Hacking Alleged first Vita flashcart

[yifan_lu]

http://cobra-blackfin.com/index.html

"Vita has a very secure card authentication mechanism, which to date has not been penetrated and is based on secure cryptography. It is unlikely that a direct authentication method which avoids having to use a peer to peer system will appear any time soon. As a result Cobra has designed a unique and cutting edge peer to peer sharing device which allows users to share their favourite games with friends over an internet network."

- No confirmation it's real although what they claim is possible technically, the real innovation is marketing this
- The pc reader allows pirates to host up to 7 games on their (likely) P2P network
- You will be limited to what games are shared by people at the time you're playing it. For example, if you want to play a less popular game, you have to wait until someone who owns it comes online and need to do this every time you power off the system.
- There currently does not seem to be any incentive for people to actually share. Pirates who purchase this likely don't want to buy new games. The company themselves will likely seed the pool with tons of games in the beginning but of course that won't last long (either by lawsuit or the failure of sales will force them to quit).
- If the system is indeed P2P, get ready to be sued by Sony because just like torrenting, if you don't take steps to hide yourself, it is easy to see who's sharing what games. Considering there won't be too many people in this network, it would be easy for sony to sue everyone in one swoop. Then people will be scared to share their games and this device is useless.
- Even if you cloak yourself, using this device will send identifying information across the network. Although it would be hard for strangers to decrypt such information, it's likely that sony can and will see what console/psn account is using this device.
- This device does not use ANY exploits on the system and does not even crack the cart security (as they said on the site). It will not enable homebrew or help it in any way. It's like sky3ds but worse because you can't even use it offline. If people think Rejuvenate is hard to use because you need an internet connection, well this is like the piracy version of rejuvenate
- It will also likely cost a lot. Although if they are "smart", they would make an incentive system for people to share games. Perhaps a rebate for people who are active on the network for a period of time?

 

[Deleted User]

What's the set-up process, and how can we trust it's real?

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Whoops, sorry! >_< I forgot you're a trusted source of info!

 

[FireEmblemGuy]

Unless Cobra wants you to constantly authenticate through them (which, given the whole setup, seems pretty likely), what reason would you have to create an internet-based seed pool in the first place rather than hosting from you own machine over a local network? Certainly seems to be more secure that way, and far less prone to copyright infringement notices, C&D orders, etc.

 

[yifan_lu]

Well if it is centralized, then sony can easily blacklist games. I think that's the point of this P2P system.

 

[SonyUSA]

It's real :3

I'm sure they are hosting their cluster farm (or at least proxy hosting) from somewhere that doesn't acknowledge American DMCA/Takedown requests or lawsuits. That being said, I'm sure there will be private cluster farms hosted by release groups or game sharing between small groups of friends that they wouldn't be able to locate easily. The downside of this is that there has to be a -real- copy of the game plugged into a Fin box -somewhere- for you to be able to play that .iso of the game. So the viability of a good private cluster farm is rather small because they would have to purchase the game AND a Fin box.


Edit:
Then again, release groups may be able to do a "scheduled rotation" of games and set up a calendar so people can launch a game they want on a certain day and let it run without shutting off their Vita for 2 days (or however long until that game gets rotated back again).

 

[Joe88]

I got excited until I saw what it was

 

[nodnyl10]

Noob here. Can someone explain this to me in simple terms? Like.. Real? Working? Currently in development. And how is this gonna work? Ok on second thought, I really did read everything on the first post All I understand is, there is this thing that you need in other player to play something. *scratches brain*

 

[Lycan911]

Noob here. Can someone explain this to me in simple terms? Like.. Real? Working? Currently in development. And how is this gonna work? Ok on second thought, I really did read everything on the first post All I understand is, there is this thing that you need in other player to play something. *scratches brain*

I was just about to ask the same thing, noob-friendly explanations are always welcome lol

 

[Hop2089]

This thing is impractical overall, I wouldn't waste your money on this.

 

[SMVB64]

I was just about to ask the same thing, noob-friendly explanations are always welcome lol

From what I can tell, this thing ingenuous.

It works like this, there's a Black Fin "card" and a Black Fin dongle. You put your Vita ISO's onto a micro SD card then insert it into Black Fin card, then onto your system.
Next there's the Black Fin dongle. Where users all over the place will put there legit vita games in the device and connect that to there PC's.

Due to the Vita secure card authentication which hasn't been cracked, the Black Fin card will then connect to a P2P like network looking for users that have the game you want to play inserted into Black Fin dongle.
For example, you launch a Gravity Rush ISO > Fin looks for the legit game hosted in someone dongle. It takes the authentication information, send it back to you and then you can play.

That's the gist of it pretty much.

 

[yuyuyup]

Well it's SOMETHING, but seems less practical than the piece of crap Neoflash 4 in 1 for psp

 

[SonyUSA]

So basically:

1) Plug the Fin Dongle into your Vita game slot (it sticks out of the top like an antenna) with a microSD with the .iso of a game you want to play inside it
2) Plug the Fin Box into your PC, the Fin Dongle and Fin Box talk to each other wirelessly
3) Connect the Fin Program on your PC to the Cluster Farm server you want to use
4) Select the corresponding game on your Vita and on the Fin Program (The Cluster Farm you are using must have the game on it to work)
5) The server will authenticate the .iso over the internet with the Cluster Farm server and launch the game on your Vita

Additionally, you can plug a game card into the Fin Box and share it with your friends online, too!

 

[Majima]

Sounds like it's more trouble than what it's worth. Interesting from a tech perspective but a lot less user friendly than actually buying the games.

 

[dandymanz]

Seems like an interesting concept though it won't help people who want to play games when they are out of the house or travelling. I hope this is finally the start of a good Vita modding scene.

 

[nodnyl10]

It does sound like it will fry your brain or somewhat troublesome. Although, we can hope that this is a start? I mean, the Vita has been around for quite some time now and it's time to .. you know, follow it's predecessor's footsteps.

 

[texthebear]

Do I have to authenticate the game every time I want to play or is it a one time thing?

 

[yifan_lu]

Do I have to authenticate the game every time I want to play or is it a one time thing?

Every time you reboot the vita OR when you want to change games.

 

[DinohScene]

Doesn't enable homebrew :c
Bummer.

Not to mention bummer that the Vita is pretty much dead.
I was really hoping it would have much more then the PSP.

 

[ElYubiYubi]

It does sound like it will fry your brain or somewhat troublesome. Although, we can hope that this is a start? I mean, the Vita has been around for quite some time now and it's time to .. you know, follow it's predecessor's footsteps.

Dont get your hopes too hight

"You might ask why it is necessary to authenticate the game you wish to play using an original card connected to a server?

Vita has a very secure card authentication mechanism, which to date has not been penetrated and is based on secure cryptography. It is unlikely that a direct authentication method which avoids having to use a peer to peer system will appear any time soon. As a result Cobra has designed a unique and cutting edge peer to peer sharing device which allows users to share their favourite games with friends over an internet network.

Vast resources have been poured into designing a flash card which is the same size as the original Vita card itself. Yes, the Cobra Black Fin squeezes all of its technology into a card no bigger than a Vita game card with tons of features and packing serious hardware power! When you look at the circuit board design and components used you start to understand the expertise and time required to pull off a design of this magnitude."

The Vita is quite strong on Security

 

[cots]

Sounds like it's more trouble then it's worth.