Bad news for the whole PS Vita scene. Sony has just stealthily dropped a new system update for the PS Vita: version 3.71. No official changelog is available at the moment, as Sony's website still lists 3.70 as the latest one, but it was clear since the beginning that the new firmware was aimed towards fixing exploits and security flaws as no new features were added. However, when scene member and console hacker TheFloW took an in-depth look at it, he found out that every single bug used by his Trinity exploit chain had been patched, making it impossible to run or port it over to the new system software.

Failed to fetch tweet https://twitter.com/theflow0/status/1153569625927553025
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Given the circumstances, it should go without saying that users interested in running any kind of homebrew on their PS Vita should avoid updating at all costs. If you don't, you will have to wait until a completely new exploit comes out for 3.71 - if that ever happens. TheFloW recommends anyone running Trinity to downgrade to firmware 3.68 or lower, otherwise, you may be locked out of the exploit chain in the future. On the other hand, if you're already running Henkaku or h-encore, you can spoof your system version to 3.71 directly from your CFW's settings.

UPDATE: @st4rk from team xyz has shown an exploit chain working under 3.71 in a tweet (linked below) which seems at least based upon their previously unveiled one for firmware 3.70. No further details or ETA were given.

Failed to fetch tweet https://twitter.com/St4rkDev/status/1153876778105987073​

Source

 

[cvskid]

That’s probably what I am gonna do. Not sure yet. The problem is that I’m so sad because it was extremely difficult to find this like brand new device in these colors.

I’m also considering to keep the device and wait for 3.71 to be jailbreaked. What do you think ?

Doesnt hurt to keep it, eventually 3.71 will be moddable. In the meantime you should still be able to use vita half byte loader vhbl, for psp emulators and homebrew so you will have something for the system at least.

 

[MetoMeto]

no new games but there is a patch.....just great....

 

[iSubaru]

Regarding the region-free stuff.
Technically Vita is region-free but stores aren't... kinda...
You CAN play (J) (U) (E) games on the same Vita but you have to have 3 accounts to do so, that's the only "requirement" of sort.
Besides that yes, Vita is region-free.
The irony region-lock was invented by... Nintendo and had a little different purpose back in the NES area, it was to combat the NES-fakes.
How region-lock survived to this era is beyond me... At least Sony realized that full out region-lock is stupid idea at some point...

EDIT #1
I forgot Asian region and probably some others but the rule is the same for them, additional account for that region and you're set.

 

[driverdis]

OMG, I have ordered a pre-owned locked Vita Slim in very mint condition and running 3.65 OFW two days ago. Beautiful device, white and lemon green color. No scratches at all. Like brand new.

The seller has shipped it yesterday and guess what. He told me that when he deactivated his account in order to reset to factory settings, the system asked to update to 3.71. So what did he do ? The motherf$&@?! updated the device to 3.71 before shipping it to me.

How I need TheFlow back to the scene or at least st4rk release his wonderful WebKit hack. Yes, I’m very ready for the Miracle.

I avoid this by explicitly telling sellers that I cannot have it updated and can’t use it if they do so.

I got a CECHA PS3 that was professionally reballed a week after 4.83 dropped and I was 100% sure there would be no chance that it would have that firmware as it was new and boy was I wrong. I did not ask the seller first so they updated it to 4.83 before shipping it out.

It worked out in the end since I played the waiting game until 4.84 could install CFW since I did not want to open the console at all for hardware flashing.

 

[PedroxBest]

if you want to run the 3.71 exploit, just open the web browser and type "192.168.1.192:8000" on it

 

[joelnodxd]

if you want to run the 3.71 exploit, just open the web browser and type "192.168.1.192:8000" on it

This doesn't work, I first tried it when st4rk uploaded the video, then again when you said about it.

 

[PedroxBest]

This doesn't work, I first tried it when st4rk uploaded the video, then again when you said about it.

i mean, when the exploit be released

 

[8BitWonder]

For folks that ended up on 3.71 one way or another, theFlow just updated h-encore with support from 3.65-3.71.
(Please protect yourselves from future software updates)

Surprise! h-encore² released for PS Vita firmware 3.71https://t.co/XbagYIJ9ch pic.twitter.com/59Ic4AuKT4

— Andy Nguyen (@theflow0) August 26, 2019

 

[smf]

I guess Sony will pull the game as soon as they read his post.

 

[PedroxBest]

For folks that ended up on 3.71 one way or another, theFlow just updated h-encore with support from 3.65-3.71.
(Please protect yourselves from future software updates)

https://twitter.com/theflow0/status/1165978842995052544

YES! YES! YES!

 

[PedroxBest]

For folks that ended up on 3.71 one way or another, theFlow just updated h-encore with support from 3.65-3.71.
(Please protect yourselves from future software updates)

https://twitter.com/theflow0/status/1165978842995052544

YES! YES! YES!

 

[godreborn]

I just copied the game to six hdds.

 

[PedroxBest]

(a, i did post the msg 3 times by an accident)

 

[8BitWonder]

I guess Sony will pull the game as soon as they read his post.

I'm honestly surprised they haven't already.
Sony was fine with pulling the plug on PSP games in the past when those were shown to be exploitable, what makes this demo so special?

On another note though;
I imagine the big reason Bitter Smile was picked as the exploit game was because it's DRM-free.
So even if Sony were to pull the plug, we wouldn't need to grab it from their servers to still use it.
Someone would just need to host the .pkg elsewhere.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I'm honestly surprised they haven't already.
Sony was fine with pulling the plug on PSP games in the past when those were shown to be exploitable, what makes this demo so special?

On another note though;
I imagine the big reason Bitter Smile was picked as the exploit game was because it's DRM-free.
So even if Sony were to pull the plug, we wouldn't need to grab it from their servers to still use it.
Someone would just need to host the .pkg elsewhere.

Normally it takes Sony a few days to pull games from the store, they never instantly take them down.

 

[smf]

I'm honestly surprised they haven't already.

It was only revealed an hour ago. I doubt they are constantly hitting f5 on gbatemp. The UK is on a public holiday today, it's night time in japan and they'll only just be rolling into work in the US.

 

[8BitWonder]

It was only revealed an hour ago. I doubt they are constantly hitting f5 on gbatemp. The UK is on a public holiday today, it's night time in japan and they'll only just be rolling into work in the US.

Normally it takes Sony a few days to pull games from the store, they never instantly take them down.

Right, but Bitter Smile has always been the app used for h-encore since it first came out in June 2018.
It's odd that over a year later it still hasn't been pulled from their CDN.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Right, but Bitter Smile has always been the app used for h-encore since it first came out in June 2018.
It's odd that over a year later it still hasn't been pulled from their CDN.

I mean, Sony never permanently removes games from their store? It's usually just a temporary removal while the "initial" hack wave goes through, then they put it back on. I'm pretty sure it'd be against dev/publisher contracts for them to permanently remove a game from their store for no reason other than "someone uses it for hacks!"

 

[smf]

It's odd that over a year later it still hasn't been pulled from their CDN.

It is odd if this is the exact same pkg as was used before. Did they ever temporarily pull it?

I do wonder if sony are trolling for exploits on the vita to educate them on their new console. I doubt they particularly care about the vita now.

 

[8BitWonder]

I mean, Sony never permanently removes games from their store? It's usually just a temporary removal while the "initial" hack wave goes through, then they put it back on. I'm pretty sure it'd be against dev/publisher contracts for them to permanently remove a game from their store for no reason other than "someone uses it for hacks!"

My bad then, I was under the impression that removal was permanent.

It is odd if this is the exact same pkg as was used before. Did they ever temporarily pull it?

I never heard of it being pulled, I'm not sure that it was or wasn't.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

My bad then, I was under the impression that removal was permanent.

Nope, back when ePSP CFW stuff was the hot new thing they only ever removed the games for a few weeks, or until they released a firmware update to fix the exploits.