I love how this thread has been dead for nearly the past week then suddenly when RW access to more of the vitas partitions was gained all of a sudden people start popping out of the woodwork again.
Hacking [Question] Does Henkaku opens the door for PSP/Vita iso loading?
- Thread starter ScarletDreamz
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Woah, woah, woah, emulation is 100% legal.
What is illegal is downloading ROMs off of the internet. It doesn't matter if you own the game or not. You're only allowed to make backups of your own copies of the games (Which I've done with all my PS1 and Sega CD games).
not every country, for example in canada until maybe 2014(?) it was not illegal (legal) - and i think still now in switzerland it is legal? i think also spain.
and i guess some third world countries too
(personal use sometimes comes into it also)
Last edited by cearp,
So, back to subject. We'll never see an "iso loader" on the VITA (for VITA titles) because it doesn't use an optical disc. So we can see either or both of two things: (1) NVG card emulator and/or (2) PSN PKG installer.
(1) May (or may not) be complicated as BlackFin seems rather complicated, but that was on unmodified systems. So you'd either have a file folder or a .rom (I prefer .nvg) file, and something to emulate the writable area. Of course the authentication will need to be patched out. On the 3DS there's still no "ROM emulator" but there's an easy-to-use .3DS-to-CIA option in Decrypt9WIP.
(2) seems a bit easier, provided you can patch all relevant checks and have the necessary decryption keys (I doubt PSN uses something similar to the 3DS eShop ticket system). A first step would be to get the non-DRM demos installing without being in IDU mode, once we have Super HENkaku (open up kernel mode) using an open-source .pkg installer.
(1) May (or may not) be complicated as BlackFin seems rather complicated, but that was on unmodified systems. So you'd either have a file folder or a .rom (I prefer .nvg) file, and something to emulate the writable area. Of course the authentication will need to be patched out. On the 3DS there's still no "ROM emulator" but there's an easy-to-use .3DS-to-CIA option in Decrypt9WIP.
(2) seems a bit easier, provided you can patch all relevant checks and have the necessary decryption keys (I doubt PSN uses something similar to the 3DS eShop ticket system). A first step would be to get the non-DRM demos installing without being in IDU mode, once we have Super HENkaku (open up kernel mode) using an open-source .pkg installer.
Take a leaf out of the PS3's book. The NPDRM systems seem pretty similar from where I'm standing.
There's nothing on vitadevwiki about the VITA implementation of npdrm, so I wouldn't be able to comment on that. For PS3 a lot of research has been done, so maybe that can be of some help understanding how VITA works. One thing is "properly" installing the title, another thing is getting it to run. Perhaps the .pkg installing will never be done, perhaps getting it to run can be (using pre-decrypted titles with a custom loader). But without having full, unrestricted access to the system first to start researching, it's all far away from being realized.
Just in terms of the end functionality, I don't know anything about how the implementation works under the hood. The algorithms for everything or at least the keys are going to be different, but the way activation + licenses + executables fit together on a broad scale is going to be the same. At least based on what I see.
.pkg installing is here. We can do that on 3.60 now that IDU mode is accessible. The problem is licenses. The executable for a legitimate game .pkg won't be run and it won't be decrypted without a valid .rif license file signed by Sony which approves that PSN account to run the game.
To the best of my understanding, a CFW PS3 user would do the following: You would install a general purpose .rap decryption key with a tool like PSNpatch. This would convert it to a .rif license file for the PSN account of choice. The license isn't validly signed by Sony, but the kernel is patched so that it doesn't care.
In effect you just make your own license out of somebody else's, and since you're using CFW it doesn't matter that Sony haven't approved it.
I'm not a PS3 dev (or any dev at all) so I don't know if this explanation is exactly correct, but this is my best understanding based on using a CFW PS3.
You're right in stating that a lot of reverse engineering went into the PS3 to make this possible. That same reverse engineering would be needed on the Vita.
The Adventure Time dump seems to imply that all you need to run fully decrypted titles is HENkaku.
Adventure Time was dumped from a devkit Vita and is totally unencrypted. All you have to do is zip the files in a .vpk and it can be installed to run on any Vita with HENkaku as if it were a homebrew.
Whatever kernel hax are working under the hood here, I think that Molecule have hijacked some of the Vita kernel's package installation and license verification functions.
So to sum all this up, if Vita piracy happens, I think it's going to happen in one of two ways.
- PS3 style, with a homebrew to install fake licenses. Games distributed as .pkg or Zeus links + .rap decryption keys (or equivalent)
- Reuse of existing HENkaku exploits. ROM dumpers just decrypt the games and eboots with a homebrew. Games distributed as .vpks.
By the way, if anyone who actually works with this stuff is lurking around, feel free to call this longpost out as bullshit. I'm speaking based on very limited experience.
In germany (and I assume alot of other countries see it the same way) it is allowed to dump games if you don't bypass any copy-protection and it's your game, while a proprietary format are seen as "hardware copy-protection" => PSX dumping is ok, SNES dumping is not legal.
Good luck to proof that I haven't made the dump but that I have downloaded it
Last edited by VitaType,
Problem is, to dump a game you almost always have to get by some sort of copy protection. Just because a psx game is on a Cd, doesn't mean you can freely make a back up since you HAVE to mod yout playstation to play backupsIn germany (and I assume alot of other countries see it the same way) it is allowed to dump games if you don't bypass any copy-protection and it's your game, while a proprietary format are seen as "hardware copy-protection" => PSX dumping is ok, SNES dumping is not legal.
Good luck to proof that I haven't made the dump but that I have downloaded it
No, you can make the backup without bypass the copy-protection. This means making this iso isn't illigeal as owning it while you own the original CD isn't illegal (even when you break the CD it's still legal, since the idea is that you can make private backups this way. That's called "Recht auf Privatkopie", the right to have a "private copy" meaning backup in "law-german").
Having a modchip in your PS1 isn't considerd illegal in germany too (this cold differ in most countrys, don't know), because this modchips are used for getting around the region-lock in the first place to beeing able to play US games on a german PS1 (or that's for what they developed and sold them *rolls his eyes*).
Btw. this is one of the reasons why modern end-users CD writer aren't able anymore to make real 1:1 copys of CDs (there are hidden parts since around the mid-2000s on CDs that don't get copied anymore with newer CD-writers). This hidden parts are used for copy protection.
Last edited by VitaType,
Looks like piracy is possible, someone cracked the eboot encryption.
https://twitter.com/hoshi_ra/status/767122093154639873
https://twitter.com/hoshi_ra/status/767122093154639873
still needs to be confirmed - follow it here i think
https://www.reddit.com/r/vitahacks/comments/4yrvmw/real_vita_piracy_maybe/
although, if it's happening from china, i bet they are already talking about it on their chinese forums, so... anyone want to look?
--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------
IT'S REAL!
http://tieba.baidu.com/p/4742168449
still needs to be confirmed - follow it here i think
https://www.reddit.com/r/vitahacks/comments/4yrvmw/real_vita_piracy_maybe/
although, if it's happening from china, i bet they are already talking about it on their chinese forums, so... anyone want to look?
--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------
IT'S REAL!
http://tieba.baidu.com/p/4742168449
Oh wow the chinese forum's newbie situation is worse than gbatemp/wololo
Nope, he didn't say how
inb4 it's another devkit dump and all the pirateknobs cry their eyes out.
what about if it's real, and more games get dumped and a method gets released - will you be crying your eyes out because we have piracy?
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