PSP-3000 finally screams 'Hello World,' homebrew to assuredly follow

The notoriously-difficult PSP-3000 model (also known as PSP Brite) has finally been hacked, this time without the need for a downgrader tool. MaTiAz's "The Sparta!!!" exploit was allegedly discovered after overwriting the player's name in a GripShift save file with "this is spartaaaaa..." -- with 57 a's tacked onto the end -- and is now available for download along with a new SDK. It's said to work with PSP firmware versions 1.52 through the current 5.02. The Hello World proof of concept video is after the break. Welcome to the homebrew community, Brite: we've been expecting you.

[Via DCEmu]

[HedonisticKai @ Jan 5th 2009 10:29PM]

wait what?? it was hacked because some1 changed a file name to this is spartaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?

[cheater912 @ Jan 5th 2009 10:32PM]

Did anybody else count?

[Benson @ Jan 5th 2009 10:34PM]

Not a filename, I think, but basically yes. It's called a buffer overrun exploit.

[Benson @ Jan 5th 2009 10:35PM]

@cheater912: Absolutely.

[Dan Bugglin @ Jan 20th 2009 6:33PM]

It's very similar to the Twilight Hack for the Wii. In that hack the horse's name in the save file is overwritten with one that is too long.. the game never checks to see if the name is too long and loads it into memory, overwriting things in memory it shouldn't in a way the hacker planned to allow for code execution, basically*. Sounds like this is the same type of hack.

* - The idea is to overwrite a specific pointer in memory that determines where to return after a function call. Overwrite it to point to somewhere else... say, somewhere else in that big name we just loaded into memory... and once the function returns it'll jump into the big name and treat it as program code instead of a name, so if we put code in there it'll run!

That's how I understand it at least, though I left off the technical terms.

[geishroy @ Jan 5th 2009 10:29PM]

why is this even news...

[banimal @ Jan 5th 2009 11:16PM]

Because this is a Tech website, and the PSP happens to have a decent appeal to homebrewers, who are interested in technology, who happen to visit this site?




And oh yea, ITS A GADGET

[p-diddy @ Jan 5th 2009 11:01PM]

Because the PSP-3000 has a new motherboard and, up until this point, has frustrated custom firmware developers as appearing "unhackabale." Of course everything is eventually, but people have been working steadily at it with no success until this.

[TwhiT @ Jan 5th 2009 10:29PM]

While this is awesome, does anyone still play their psp a lot? i don't....

[Ravnos @ Jan 7th 2009 11:29AM]

I recently picked mine up again and started going through a few games. Disgaea especially is one I'm really enjoying, and I missed out on the original for PS2. Most of the games aren't very conducive to portable gaming, though, so I can see why most people make comments like yours. I mostly use it when the gf has taken over the TV to watch the food network all night.

[Jason Litka @ Jan 6th 2009 3:24PM]

I was just playing Jeanne D'Arc at lunch.

[d889 @ Jan 5th 2009 10:30PM]

hacking a psp3000? MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!

[Tom Moitie @ Jan 7th 2009 4:38PM]

Madness?

[41f0n50 @ Jan 20th 2009 1:56PM]

Madness?? This...is...Spartaaaaa!! (sorry, tried but couldn't resist).

[FILA @ Jan 5th 2009 10:33PM]

its kinda scary for me, even thou i havent made up my mind about up grading to a DSi, im scared if i do homebrew isnt going to work. I mean there already working for solutions, but i hope its just as simple as a firmware update for me, cuz if it aint im not buying, and second when the DS2 comes out, it'll sucks cuz then ill have to spend the money i aint got to buy games

[Alex McKee @ Jan 5th 2009 10:51PM]

I'm thinking someone should take a look at Ratchet and Clank, see if it has similar issues in regards to buffer overrun protection. It's distributed with the vast majority of 3000s, which would be very convenient.

[nxp3 @ Jan 5th 2009 10:56PM]

holy crap....you can install 1.52. Hmmmm....time for a new psp. I use my psp daily, I play games and watch video, listen to music. It's not just for games you know.

[jupiterthunder @ Jan 5th 2009 11:14PM]

I think you misread.

And this from the article...

FAQ
---
Q: Will this allow downgrading?
A: No, because this is an usermode exploit and functions required to downgrade are
only available in kernel mode.

[Garst @ Jan 5th 2009 11:01PM]

How the HELL do you find a glitch like that?

[John @ Jan 5th 2009 11:55PM]

Directing your attention to Wiki...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffer_overflow

[rnieto @ Jan 5th 2009 11:34PM]

You try, really hard






The rest is plain damn luck, GTA: LCS, Lumines 2, now Gripshift, its a wonder that they found these glitches amongst the hundreds of games on the psp.

[ClarkyCat @ Jan 5th 2009 11:03PM]

Yesss, I can now play Genesis games on a screen with terrible interlacing problems!

[theshonuf @ Jan 5th 2009 11:04PM]

ahhhhh fond memories of custom firmware on my psp

even back when the GTA exploit was found in 2.0

good times

[Juan @ Jan 5th 2009 11:19PM]

What a waste of time to hacking a psp is. Its almost a dead system. Only four games came out this Christmas season. The online store suck, it sure not the apple store. The sony store even charge tax on a movie I rented. Hacking the psp is destoring whats left of it.

[Danny @ Jan 5th 2009 11:16PM]

@ Juan

I agree completely. The system is dead and homebrew killed it.

[rnieto @ Jan 6th 2009 2:30AM]

Actually, hacking the psp gave it life. Obviously this comes from a person who has never tried a hacked psp.

A bit of history for you:
-The first internet browser for the psp was with a hacked Fired Up game. (pre 2.0 FW)
-480x272 (AVI or MP4) playback, way before 3.0 FW was out.
-GPS before it was officially available (though you needed some soldering skills)
-a Java Virtual Machine
-Playback on TV before it was officially supported (PSP-2000), though Sony did it better
-A crude PS one emulator (though Sony did come out with a better, stabler version)
-As a universal remote (yay for us PSP-1000 users!)
-And anything else that could be coded in C running on a 333MHz MIPS proc with 32MB of RAM.

With such an active software development community, I don't see it becoming dead in the next few years.

[Danny @ Jan 6th 2009 12:20AM]

@rnieto

I own a hacked PSP. I won't lie, I'm part of the problem. I say the homebrew community killed the PSP because from a developers standpoint, I would never put my time and effort into a product that will so easily be pirated. Game development, just like all software development, is a long and tedious undertaking.

It simply isn't worth developing for the PSP anymore.

[rnieto @ Jan 6th 2009 2:57AM]

@Danny


Holy hell, the homebrew = piracy = no sales argument again. So you're telling me that people should stop making games for the X360, PS2, PC and Wii because it could be so easily pirated?

What about the DS?

The DS is also hacked to high-heaven, but it sells. It sells really well. Nintendo just was able to capitalize on the casual gamers, the ones that are immediately sold on the cute factor, coupled in with a simple yet solid gameplay.

I like my psp for 'some' of the games which would never be available on the DS, or the games that would look even crappier on the DS. In example, the psp has God of War, Crisis Core, etc, games that are good to be played once, but have very little replay value. The DS has Nintendogs among other games, with the cute graphics, simple gameplay, and highly replayability, why shouldn't it sell?

Blaming piracy for not developing good games is BS at its best. The 4 platforms I listed above proves that you could earn a lot of money even with the rampant piracy, if there are enough good games.

Homebrew doesn't kill a platform, poor games do.

[distorted @ Jan 5th 2009 11:30PM]

Can that run iso's is the question?

[yourdum @ Jan 5th 2009 11:37PM]

your mom killed it. homebrew is the only reason to use the psp.

[Blastar @ Jan 6th 2009 4:08AM]

It's a useless hack.

[DDON @ Jan 6th 2009 4:22AM]

Thx Man
I've been waiting for it to be hacked

Props to U

[Imran @ Jan 6th 2009 5:28AM]

I got my first psp (3000) a month ago and I've been loving it, got a good set of games, my friend showed me his hacked 1000 with snes emulator and good old roms on it and that just wetted my appetite to be able to hack my 3000, I buy all the games I have, including the ones from the playstation store, I'm interested to see what kind of unofficial stuff I can do on my 3000 now...

[FreePlay @ Jan 6th 2009 7:47AM]

Oh hey, thanks for mentioning my involvement.

Huh? You didn't?

sigh.

[MaTiAz @ Jan 6th 2009 8:17AM]

Yeah, fail.

We wouldn't have the hello world without FreePlay, thank him.

[rohit5ooooo @ Jan 18th 2009 12:25PM]

can we play iso/cso in psp3000?
after hacking with gripshift....
from where i got that save file for gripshift for uk version....
as i hav the uk version of gripshift
please reply me
dying to know answer...
so help me out

[rohit5ooooo @ Jan 18th 2009 12:27PM]

can we play iso/cso in psp3000?
after hacking with gripshift....
from where i got that save file for gripshift for uk version....
as i hav the uk version of gripshift
please reply me
dying to know answer...
so help me out

[tyui75 @ Feb 4th 2009 7:43PM]

Hey, think of the unhackable thing this way....Back when 3.30 firmware came out they made a hack to downgrade it....after that, they thought it wuz unhackable....but after a couple of months they made the pandoras battery...and now...after so long..the pandoras battery wont work...so now that the almighty pandoras battery dont work, people start saying its unhackable again..it may be unhackable, but i'd wait a while to find out

[ColorblindMonk @ Feb 5th 2009 6:15PM]

So, it's basically like the Wii Twilight Hack.

[hida_berserker @ Feb 24th 2009 11:57PM]

So does this mean I can already play download games using the said SDk and downgrader? please reply. Does this mean everyone can now buy PSP3000 and dump their PSP2000?