decent chance at an installed base in the United States of America?

Or is it a "good, fast, cheap, pick two, tough shit" situation?

Re:Lack of a network effect

[HishamMuhammad]

Or is it a "good, fast, cheap, pick two, tough shit" situation?

Yes, but it's more like a "open, popular -- pick one" situation. A friend of mine is a GP32 developer. The architecture is completely open, he bought it to hack on it more than to play with it. In fact, he's now maintaining the Linux kernel port for the specific ARM architecture of the GP32 port.

And yes, nobody else had a GP32 in his town when he bought it (or in his state, maybe even country(!), for that matter). But he found a very exciting user and developer community on the internet. So the installer base in [whatever specific place you are] is not that relevant.

Still, after seeing the GP32, I was almost tempted to buy one for myself (but I was broke at the time). Chances are, if you buy one, your friends might follow suit.

And emulators work like a charm, so there's no shortage of games, especially if you're into the classics. ;)

Technical Explanation

[Bri3D]

This is really old news...anyway...here's the technical explanation of how this works.
The original Japanese PSPs would run unencrypted code straight off of memory sticks. Then Sony released firmware 1.50. Firmware 1.50 required ALL code it ran to be encrypted. But there was a flaw. Some people from a group called psp-dev discovered that the PSP firmware only checked for unencrypted code ONCE, when it read the archive with the name of the application, the icon, etc. They determined that by making an archive with NO code in it, the psp would give it the OK because there was NO code in it whatsoever. Then the memory sticks would be swapped, and the PSP code loader would run the code off the second stick. But that wasn't good enough for PSP-DEV. Using a flaw in the FAT driver on PSP they were able to make this work with ONE memory stick. Why? When two folders are placed on the memory stick, one with a percent sign after it containing the archive and one without a percent sign containing the code, the PSP would allow you to select the archive, then the PSP bootstrapper would read the directory without the %, because the PSP bootstrap and FAT driver do not understand % signs.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Mattcelt]

That's exactly right. Under US law (AFAIK, IANAL), agreements are solidified as soon as an exchange of goods takes place - in this case, software for money. So if an EULA is not presented prior to the Point of Sale, it cannot be enforced.

What's more, the last I heard there was a 9th Circuit Court Ruling applying the "First Sale " doctrine to software, regardless of what the EULA says... Which is why those people at computer shows can legally sell you the OEM copies that have "Not for Resale" stamped in big, bold, (useless) letters on the package.

Downloaded software is much more insidious, because many times the EULA is presented before the download... But with Firefox's "Edit Text Box" extension (or whatever it's called), you can change the EULA to whatever you want... or if it's like Sun's EULA, just rewrite the HTML to reflect terms that are favorable to you before you hit 'submit'.

So far I just write in the box that I reserve all rights and privileges and that's all there is to it... I wonder how far one could push it, legally?

gameboy tetris!

[knowles420]

i've been running this since the swap hack was announced. truly the greatest thing about my psp is the fact that i can play gameboy tetris again.

also, check out the kxploit homebrew pack for a one stop solution to the emulators and homebrew games available.

Re:Technical Explanation, no!

[Anonymous Coward]

This is not a flaw in the FAT driver, this is a flaw in the shell. It uses sprintf to copy the filename to a different buffer before it calls open and the %, being a printf format operator, is dropped. If you put %s at the end intead of %, the machine will crash.