Yifan Lu Announces HENKaku - A New Native Vita Homebrew Enabler for 3.60.



Earlier today, Yifan Lu, a well-known member of the Vita hacking scene famous for the Rejuvenate hack for the Dev Assistants, has announced that a new (native!) Vita homebrew enabler for the latest firmware version, as of writing (3.60), will be arriving tomorrow at "9:00AM UTC".

The new hack, known as "HENKaku", will require the following:
  • A Vita/PSTV running 3.60
  • A memcard with at least 10MB of free space (internal memory is currently not supported!)
  • An FTP client
  • An internet connection**
**Offline support is now available! Launch the exploit straight from the email app without the need for internet access at all! See the unofficial release thread for more details. (Internet connection still required for installation)


This is a small paragraph of Yifan Lu himself explaining what the properties of this new homebrew enabler does:

HENkaku simply lets you install homebrew as bubbles in LiveArea. It is a native hack that disables the filesystem sandbox. It installs molecularShell, a fork of VitaShell that lets you access the memory card over FTP and install homebrew packages (which we create as VPK files). With vita-toolchain, developers have access to the same system features licensed developers have access to as well as undocumented features that licensed developers cannot use (including overclocking the processors).


The hack has been released at http://henkaku.me ~ Furthermore, the hack is said to be exclusive to 3.60, and there is to be no backports for the time being.

:arrow: Source: http://yifan.lu/2016/07/28/henkaku-vita-homebrew-for-everyone/
 
Last edited by , , Reason: Added info about offline installation.

Sumsquat

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Hi there!
I hope this is the right place to ask this:
I'm currently using a PSVita with fw 3.51, Rejuvenate & custom TN-V bubble.
I somewhere heard that I could update without losing TN-V.
Is that the case? Or should I wait until HENkaku (maybe) gets backported?
 

metroid maniac

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Hi there!
I hope this is the right place to ask this:
I'm currently using a PSVita with fw 3.51, Rejuvenate & custom TN-V bubble.
I somewhere heard that I could update without losing TN-V.
Is that the case? Or should I wait until HENkaku (maybe) gets backported?

You can't update without losing TN-V. The PSP kexploit which TN-V uses is blocked by 3.57.
 
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Maybe he was just waiting for a way for 3.57 users to actually be able to install it :ha:. I assume it's going to be possible to overwrite PBOOT.PBPs like we do with the email exploit, right?
Well there is already the MGS PO+ exploit for installing VHBL for 3.57 users, but I think that's EU/JP only.
I am almost positive there will be future methods and exploits that will be tons more reliable for later firmwares! :)
 

jimmyleen

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*picks up cellphone, call's Fedex*

Fedex: hello how may help you today?

Home owner: About my popcorn? Just leave the whole truck in the front of the house, you can pick it up in a week or so.

Fedex: Okay sir will do

:yaypsp:
 

yuyuyup

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I wonder if this statement implies the possibility of piracy down the road

"It does not let you install or run Vita “backups”, warez, or any pirated content. It does not disable any DRM features. It does not let you decrypt encrypted games. Here’s my stance on this: I do not care one way or the other about piracy. I do not judge people who do pirate. I will not act as the police for pirates. However, I will personally not write any tools that aid in piracy. It is my choice just as it is the pirate’s choice to steal content."
 

Deleted member 370671

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I wonder if this statement implies the possibility of piracy down the road

"It does not let you install or run Vita “backups”, warez, or any pirated content. It does not disable any DRM features. It does not let you decrypt encrypted games. Here’s my stance on this: I do not care one way or the other about piracy. I do not judge people who do pirate. I will not act as the police for pirates. However, I will personally not write any tools that aid in piracy. It is my choice just as it is the pirate’s choice to steal content."

Of course it does. It happened with the HBL on the 3DS, so it will probably happen with the Vita, especially with this kind of statement.
 
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I wonder if this statement implies the possibility of piracy down the road

"It does not let you install or run Vita “backups”, warez, or any pirated content. It does not disable any DRM features. It does not let you decrypt encrypted games. Here’s my stance on this: I do not care one way or the other about piracy. I do not judge people who do pirate. I will not act as the police for pirates. However, I will personally not write any tools that aid in piracy. It is my choice just as it is the pirate’s choice to steal content."
It makes you wonder, for sure!
Furthermore, they left a very similar note on their "about" page:

A Note on Piracy We are all developers by trade and we understand the problem of piracy that usually arises from breaking the security features of a device. The usual response from hackers is “not our problem” but we believe we can do better. We carefully designed HENkaku to be as permissive as possible for developers to write homebrew supporting private APIs and the option to bypass sandboxes. However, we also made sure to make it as difficult as possible to repurpose our tools to enable piracy. While piracy is always inevitable, we will not make it easy.


:unsure:
 

jimmyleen

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I wonder if this statement implies the possibility of piracy down the road

"It does not let you install or run Vita “backups”, warez, or any pirated content. It does not disable any DRM features. It does not let you decrypt encrypted games. Here’s my stance on this: I do not care one way or the other about piracy. I do not judge people who do pirate. I will not act as the police for pirates. However, I will personally not write any tools that aid in piracy. It is my choice just as it is the pirate’s choice to steal content."

I know what I am about to say has nothing to do with the psvita, but it does have to do with homebrew for another device. Smealum said he never intended for his homebrew to be used for "piracy" on the 3ds but look what has happen'd ever since he has made it opensource, keyword being OPENSOURCE.
 

metroid maniac

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I know what I am about to say has nothing to do with the psvita, but it does have to do with homebrew for another device. Smealum said he never intended for his homebrew to be used for "piracy" on the 3ds but look what has happen'd ever since he has made it opensource, keyword being OPENSOURCE.

If you're so needy to get games for free, you should probably try to share with as many accounts as possible while 3.60 is still the newest firmware and PSN-side account deactivation + act.dat injection is possible.
 

pikpol

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Does this enable us to install our own, with Unity developed, PS Vita games?
Because that would make great homebrew and I think many developers have access to Unity for PS Vita.
 

zoogie

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Just curious: can the Vita be updated offline with the .pup file provided here, even after 3.61 is out?
Sorry for being nuub, but I've been out of the Vita scene for a good while.
More than likely some one smart enough will create a cfw out of it...its only a matter of time.
The way yifan's worded it makes it seem like it's possible, just not helped in any way by the henkaku team.
 
Last edited by zoogie,

BORTZ

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More than likely some one smart enough will create a cfw out of it...its only a matter of time.
I would give quite a lot for cfw on a vita. but I think that ship has almost sailed for me. The only thing that would really interest me is something silly like a Saturn or ps2 emulator but thats not going to happen.
 

metroid maniac

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I would give quite a lot for cfw on a vita. but I think that ship has almost sailed for me. The only thing that would really interest me is something silly like a Saturn or ps2 emulator but thats not going to happen.

The Vita's still receiving a steady trickle of niche releases and throughout its life has received localisations the PSP never would have.

I pirate a lot, but I don't want Vita CFW until the Vita has breathed its last.
 

BORTZ

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The Vita's still receiving a steady trickle of niche releases and throughout its life has received localisations the PSP never would have.

I pirate a lot, but I don't want Vita CFW until the Vita has breathed its last.
I do like that we are still getting some stuff from psn. I think it is a REAL shame that we haven't gotten the support of SONY for this beautiful console.
 

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