As version 2.0 of the PSP firmware rolls out in Japan, detailed reports on its features have started to appear online.For instance we now know the long-awaited official browser comes with tabbed-browsing similar to Firefox and any image can now be used as the wallpaper for the console. But mingled with the new features is a very strong security patch that stops homebrew code from running, and represents a new set of obstacles for hackers to beat.
A member of the MaxConsole.net forums has posted up a technical runthrough of the problems homebrew coders now face:
1) The format of the encrypted PRX files in flash has changed which means we can not decrypt these files using the current methods.
This is a big problem since in order to figure out the new format, you would first need a dump of decrypted code. The best way to get a dump of the decrypted code is to be able to run code on the PSP, but obviously right now there is no known way to run code on the 2.0 firmware.
And in order to run code on the 2.0 firmware you need to find an exploit, which at this stage would probably require having a dump of the decrypted code (trial & error exploits such as kexploit probably arent going to work anymore). So we've got catch-22 situation here.
I'm not saying that figuring out how to either run code on 2.0 or decrypt the 2.0 PRX files is impossible but it has certainly been made a lot more difficult now and we may need to look at alternative methods for each of these tasks.
Incase you are unaware of what a PRX file is, it's an executable module, similar to a windows .dll file. The PSP the kernel is made up of a number of ENCRYPTED PRX files and in order to reveal the kernel code, you need to either decrypt those files or get a ram dump. To get a ram dump you need code running on the PSP so thats not really possible on 2.0 right now and as already stated, neither is decrypting the PRX files
2) There are quite a few DNAS related files in flash (also when you update the firmware you are presented with a DNAS license). Not sure yet how DNAS is going to be applied on the PSP but its interesting that they've added it with 2.0.
Feature: Version 2.00 firmware a Hackers friend or Nightmare ? via PSPupdates
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