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Hello World On PS Vita, Thanks to Buffer Overflow

Posted by timothy on from the in-the-palm-of-your-hand dept.

YokimaSun writes "Mamosuke, a PSP Homebrewer from Japan, has posted the first Hello World on the PS Vita which comes from the PSP Emulator in the console. Using a buffer overflow, he has found a way into the PSVita, and with many PSP Game exploits still around and not published for the whole homebrew and hacking community this means that in the short term homebrew is here on the PSvita. Lets hope this is the start of a true PSVita homebrew scene."

15 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. That was fast by JavaBear · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That console haven't been out more than a day or so...

    1. Re:That was fast by QuasiSteve · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, considering it was a known (to the author) exploit for the PSP, it would make sense to try that same exploit in the PSP emulator on the PSVita.

  2. Advantage of homebrew? by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What's the advantage of running homebrew on a PSVita over running homebrew on an Android device such as an Xperia Play or a Galaxy Player (called Galaxy S Wi-Fi in some markets)?

    1. Re:Advantage of homebrew? by supersloshy · · Score: 5, Informative

      Two analog sticks, front and rear touch screen, a lot of power, great PSP/PSX emulator compatibility (much better than ePSXe or PCSX), and a cheaper price for people who can't afford a data plan for their phone.

      --
      "Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded." -Archbishop Fulton Sheen
    2. Re:Advantage of homebrew? by Unkl_Shvelven · · Score: 3, Informative

      Right, so you run a product made by Sony, the largest lying and swindling house on the planet.

      --
      regular man whom love computer (Also, fuck beta).
    3. Re:Advantage of homebrew? by Verunks · · Score: 4, Insightful

      of course the biggest advantage of homebrew is that you will be able to play pirated games

    4. Re:Advantage of homebrew? by slippyblade · · Score: 3, Insightful

      On the OtherOS front, we have over a year of Sony saying, "OtherOS is here to stay" and "we will not remove functionality"

      On the flip side is knowingly installing rootkits on folks computers, lying about, then saying it's people's own faults because, "Most people don't even know what a rootkit is!"

    5. Re:Advantage of homebrew? by LordLimecat · · Score: 4, Interesting

      A third-party tool that was horrible, to be sure, but again, where's your citation that they blamed the users and ever said what you put in quotes?

      Unfortunately, hes NOT lying, and that quote was from a fairly high up executive...
      Mr. THOMAS HESSE (President, Sony BMG Global Digital Business): Most people, I think, don't even know what a Rootkit is, so why should they care about it?
      http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4989260

      That quote isnt itself a crime, but it certainly is a poor attempt to defend their actions, and kind of indicates Sony's relationship with its customers.

      If you want to know the reasons basically everyone on the internet hates sony, you can start by reading Maddox's take on it (which is pretty spot on, despite the crudity of it). Long story short,

      1. They shut down Lik-Sang. Wonderful, now I cant buy Hori controllers anymore. The irony of it is that apparently even Sony employees were importing thru LikSang
      2. They had the whole rootkit debacle mentioned above, which they handled with the grace of an elephant and about as much tact as Maddox. I think they eventually released a tool to remove the kit, which ended up either causing further problems or not actually fixing the broken CD drives it created. (Windows reinstall necessary). Mark Russinovich has a writeup on the whole thing, but the NPR link above summarizes it pretty well.
      3. Part of Sony is Sony BMG, which is part of the RIAA that everyone on the internet loves so much.
      4. They started removing features from the PS3 from iteration 2 on (USB ports, etc), which is always a way to make your customers love you.
      5. They got the crap hacked out of them, and then denied the severity of it, resulting in two rather spot (and hillarious) on Penny Arcade comics. They also posted a...post... on it which basically sums it up: They lack the ability to communicate in a meaningful way with their customers.
      6. Theyre behind Blu-Ray, and its encryption, which again is super duper popular with normal slashdot folks.

      Not all of those are crimes (blu-ray), but when you add them together you get the impression that Sony doesnt even really pretend to care about its customers, and really is your stereotypical faceless monster of a corporation. They barely even have a cool-factor to offset it, like Nintendo can pull off.

    6. Re:Advantage of homebrew? by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 2

      Because you can run these funny little things called "Commercial games?" You can find them in stores! It's amazing!

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  3. How long before Sony removes the emulator? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Start of a new homebrew scene? More like the start of Sony just removing the PSP emulator entirely. There's plenty of precedent for that on PS3.

    1. Re:How long before Sony removes the emulator? by neokushan · · Score: 2

      Good, let them.

      Frankly, I'm tired of Sony's bullshit and the more they fuck over their paying consumers, the faster people will realise what a worthless company they really are.

      --
      +1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
    2. Re:How long before Sony removes the emulator? by chilvence · · Score: 2

      I have to protest your opinion. As a long time PC gamer, the thing that has always excited me the most is the fact that the platform is completely open. The very first time I managed to load the eclectic Doom Editor Utilities toolset and build a stupid two room wadfile was one of the most electrifying experiences I have ever had sat in front of a computer. It was the day for me that computer games stopped being arcane wizardry, and started being something I could understand and respect as a craft. The more I understood, the more I appreciated that every single facet of a game is painstakingly crafted with love and care (if its a good game...). Computer game developers ceased being indifferent, arrogant gods of art and code, and started being people that I could imagine seeing eye to eye with.

      What all the console manufacturers in have always created, are closed systems, tightly locked castles where what happens inside is of no consequence to the presumptuous serfs that live outside, who only exist to be taxed and praise the Lords inside, and I would give my right arm for something to happen that would nip this in the bud and allow computer game development to become more inclusive and familiar to the millions that only consume it, who collectively have sacks of interesting and innovative ideas between them that live briefly for 10 minutes over a beer conversation and then die in silence as they return to 'plow the field'

      I can't fundamentally find any reason for it to be this way, for gaming works to be created in secret dungeons in complete silence, when we all know several people who are artists in some other respect, a painter, a musician, a film maker, a writer - do these practicians of the established arts go to such extreme lengths to hide themselves and their creative processes, to presume that none other than they should have the right to create? No, In fact every single one I have ever met in my entire life has not only encouraged me to try as well, I have even been conscripted on several occasions to help, in my mere mortal life.

      In my mind, the console divide is to computer games as the iron curtain was to Europe - pointless, imbecilic, disruptive and [hopefully] ultimately self defeating. Linking homebrew directly to piracy is flat out insulting. Giving someone a computer without allowing them the potential to program it would be like giving someone a Midi sound studio and telling them that they can only play music on it via midi files, and only ones that YOU approve of. It is...

      Articide?

  4. No by Arker · · Score: 2

    Lets hope this is the start of a true PSVita homebrew scene.

    No, actually, let's not. Let's not build our homebrew scenes to rely on the likes of Sony, thanks.

    /thinks the OP has gone full retard.

    --
    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
  5. Probably useless by Jiro · · Score: 2

    When a newer system is able to function as an older one (the article, which looks poorly Babelfished, claims it's emulation, but it's probably some kind of virtualization), being able to hack into the older-system mode is usually useless in being able to hack into the system itself. Typically once the system goes into older-system mode it's too late to do anything because all the new functionality is disabled until the next boot, and even if not, the virtual machine can't touch it.

    I have no doubt it's a real hack, but it's a PSP hack and isn't ever going to get us any more functionality than just hacking a PSP in the first place.

  6. BS.. by SuperDre · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's not true that the PS-vita has been hacked.. All that was established is that the PSP-emulator does exactly what a real PSP does, because all the hacks that work on the original PSP also work on the PSP-emulator that runs on the PS-vita..

    If the hacks didn't work there would be a big problem running PSP-games on the PS-vita anyway.. But then again, this is good news for original PSP-owners who now can get 'illegal' images of the UMD-games they already own and run them on the PS-vita (where you otherwise had to rebuy them, which ofcourse is ridiculous if you already own the original PSP-game).