This is an article to help you recognize an exploitable vulnerability (e.g MaTiAz’s Gripshift) from a non exploitable (or at least, not easily enough) crash (e.g. yyoossk’s Phantasy star). Is think it can also be seen as a rough tutorial on “how to look for gamesave exploits on the PSP”
If, as me, you badly want your psp3000 to be hacked, it is likely that you follow closely what happens on PSP dedicated websites.
From time to time, some random guy pops up on a forum with an “idea” on how to hack the PSP, or, on better days, someone comes up with a savegame that crashes the PSP, in the hope that it will be useful. Reporting a crash is actually a good thing to do, crashes are the first step to an exploit, and if they don’t lead to an exploit, at least it can help Sony to improve their product
Recently, a guy nicknamed yyoossk tried to reproduce what MaTiAz had done with Gripshift, in the Japanese Demo of “Phantasy star portable” (see here and here). Wow, an exploit in a demo, that would be very cool, no need for expensive ebay UMDs!!! This is why I decided to give it a try. I will try to explain in this article why his crash is only a crash and will probably never be turned into an exploit.
I will compare the Phantasy star portable crash to what happens with the Gripshift exploit.
Before I start, you have to know that I don’t claim to be the best hacker or programmer in the world. I’m just a bit above the “complete Noob” level, with enough experience in IT to understand what I see on my screen. So this text might be inaccurate on some parts.
To read this article, you need strong understanding of basic programming concepts such as variables, addresses, and arrays. You should also have a browser window open on the MIPS assembly list of commands. MIPS assembly knowledge is not really required if you know the basics of programing, but it sure helps to have a general idea of what assembly language is.
Source/Continue reading: Wololo's blog
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