The news has just broken that firmwares 2.70, 2.71, and 2.80 for the PSP have been fully hacked, and a "Hello World" homebrew demonstration application (which shows that unsigned code is runable) has been released to proove it. Thanks to a group of talented PSP developers, consisting of NOPx86 (for the initial proof of concept on x86), psp250, Skylark, Joek2100, CSwindle, JimP, and Fanjita, as of August 27th, 2006 at 9:00 P.M. EST, the PSP is, once again, completely thwarted. There is not a single firmware that does not have homebrew capabilities at the time of this news post (expect Sony to release an update within the next few weeks). It appears the PSP homebrewing community will never give up, Sony, however, has to battle it out once again, and get their team together to find a patch for this new, TIFF-based exploit, based off the same image format which had haunted them in the past with the cracking of 2.0 firmware.



2.70, 2.71, and 2.80 users, cherish this release, and consider it a [another] chance at joining the homebrew community and using homebrew games and applications. As always, homebrew is meant to promote the legal benefits of indie coding, not to promote the underground, warez-supporting groups which promote the use of illegal ISOs. Though the "Hello World" application is primitive, it is a grassroots for awesome homebrew to come on the respective firmwares, as an eLoader and much, much more are released.

Here's what Fanjita has to say about this news:
"To install, just unpack the ZIP file to your PSP's PHOTO folder, and then attempt to view hello_world.tif. Hello World will launch automatically. You may find that occasionally the full screen doesn't show - this is a known problem, just restart your PSP by holding the power button until it turns off, then open the image again. To quit, hold the power button until the PSP turns off.

So what happens next? This shows that we can run code via this exploit. It won't be too hard to develop an eLoader that can use this exploit on v2.0 - v2.6. v2.7+ will be harder, due to extra security, but will happen a little later. Kernel mode is unavailable on v2.8, but it is likely that a downgrader is possible on all other firmwares. But then, with the possibility of kernel homebrew running without the need for a game UMD, why would you need to downgrade?"

As an additional note, you will no longer need GTA: Liberty City Stories for PSP in order to run homebrew on 2.0+ firmwares. Although that method is much more advanced and offers many more capabilities at this time, the new TIFF-based exploit has a lot more to offer and will catch up in due time, thanks to its kernal mode capabilities from firmwares 2.0 to 2.71. Considering Sony has phased out the exploitable copies of GTA: LCS, and patched versions of the game are popping up in stores everywhere, this new exploit gives new PSP users a chance they thought they would have never had, had this project not been started. Great work to all who were involved with the project, PSP3D.com is proud to see these coders put forth so much effort and enthusiasm to get this project done!

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